Limbaugh rips GM, Chevy Volt
BY JUSTIN HYDE FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF
WASHINGTON -- Radio host Rush Limbaugh tore into General Motors on Wednesday over the Chevrolet Volt, while saying he had taken advertising money from GM last year during its rescue by the Obama administration.
While Limbaugh has been a frequent critic of GM, Chrysler and the auto industry rescue, President Barack Obama's visit to Detroit on Friday will only raise the political profile of the $86-billion plans, something the automakers themselves have been trying to downplay.
Limbaugh spent much of the first part of his show criticizing the Volt and the $41,000 price GM revealed on Tuesday, questioning why the U.S. government needed to add a $7,500 tax credit.
"Obama and the government are admitting nobody wants this," Limbaugh said, repeatedly referring to GM as "Obama Motors."
But Limbaugh also seemed somewhat confused about how the Volt worked, noting it had a gas engine and an electric motor, but suggesting a couple of times that its 40-mile electric-only range was its only power source.
"That 40-mile range has to include you getting home, and staying home three to four hours to charge the thing," Limbaugh said. "It's (a)
20-mile range."After 40 miles, the Volt's gasoline engine kicks in, giving it about 300 additional miles of range, a figure Limbaugh also questioned.
Ahead of Obama's visit Friday to GM's Detroit-Hamtramck plant where the Volt is built, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the Volt was symbolic of the auto industry's comeback.
"It's a car and manufacturing process and a product that not that long ago people believed wasn't going to be built in this country," he said. "The car and the batteries, because of some of the decisions the president made, are going to be manufactured in America."
Limbaugh admitted that last year following the Obama administration's rescues, he had taken advertising money from GM. His show's archives include his promotions for a GM incentive to cover payments for people who lost their jobs after buying new vehicles.