White House Touts Massive Increase In Auto Production Since 2009

On Thursday, The White House blog published this chart...

...and included accompanying text that points out how dramatically the U.S. auto industry has recovered since its darkest days. For example:

[O]ur auto industry is once again a source of economic strength, with more and more of the world's top-of-the-line, fuel-efficient vehicles being made by American workers in American factories. In fact, the number of cars coming off our assembly lines just reached its highest level in 12 years.

File this under the Obama Administration's ongoing effort to claim credit for the decision to bail out Chrysler and General Motors in 2009. Given the industry's dramatic recovery, it's getting hard to argue that the bailouts were a bad decision, although their wisdom is likely to be debated for years to come.

Also note that the White House is talking about production numbers here. That 13.2-million peak number in the chart is obviously lower than the industry's expectations for auto sales in the U.S. this year. Sales are currently running above a 16-million annual pace.