Political Quotes

“let me, if I might, start out and say how much I appreciated the comments by the Senator from South Dakota. Many months ago I did a roundtable with a great company in Nebraska, Nucor Steel. Nucor Steel is one of those companies you hope takes a look at your State and creates the jobs that they have in your State--and they have. They employ about a thousand people. They do everything right. They are very pro-America. They are a well-managed company. They are a company that pays well. On average across the Nucor system, their wages are about $70,000 a year. For that area of any rural State, that is huge. That is huge. We sat down in this roundtable. As the Senator from South Dakota points out, the impact on our businesses--the first thing I asked the folks of Nucor Steel, I said to them, Where is your competition? Who are you competing with? They said: The Chinese. I said: The Chinese? They said: Absolutely. When we go out and fight for a contract to keep these people employed, we are fighting with the Chinese. I said: Let me ask you, talk to me about the impact of all of this legislation and various proposals on climate change on your company and that competitive relationship. They were very blunt and straightforward. They said: Very simply, Mike, here is what happens. We go in a situation where we cannot compete. Already, this is a very tough business. If you pile onto us these additional requirements, we are in trouble immediately.”