WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) today delivered remarks on the floor of the U.S. Senate after Senate Republicans blocked a motion to consider the Auto Assistance Ownership Amendment (S. 3684), legislation that would give tax relief to new car purchasers, save American jobs and boost our flagging economy. Senator Mikulski’s legislation would make interest payments on car loans and state sales or excise car tax-deductible for new cars purchased between November 12, 2008 and December 31, 2009, which, in turn, would help more Americans afford cars during these tough economic times and spur investment in America’s ailing automobile industry. For more information on Senator Mikulski’s legislation, go to: http://mikulski.senate.gov/Newsroom/PressReleases/record.cfm?id=304916.

“My amendment was a straightforward amendment. My bill would’ve helped save jobs in the automobile industry from manufacturing, to sales, to service, to the worker bees in our community,” said Senator Mikulski. “This November work session I said, ