Romney defends no auto bailout stance

LIVONIA, Mich., June 10 (UPI) -- Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, speaking in Michigan, defended his position against bailouts for automakers, taking his lumps from protesters.

"If he had been in the White House, we wouldn't have made it," protester David Sudek said Thursday at a Romney rally in Livonia, Mich., the Detroit Free Press reported.

Sudek was carrying a sign that had "Mitt" written in a circle with a slash painted across the name, the newspaper said.

But Romney stuck to his position. "It would have been best if auto companies had done that (recovered) on their own, directly, and gone through the bankruptcy process without having taken $17 billion from government," Romney told an audience at the Senate Coney Island restaurant in Livonia.

Romney said taxpayers would have saved $17 billion had the government not stepped in to rescue General Motors and Chrysler.

"It would have been best not to have had the president and the government put their hands on the bankruptcy process and basically give the ownership of the enterprise, General Motors in this case, to the UAW. I believe that bailouts are not the answer," Romney said.