I am anxious to be a partner in that.

The Medical Center, myself, others, are willing to try to put together--working with you, working under your direction--a plan that I think really would provide first-class medical care.

I agree with you, I would hope, that loans by the prior administration are a vastly different creature than ending up with ownership of 60 percent of General Motors.

You know, I have to tell you at the end of this hearing, and it has been a long afternoon and we appreciate your patience, it is our government that comes across as heartless and indifferent, indifferent because you keep saying, well, even…

We put billions of dollars into this company and then jobs go to Mexico while people here in the United States are losing their jobs, and yet we say, well, we are not going to touch that.

Hard decisions are best made in a transparent sort of way.

And that is what happened with shareholders in General Motors. They basically have a stock certificate that is a worthless piece of paper.

OK. So dealers, shareholders, they come out of this basically with nothing if the plan is adopted.

The determination was made to continue to pay wages in the ordinary course, as I indicated, as it was for suppliers, as it was for warranty holders.

I would say, well, let us file a claim. I hope you don't need that money to buy groceries because I don't think you are going to see it.

When you are ready for that, I hope you will reach out to Senator Nelson's office, my office, Congressman Terry's office for that matter because we--you know, in our State we just work together on these issues.

I, as you know in my opening statement, went through some of the challenges we are facing in the Western Iowa-Omaha facility.

Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member, thank you very much for putting this hearing together.

The hospital could not support a pandemic flu outbreak, which, of course, is on everybody's mind these days.

I applaud them for their efforts.

It creates a perfect breeding ground for mold in that facility.

OK. Once that is done, kind of walk me through the process of what happens next...

In our State, like probably so many States, emergency power is absolutely necessary.

It was shocking to me to find out that they had this enormous risk exposure and basically no protect.

In our case, sir, with 60 percent held by the taxpayer, we absolutely need to respect that, yes.

State franchise laws, I am a former Governor, we worked with these dealers.

OK. You talk about the Auto Task Force putting pressure on you to close more dealerships.

I never would have believed, as a candidate for the U.S. Senate, that the U.S. Government could buy General Motors without a hearing, with no vote, yes or no.

Those jobs are nearly impossible to replace. Having been a Governor and a mayor, I can tell you that.

I represent 1.7 million people in Nebraska who own your company, 60 percent at least, when it is all said and done.