Bill Clinton, Health Care, General Motors, and Toyota
Bill Clinton, Friday night, April 20 (pdf), at the state Democrats’ Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Birmingham on the costs of doing health care the way we do:
I’ll give you one other number: Fifteen hundred and a hundred and ten. General Motors has fifteen hundred dollars a car in health care costs. Toyota has a hundred and ten. Now, I think I am pretty good at running things. I do not believe I could take over General Motors, spot Toyota fourteen hundred dollars a car and beat them in the marketplace. So we have made a decision, without making it, to give up our car business.
Four days later, Associated Press, Tuesday, April 24:
For the first time ever, Toyota sold more vehicles globally in a quarter than General Motors, preliminary January-March figures show, the clearest sign yet that the Japanese company is on track to overtake its U.S. rival as the world’s top automaker.
A delay in securing a transcript of Clinton’s remarks resulted in a delay in posting.
(R) Jeff Sessions (1-19)
(D) Vivian Figures (33-1)
(D) Artur Davis (1-49)
(R) Mike Hubbard (13-1)
(?) David Bronner (OFF)