Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I think the issue here is so clear-cut that it is almost laughable. I was a mayor of a city for 8 years, and when someone from the business community came in and said they wanted something, I said, Let's talk about it. What are you going to do for the people? What the Export-Import Bank does is they say to General Electric, You told the whole world your policy is to move jobs to China; we have no problem with that. You can help us with 200 jobs? That is fine. You are laying off 10,000 workers tomorrow? We are ignoring that. People who have discussed this have used the word ``carrot.'' I believe in carrots. Use the carrot. What is the carrot? The carrot is if you come in and want taxpayer support, radical idea though it may be, you have got to protect American jobs. It is beyond comprehension to me that we would provide huge amounts of funding to a company where the leadership says, like General Electric, This is our policy: Our policy is to lay off American workers and go to China. And the Ex-Im Bank says, Can we give you any more money? Thank you. Eighty percent of the loans and subsidies given to the Export-Import Bank go to the Fortune 500 companies. Check their record. It is not just General Electric, it is not just General Motors, it is not just Motorola. Company after company are laying off American workers and going abroad.”