NYC Letter: Overwhelmed By Awesomeness, Part III Redux

Day 57 of CHOPE

When they finally pass our plan, I believe it will be a major step forward. I'm not the only one who thinks so. Yesterday, Jim [scil., James Owens], the head of Caterpillar, said that if Congress passes our plan, this company will be able to rehire some of the folks who were just laid off. ... That's a story I'm confident will be repeated across the country.

President Obama,
campaigning for his trillion dollar stimulus bill
at dispirited Caterpillar plant
PEORIA, Illinois February 12, 2009 (ABC News/LAT)

Mr. Owens disowned Mr. Obama's rosey claim the very same day at the very same rally.

The stimulus bill passed and Mr. Obama signed it. Yesterday Caterpillar made good on Mr. Owen's disavowal.

CATERPILLAR CUTS ANOTHER 2,454 JOBS

CHICAGO March 17, 2009 (Reuters) - Caterpillar Inc, the world's largest maker of construction and mining equipment, notified an additional 2,454 workers in three states on Tuesday that they were losing their jobs as the company continues to try to bring production in line with plummeting demand.

The bulk of the job cuts -- nearly 1,600 in all -- will come in Illinois at the company's plants in East Peoria, which makes track-type tractors and pipe layers, and Aurora, where it makes hydraulic excavators and wheel loaders.

[Pause.] Ah, that would be the same East Peoria where only a month before Mr. Obama extemporized his CHOPEy prediction. [Pause.] Not that anyone was fooled.

CHOPE.

You might be rehired. You might be kept on. You're fired.

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* See earlier post for background.