Political Quotes

“Mr. President, no one disagrees that we need to manufacture more microchips here in the United States, but we should not be providing a $53 billion blank check to the highly profitable microchip industry with no protections for the American taxpayer. The five companies that will likely receive the lion's share of this funding: Intel, Texas Instruments, Samsung, Micron Technology, and Global Foundries made over $75 billion in profits last year and spent over $18 billion on stock buybacks. We have strange priorities here in the Senate. We can't extend the child tax credit to combat child poverty. We can't deal with the crisis in childcare. We can't provide dental care to seniors on Medicare. We can't deal with climate change. But somehow we can provide a massive amount of corporate welfare to a handful of corporations. The motion I am offering today would instruct the conferees to impose the following conditions on companies receiving this assistance: They must agree to issue warrants or equity stakes to the Federal Government. If private corporations are going to benefit from $53 billion in taxpayer welfare, the financial gains must be shared with the American people--not just wealthy stockholders. Further, these companies must agree to not buy back their own stock, not outsource American jobs, not repeal existing collective bargaining agreements, and remain neutral in union organizing efforts. What we are talking about here is not a radical idea.…”