Completely ignoring the human toll with the massive loss of manufacturing jobs and the national strategic value of maintaining a heavy manufacturing capability, saving the auto industry was a big financial benefit to the US taxpayers. Yes, we put some money up front, but as a result, there were a million people paying taxes (and still are) instead of drawing government benefits. And we got much of that up-front money back when the government later sold its shares.
But instead of this being a huge success story, the Republicans we able to convince voters that this was a bad thing. And they got away with that because Democrats have never had consistent messaging. Most of the time, elected Dems don't ever bother to make our case at all, until 60 days before the next election. You have to be out there every day. You have to tell the story 100 times. You need 100 voices telling it 100 times to 100 reporters using 100 media channels.
Another similar case in point: when the oil barons were jacking up the gasoline prices a couple of years ago, Biden turned the tables on them by making a major sale out of the reserve. That drove down the oil barrel price, solving the problem. And then the administration bought oil to replenish the reserve, but paid a lower price to replace the oil, making many billions of dollars of profit for the taxpayers. This story barely got told. That is political malpractice. There is no room for modesty in politics. And no room for laziness.
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