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Obama Spinning His Wheels in the RV Capital of the World
The president's billions in pork barrel spending on electric golf carts and Frisbee parks won't revitalize the RV industry in Elkhart, Indiana.
The Obama Permanent Campaign Team blew into Elkhart, Indiana, earlier this week. The residents of Elkhart have been hurting lately as the community has seen the unemployment rate rise from 4.7% a year ago to 15.3% today. Their sad story made them a perfect prop for President Barack Obama to use in selling his “Porkulus Spending Plan.” His pitch is based on the argument that job losses will continue unless his plan is passed immediately. But like most snake oil salesmen, the Obama sales pitch is so much better than the product.
Elkhart has not seen its unemployment rate skyrocket because of the “Bush tax cuts.” Nor is its misery a product of the “evil rich” making out at the expense of the middle class. Elkhart is in economic free fall is because it has virtually built its entire economy upon the foundation of a product that is not selling today. And it’s not selling largely because of the policies of President Obama and his Democratic Party cronies.
Elkhart is the “RV Capital of the World. ” About 50% of the recreational vehicles made in the U.S. are made in Elkhart, which was a good thing when they were churning out and selling hundreds of thousands of trailers, campers, and mobile homes each year. But the market has plummeted in the past two years. Sales have dropped 75% since 2007, with the bottom dropping out of the market in 2008, when gasoline prices spiked towards $5 a gallon.
As a result of the implosion of the RV market, the manufacturers located in Elkhart have been closing up business and eliminating workers. Jayco — one of the larger employers in the area — has laid off half its workforce: over 1,000 people. In September 2008 Monaco Coach closed its plant, putting 1,400 out of work. And just last week another manufacturer — Keystone — put 350 workers on the streets. The rest are hanging by a thread. The economic ripple effect of the collapse of the RV industry has threatened the livelihood of everybody in the community.
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Steve Gill is a political analyst and statewide radio talk host in Tennessee. His website is www.gillreport.com.
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23 Comments
1. keithacita:very ironic that the ecojihadis want to destroy the likes of the rv industry and that’s were they go on campaign junket
Feb 11, 2009 - 2:07 pm 2. johnc:How do you pull a RV with a 3 cylinder hybrid matchbox?
Feb 11, 2009 - 2:28 pm 3. seven:And by the way, the Obama admin. just closed the oil leases in Utah and Colorado.
The RV business should look at Obama and his henchmen as the enemy of the RV industry!
And a reminder. The Enviro-nuts have been trying for years to eradicate the RV and travel trailer from the
landscape for years.
This is a really bad story for Obama at many levels. The fine workers in this town are Amish and Mennonites. They puke at the thought of his abortion agenda. This is a non union town. Obamas Gang green initiatives are dangerous for recreational products. Rv’s are not sold to urban dwellers. Obama’s energy policy endangers motorhomes. If some retired people see a little fiscal frugality, the stock market may go up one day and people consider an Rv. Obama is going to raise taxes so the demographic that buys these units won’t be able to buy them.
Feb 11, 2009 - 2:48 pm 4. Cybergeezer:These buttheads(holes) are saying they need to throw money at the economy to fix it; In a couple months they will come back and say the money didn’t work and they need to cancel all tax cuts and RAISE TAXES!
Feb 11, 2009 - 2:55 pm 5. Cybergeezer:What part of “We are so screwed” do you not understand?
#00 Yes We Did:
Feb 11, 2009 - 2:57 pm 6. Steve Lee:I know you’ll be here soon so;
Pull the rip cord, you fool.
In God We Trust.
signed;
American Infidel.
The Recreational Vehicles, costing $80,000, have to be financed just like autos, once the banks start lending again the sales will start again in the spring.
There are millions of Americans that are going to be retiring in the next few years, many of them will be buying the biggest RV’s to see the USA.
