John Kerry: “They try to suggest that this is a jobs problem. The fact is that our workers in Detroit have the ability to build all…”

“They try to suggest that this is a jobs problem. The fact is that our workers in Detroit have the ability to build all the cars America can buy that are just as large as the cars we have today but are more efficient. What they need is an auto industry that asks them to do it, that gives them the cars that are so designed. It is extraordinary that my colleagues have so little confidence in the ability of the American worker and American ingenuity to provide cars that are going to be competitive well into the future with the Japanese and Germans. I think we should celebrate the capacity of the American worker, and that is what we are asking people to do. Every year, there has been an opportunity to delay, to obfuscate. The opponents have chosen to do it. The only people who support Bond-Levin are those who support the specific automobile interests, the Big Three, people who work there-- not the safety people, not consumers, not the environmental interests of the country. Generally speaking, this is a pattern of delay and obfuscation. We will have an opportunity after this vote to vote on the Kerry-McCain alternative that reduces the level even further. I ask my colleagues to remember that there is no CAFE requirement at all in Bond-Levin. We will have no standard whatsoever. We will have years of lawsuits and years of delay. It is one more step in Detroit's effort to prevent us from having an opportunity to have cars that are competitive and meet the needs of the future.”