VOA标准英语2012--Auto Industry Recovery Key Issue for Michigan Voters

Auto¹ Industry Recovery Key Issue for Michigan Voters

On the floor of auto shows across the country, the prevailing² theme is that U.S. auto companies, headquartered in Detroit, are back and as competitive as ever.

“It’s not back, it’s always been here,” said Democratic Congressman³ John Dingle, who represents Detroit.

Dingle says government action saved jobs.

“We have helped the auto industry over a rough patch," he said. "It is a great national treasure and a tremendous resource, and it was very, very important to the United States that we save that industry because it produces one in seven jobs in this economy. And it's a treasure that every nation in the world wants to have.”

That’s what Dingle wants to hear President Obama promote as he campaigns for re-election.

"It won’t help some of the people on the other side who say that Detroit should have been left to go bankrupt,” he said. 

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt⁴ Romney and other Republican presidential candidates are critical of multi-billion-dollar government loans to U.S. auto companies. 

Romney is the son of a former Michigan governor and auto industry executive. But University of Michigan economics professor Bruce Pietrykowski says Romney's stance against auto industry loans will not win him voter support.

“I think people will take a good hard look at that and what might have happened if he was president - he wouldn’t have supported the support for auto industry - and I think that might turn some people off, quite honestly,” he said.

That is something Michigan’s current Republican Governor Rick Snyder is keenly aware of.

“I don’t criticize people over the bailout, because the way I viewed it is, it wasn’t about simply about the bankruptcy⁵ of one company or two companies, you were talking about the whole supply chain,” he said.

“I think there is probably some sentiment that this was an unnecessary government intrusion and we should have not supported them, but by and large at least in the centers of population, and the Democratic strongholds, in and around Detroit, the policy is going to be seen in quite a favorable light,” said economics professor Bruce Pietrykowski. 

Autoworkers union president George McGregor see it favorably and wants President Obama to talk more about the bailouts on the campaign trail.

"He hasn't used it yet for a platform for getting re-elected here in the state of Michigan, but we're going to use it for him whether he uses it or not," he said.

Support, or lack of it, for the bailouts is already influencing Michigan’s upcoming Republican primary. Recent polling indicates native son Mitt Romney trails former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum in that state’s nominating contest February 28.

1 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

2 prevailing   

adj.盛行的；占优势的；主要的

参考例句：

• She wears a fashionable hair style prevailing in the city.她的发型是这个城市流行的款式。
• This reflects attitudes and values prevailing in society.这反映了社会上盛行的态度和价值观。

3 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

4 mitt   

n.棒球手套，拳击手套，无指手套；vt.铐住，握手

参考例句：

• I gave him a baseball mitt for his birthday.为祝贺他的生日，我送给他一只棒球手套。
• Tom squeezed a mitt and a glove into the bag.汤姆把棒球手套和手套都塞进袋子里。

5 bankruptcy   

n.破产；无偿付能力

参考例句：

• You will have to pull in if you want to escape bankruptcy.如果你想避免破产，就必须节省开支。
• His firm is just on thin ice of bankruptcy.他的商号正面临破产的危险。