Obama hails auto bailout success

WASHINGTON, July 31 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama Saturday hailed the auto industry bailout and said Americans were seeing a tough decision "pay off."

The choice was a hard one during "a vicious economic crisis" that brought "an industry that's been the symbol of our manufacturing might for a century to the brink of collapse," Obama said during his weekly radio and Internet address.

Despite what he called "the 'just say no' crowd in Washington who argued that standing by the auto industry would guarantee failure," the president said, as a result of the government's investment "our auto industry has added 55,000 jobs -- the strongest period of job growth in more than 10 years. For the first time since 2004, all three American automakers are operating at a profit."

Obama denounced Republican leaders in the Senate for holding up a vote on the Small Business Jobs Act, designed to give small business owners tax breaks and lending assistance.

"It's a bill that includes provision after provision authored by both Democrats and Republicans." the president said, "But (Thursday), the Republican leaders in the Senate once again used parliamentary procedures to block it.

"That isn't right. And I'm calling on the Republican leaders in the Senate to stop holding America's small businesses hostage to politics, and allow an up-or-down vote on this small business jobs bill."

Obama recorded his remarks Friday while visiting a General Motors plant in Detroit.