Henry Payne in the Wall Street Journal’s “Cross Country” column today:

On July 5, 1984, President Ronald Reagan joined General Motors Chairman Roger Smith at a dedication ceremony opening Orion Assembly, a sprawling plant off of Interstate 75 north of GM’s Detroit headquarters.
America’s largest auto maker was then emerging from the most severe downturn since the Great Depression and a decade of punishing federal fuel-economy regulations that gave Japanese auto makers an edge.
The Orion plant was a symbol of the U.S. auto industry’s rebirth as GM invested $50 billion in state-of-the-art facilities world-wide.
“Let our competitors take note today: The American automobile industry is back,” Reagan thundered to a building full of auto workers. “You’ve demonstrated when the chips are down, what people can do working together freely, rather than at the dictates of some central planner or bureaucratic mandate of government. I happen to believe the last thing your industry needs is the federal government bringing in outsiders to tell you how to run your business. . . . We immediately moved to reduce the regulatory burden . . . and I’m proud to say, we made a special effort on behalf of the auto industry, saving you hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Twenty-five years later, GM is again at a crossroads. And again Orion is the focus of its future plans.
This time, however, a very different White House led by President Barack Obama and his Auto Task Force is calling the shots. This time, Washington is telling GM how to run its business. This time, the Orion plant is a symbol of government regulation run amok as Washington keeps GM on life support so that it will produce the cars Washington wants to build.
On June 1, GM Vice President for Global Manufacturing Gary Cowger announced as part of the company’s bankruptcy filing that it would close the Orion facility in its drive to become a “leaner, stronger and more flexible” company. Though still a relatively modern facility making midsize Chevy Malibu and Pontiac G6 sedans, Orion’s once 5,000-strong labor force had shriveled to 1,200 as the recession ravaged sales and the company planned to eliminate its Pontiac brand and consolidate Malibu production at a Kansas City facility.
But a few weeks later, the company reversed course. GM now says it will retool Orion to make compact, gas-sipping cars. The change of heart says a lot about how GM’s new owners — the federal government owns 60% of the company and the United Auto Workers (UAW) owns 17% — are making considerations other than profitability a top priority for the auto maker.

Read the rest here.