December 11: Remarks on the Floor regarding the Auto Industry

Mr. Speaker, it's a particular joy this evening to have Congressman Nick Lampson in the Chair as Speaker Pro Tem and thank him for his remarkable and exemplary service to the people of the United States.

Tonight, I would like to address the subject of the fact that a majority of House Members today voted for a bridge loan, a very tightly structured bridge loan, to throw a lifeline to American workers, American communities, American manufacturing, to save American jobs, in fact, one of every 10 jobs in our country. They're jobs not just in the so-called automotive assembly plants, but twice as many jobs in the automotive parts plants, the steel industry, the plastic industry, the semi-conductor industry, even the textile industry. Nearly half of that production is used in automotive products. It is simply staggering the way in which this integrated set of production occurs in our country.

What was passed was a bridge loan to the auto industry, and I underline the word "loan." It has to be paid back. It has to be paid back in 7 years, and it has to be paid back with interest, 5 percent interest over the first 5 years, and 9 percent interest over the last 2 years.

It requires restructuring by March 31, severe restructuring in order to place the United States in a competitive position again in our country and globally. It requires enormous sacrifice.

Now, what's interesting to me is the amount of the total loan was $15 billion; yet Wall Street received $700 billion plus, $750 billion, in that bill that passed here. There were no such requirements. There's no mandatory payback. There are no sacrifices that are as significant as they're being asked of this manufacturing industry, and the manufacturing of automobiles is a really tangible, goods producing industry. It creates real value. It creates wealth because you sell something. Wall Street's bailout is basically accounting and paper trades. They don't really produce anything.

And one of the points I want to make tonight is that in order to lead America forward out of this deep, deepening recession in which we find ourselves, we have to manufacture our way out. We have to grow our way out of it, and we are not in recession because of the automotive industry. In fact, the reverse is true. The auto industry is the victim of the credit crunch caused by the mortgage foreclosure crisis. The bailout of Wall Street, the improper bill that was passed here, is making the situation worse, and it's affecting industries like the automotive industry.

I visited the U.S. Treasury Department today as well to share a list of foreclosures just in my home county of Lucas County in Toledo, Ohio. That is 4,100 homes since the beginning of this year. Before the end of January of next, an additional 600 families will lose their homes just in that county because the TARP program, the Wall Street bailout program, is not working at the local level. The list is so long I could roll it through the Chamber and out that door, and there would still be more paper left, and that's with four columns. In fact, it could probably be rolled over to the Senate for the size that it is.

Now, why is the Treasury program not working? The first reason it's not working is Treasury's not a housing agency. Its experience is not in resolving mortgage workouts. More paper shuffling isn't going to solve the problem.

What's happening over at Treasury is they're buying banks. They are concentrating the banking system of this country rather than doing mortgage workouts, and they're concentrating them up on Wall Street, and the big banks like PNC, which has just bought National City Bank in the State of Ohio, National City shouldn't have been purchased. A workout should have been done in Ohio for the loans that gravitated to Ohio and may have been troubled. Seventy-five percent of the loans were working before the Treasury Department took over. The problem is that the Treasury Department is like a truck with several wheels, and they're all going in a different direction. There's not coordination.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation should be involved to do the mortgage workouts on the books of local banks. That's really not happening for most of the loans at risk.

The Securities and Exchange Commission should be taking a look at their accounting standards and marking them to true value.

You know, in order to fix the automotive industry, you've got to fix the mortgage industry, and the Wall Street bailout isn't working.

Mr. Speaker, Godspeed to you in your future years.