Toyota doesn’t think the Obama administration likes them:

Internal Toyota documents derided the Obama administration and Democratic Congress as “activist” and “not industry friendly,” a revelation that comes days before the giant automaker’s top executives testify on Capitol Hill amid a giant recall.

According to a presentation obtained under subpoena by the House Oversight and Government Relations committee, Toyota referred to the “changing political environment” as one of its main challenges and anticipated a “more challenging regulatory” environment under the Obama administration’s purview.

This is not good timing for Toyota, as they come under increase scrutiny for their car problems. The stick accelerator problem is a perfect example. It has come out that Toyota and the government knew about this for years and did nothing. That cost people their lives.

And the examples aren’t limited to Toyota. Look at all the food safety problems we suffered through under the Bush administration. They were “industry friendly” and it put American lives at risk.

This isn’t how government is supposed to govern. Their primary responsibility is the safety of the citizens. Republicans even reminded us of this time and time again. Remember how they would defend wiretapping by saying it was to keep Americans safe, Constitution be dammed? Yeah – it applied in that scenario, but not when it came to manufacturers risking the lives of far more Americans than al Qaeda. In that case they protected the “terrorists”.

It’s good to see Democrats taking a strong stance against Toyota, and really, what can Toyota do? The U.S. is their largest market, so are they going to stop selling cars here? Most likely not, but even if they did then we would see enormous life pumped back into the American auto manufacturer. So no matter how you slice it, we got a win-win situation. Americans will be safer and Toyota will have to play by our rules, or Americans will be safer and the American auto manufacturers will see their sales start to rebound. The balls in your court Toyota.