US Chamber Of Commerce and The Auto Industry

After hearing the NPR report I had to follow up with some research into what the US Chamber of Commerce was doing or saying about the automobile industry. The U.S. Chamber's Bruce Josten sent a letter to Secretary Paulson and Chairman Bernanke last week in support of the effort. The letter had interesting statistics that outlined the importance of the automobile industry. The automobile industry is responsible for little over 4% of the U.S. gross domestic product and it accounts for one in 10 American jobs that are related to automotive manufacturing. U.S. automakers directly employ approximately 355,000 American workers and indirectly employ nearly 5 million additional jobs through related industries. In the past 20 years the automotive industry has invested nearly a quarter of a trillion dollars in the US. Automakers also are among the largest purchasers of U.S.-manufactured steel, aluminum, iron, copper, plastics, rubber, electronics, and computer chips. The Chamber urged the government to use its broad regulatory authority and all other tools available, including the powers recently granted by EESA. The EESA is the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act commonly referred to as the bailout plan or rescue bill. All these numbers seem staggering. After reading these statistics and seeing the detrimental affects losing an American Auto industry would have on cities across the country much like the fears exhibited by the city in Ohio mentioned on NPR.