The RV industry, just like the Detroit automakers helped create the “American Dream”:
Feb 11, 2009 - 3:22 pm 7. Lawrance Smythe:http://www.communati.com/steve-lee/think-american-dream
“But that top five percent are the ones who may buy the expensive RVs that Elkhart makes”
Oh please. The top 5% no more buy RVs than they go to Nascar. It’s us white trash who buy RVs — on time, thank you. And just now we can’t afford to do that.
Feb 11, 2009 - 3:32 pm 8. Jay:They should have booed him and thrown shoes at him. He is an arrogant phony Harvard trained lawyer. It is time that we stopped treating a POTUS as as a god.
Feb 11, 2009 - 3:53 pm 9. heathermc:just an unrelated historical note about Elkhart, Indiana: back in the day, in about 1957, our family (Mom, Dad, and 4 kids) drove from Alberta to Elkhart in a truck (no seatbelts either), to buy a made-in-Elhart Schult trailer, a (then) top of the line 48 foot long, eight foot wide mansion (after the 30 foot Buckingham, it WAS, my friends!)… As I recall, Elkhart had retooled from making airplanes during WWII to making trailers in the 50’s.
I am sorry to hear that the people in that city are hurting right now.
Feb 11, 2009 - 6:48 pm 10. Delia:Obama is a riddle wrapped inside a pandora’s box wrapped inside a shoe-bomb wrapped inside, “Hope and Change”, wrapped inside a spanish-speaking tasty tortilla shell, wrapped inside a future dictator, wrapped inside a euphemism for hatred of the USA on her own soil, snuggled inside a Socialist agenda shovin’ wacko taco, oozed into a sneaky Pete power grab that makes Operation Clam-Bake look like child’s play, plagued by stupid cum stoner-isms like, “I screwed up”, coupled with Man boobs and chicken legs that rival Kat Moss’, whilst mugging to the muslim terrorists, all topped with a big, globby, gooey gob of acquiescence towards the Dems IN CONTROL of the SPAZPORKULUS bill, and all throbbing and thugging and mugging and smugging and spending and unbending and slaving and misbehaving and waxing and waning and UNtaxing and UNtaming and letting loose stoopid upon the masses like cupid with an arrow that let’s loose upon the innocents and the noose tightens and the right rightens and we are left muffled and moot to worship the teflon savior in the empty suit.
Feb 11, 2009 - 7:41 pm 11. mk:It’s a good thing I invested in oil this month. Eventually the price is going to be driven back up by all the environmental idiocy of that guy.
It’s a shame about all those RV people in Elkhart though. My parents once did a tour of an RV plant there and said it was fun to watch them assemble the RV’s.
Feb 11, 2009 - 8:10 pm 12. Maggie:This piece would be a good op-ed for an Elkhart newspaper.
Feb 11, 2009 - 8:20 pm 13. Max:I’ve been in Elkhart County for 35 years. I watched the RV industry fall apart in the late 70’s and everybody here declared it was the end of our local economy.
Then guess what happened? Reagan came along, gas prices settled down, and people started buying the things again. Lots of them. We had twenty years of boom times, the lowest unemployment in the state most of the time.
In the meantime the RV industry diversified, moving into manufactured housing, emergency vehicles, etc.
We don’t need no stinking stimulus. We will come back again because we do have hardworking people here, Mennonites, Amish, and an influx of Mexican workers in the past fifteen years. Baby boomers for some odd reason love RV’s. Some sell their houses, buy a $200,000 RV, and go “full time.” The Chinese love RV’s.
Washington can go to hell. We’ll solve our own problems.
Feb 11, 2009 - 8:58 pm 14. Rudy:Anyone who thinks that people will start buying RVs again as soon as mortgage money is available is in denial. RVs died when gas hit $5/gal and that is burned into everyones memory. Retired people have lost half of their retirement and will not be buying an RV. Check Craig’s List to see who is selling RVs and you will find most are retired “Who have a change in plans”.
