Caterpillar CEO Contradicts President, Hangs him out to dry

[liberal N proud]

D'oh! Caterpillar CEO Contradicts President on Whether Stimulus Will Allow Him to Re-Hire Laid Off Workers
February 12, 2009 6:16 PM


EAST PEORIA, ILL. -- President Obama today repeated the claim we asked about yesterday at the press briefing that Jim Owens, the CEO of Caterpillar, Inc., "said that if Congress passes our plan, this company will be able to rehire some of the folks who were just laid off."

Caterpillar announced 22,000 layoffs last month.

But after the president left the event, Owens said the exact opposite

Asked if the stimulus package would be able to stop the 22,000 layoffs or not, Owens said, "I think realistically no. The truth is we're going to have more layoffs before we start hiring again"

"It is going to take some time before that stimulus bill" means re-hiring, he said.

Owens supports the stimulus plan, but said it would take some time to have an impact on his industry and "is a little light on the heavy construction."

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/02/doh-caterpillar.html

[Beaverhausen]

1. WTF? What is the deal?

[Skink]

2. If it's light on projects let's start writing Stimulus 2.

[Thrill]

3. Aren't Presidential conversations on the record. Hopefully they call this piece of shit out

Or should I be surprised Tapper wrote the article

[jody]

4. IMO Jim Owens is 100% correct and any experienced CEO of major manufacturing firms will say the same

[liberal N proud]

7. Then why the opposite comments the day before?

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-caterpillar12-2009feb12,0,2185856.story

[jody]

10. Beats me. Mfg firms have large inventories and demand for their products will take several years to

recover.

[Barack_America]

5. I don't see a contradiction. Tapper may have *imagined* that Obama said...

...they would be able to hire ALL of the employees back IMMEDIATELY, but he never did.

[high density]

6. Wow.

Is this CEO really insinuating that the President of the United States randomly fabricated the idea of Caterpillar rehiring people because of the stimulus?

"They did communicate to the White House a reevaluation of their employment situation based on what they see as a big investment that could be coming shortly to put Americans back to work," Gibbs said of Caterpillar, "and to put particularly those workers in Peoria and the downstate Illinois area in particular back to work."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-caterpillar12-2009feb12,0,2185856.story

I don't think anybody expects an instantaneous effect from this money, but this guy coming out and saying they're really going to just lay off more people is outrageous.

[Thrill]

8. Reading that article. It appears this prick changed his mind when the package

wasn't what he wanted. Fuck him

[woolldog]

14. Not enough infrastructure spending in the stimulus package

CAT makes a lot of the equipment used in the infrastructure projects.

[Edgewater_Joe]

9. Great. ANOTHER Big Industry Jackass F'n Up Obama. Bad News For HIM!

Chalk up one more chit under Obama's belt for the future to play ...

[Uzybone]

11. Jake Tapper and Drudge are the same person

the sooner we realize it the less surprised we will be when we see yet another slanted piece from Jake Tapper.

[Better Believe It]

12. Where do you expect to see a shortage of Caterpillar equipment

for projects in the "stimulus" bill written by three Republican Senators?

[liberal N proud]

13. The CEO should not have made the statement earlier this week

He was setting up the President. As soon as he left the building the CEO was contradicting Obama.

[Cha]

15. Whatever happened and happens ..I'm

thinking Obama learns another valuble lesson from this.