Feb 11, 2009 - 10:31 pm 15. Marc Malone:#6 Steve Lee – You’re dreaming that people will be retiring and buying RV’s in the Spring. Let me spell it out for you.
Some of these companies are CLOSING THEIR DOORS. They’ve stopped making them. they stopped, because they know something you don’t: their business!
Next, the banks will only start lending again as soon as TARP II is passed and the government actually gets around to buying their toxic assets. Everyone’s waiting on the gummint.
Retirees will not be buying rV’s also, because not as many will be retiring. They got wiped out in the stock market, remember. Those who do retire will be hoarding their money as others are doing now. They’re not expecting much in the way of dividends for awhile. they also can’t sell their houses and go live in an RV, because the real-estate market kinda sucks, right now.
Everyone is waiting on the gimmint solution, because the gummint has said they will intervene. Everyone’s just waiting… and waiting. If the gummint decided to wait and see before doing anything else, the system would fix itself soon, but the gummint has inserted uncertainty about the future.
As to the article, how ironic that the victims of Obama’s policies are now being used as a prop for his poolicies. talk about adding insult to injury. Oddly enough, they’re probably dumb enough not to realize it, or they’d be protesting his appearance. People just don’t understand their own country’s system of economics.
Feb 11, 2009 - 11:30 pm 16. AnninCA:The local paper quoted a few townspeople who expressed skepticism that Obama’s plan will do much for the industry right now. As the poster said, it will return. Baby boomers do love RVs.
Feb 12, 2009 - 7:52 am 17. dwnsth:Funny, I’m in my 40’s and am considering a large RV purchase, regardless of gas prices etc. just waiting for financing to settle down. Really, the problem with the RV industry is dealers not being able to floor-plan (finance) inventory thus not being able to purchase from manufactures. The spike in fuel prices was the spark that drove the industry down last year, however that would have played itself out in time. Financing, both commercial and personal, is what’s holding the RV industry back right now.
Feb 12, 2009 - 7:55 am 18. savage24:Since Obama has taken office gas prices have gone up 25% while oil has gone down. How do you revive the RV market that way? Plus Obama say he was going to stop off-shore drilling. That’s a sure way to stop foreign oil dependency, right? This guy has about as much right runnung this country as I do running IBM.
Feb 12, 2009 - 8:28 am 19. Robert Moore:How did Elkhart become the poster child for the recession?
Barak Obama, our president, came to my home town yesterday. I listened. I heard eloquence but also lies. I was profoundly disappointed. And as I continued to mull over his words, I was astonished at his hutzba to come here, of all places. And I felt used, because this visit was the apex of disingenuity. Because he, his policies, and his party are the cause of the problems we face here in Elkhart County.
1) Our very successful RV industry displaced most other employers. The Elkhart economy was a one horse show, and was ripe for this type of tragedy. In retrospect, our economy should have been more diverse. This was not his fault, but it does make our situation unique – Fortunately not all of America is in our economic condition. Our situation should not be publicized as the norm in America – it is the extreme. We are the New Orleans of Katrina, not the soup kitchen of 1938: hurting but fortunately isolated.
2) For the last decade, we were told by many that $4 gas was to be the norm, since we were prohibited from drilling for oil. This made the use of RVs much less attractive. (Remember the ANWAR opposition 8 years ago came form the Dems, Obama’s party). And we were all assured that under the incoming administration the gas taxes would go up and the opportunity to domestically produce and use conventional fuels would go down. RVs need cheap gas – The GOP was the “Drill Here – Drill Now – Pay Less” party. Here in Elkhart, we all expect the cheap gas we now enjoy will disappear as soon as the new administration gets around to restoring the ban on drilling. After all Europe pays $8 per gallon and why shouldn’t we?
3) RVs are low mileage vehicles simply because of their size. A small RV is simply an SUV, and a small SUV is a minivan. There is no faddish “green technology” here, and no guarantees of federal support. In fact we heard:
Pitching his message to Oregon’s environmentally-conscious voters, Obama called on the United States to “lead by example” on global warming, and develop new technologies at home which could be exported to developing countries.
“We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times … and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK,” Obama said.
“That’s not leadership. That’s not going to happen,” he added.
The RV industry got the message loud and clear – there is no room for them at the table.
4) We were told that the economy was in near fatal depression and descending so fast it might be irreparable. Folks stopped buying optional things. This “trash talking” of the economy is continuing in the press, in Washington, and even here in our own “town meeting”. Now the word “catastrophe” is being used in the highest circles. Where is the “The president must be the economy’s cheerleader in chief” talk we heard a few years ago? (This may gall the White House, but Bill Clinton and Bob Rubin were models of discipline compared to this Administration when it came to the economy and the role of the Economic Cheerleader-in-Chief. http://econ161.berkeley.edu/movable_type/archives/000351.html).
5) In Obama’s mind, RVs are owned by rich white suburbanites and retirees. (He has said “The suburbs bore me.”, also “Obama’s Youth Movement: The Nation: Young Voters Flock To The Democratic Hopeful, But Can They Drive His Agenda?” http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/15/opinion/main3837466.shtml). His disdain for both us and our values was apparent from his San Francisco speech (Referring to working-class voters in old industrial towns decimated by job losses, the presidential hopeful said: “They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion…”). Both our customers and our workers realize they are targets, not participants in the present administration. The words of accommodation are over and we are instead being shown a clenched fist. This instills a paralyzing fear that depresses the other sectors of our local economy.
I think Obama’s visit to Elkhart is the epitome of hubris. He caused this almost single handedly. Now he wants to use our misfortune to reward his own political agenda and constituency. How much of the “affordable housing” or Acorn money will come to Elkhart? None.
But that is OK. Just let us compete, as we have done so successfully for so long, without onerous taxes or regulations and we can recover on our own.
Mr. President, please don’t trash talk my home town. It has very real consequences.
Feb 12, 2009 - 9:12 am 20. Ian Thorpe:While not wishing to defend Obama in any way the problem’s in this town are not entirely his fault. With oild reserves actually a lot lower than stated (Saudi Arabia is almost dry,) a story that was reported here a few months ago, and no viable alternatives on the horizon the car makers should have ben able to predict the price of fuel was going to rise sharply and plan to make more economical vehicles.
Is anyone asking how it is possible to predict the future, it’s called having a business strategy. Those smart boys with their MBAs from Harvard Business School are too fond of believing what computers tell them rather that relying on their own experience.
But in this Brave New World experience seems to be a quality that disqualifies people from top jobs.
Feb 12, 2009 - 10:04 am 21. heathermc:it is amazing how, given freedom, low taxes and minimal regulations, people go through hard times, think hard, and make things better for their families and their communities. Note that Elkhart, during WWII, centred itself on making airplanes, ie war material. The war stopped. What to do.. What to do??? Can you imagine whooshing Obama back in time, to 1946 in Elkhart, promising the citizenry that Government would Solve their Problems, and in the meantime, he’ll be very sympathetic and put Elkhart on the dole?
My parents were of that war generation. To go on welfare was for them too shameful to contemplate. So, they worked and thought and fed their children and made a life of honour for themselves.
Good luck with Obama and his nostrums, Elkhart.
Feb 12, 2009 - 11:37 am 22. RE:21. heathermc
To go on welfare was for them too shameful to contemplate. So, they worked and thought and fed their children and made a life of honour for themselves.
That is is precisely the ethic that the Left has been trying so hard to eradicate. They are at war with the self-reliant, independent individual that they cannot control.
Feb 12, 2009 - 12:31 pm 23. blogengeezer:22. RE he and his thugs WILL control..Through his Denver announced, “National Security Force, just as well financed and just as large as the US military” (You Tube)
Feb 12, 2009 - 7:02 pmA Democracy gets the leadership it deserves….Pity. DaFlikkers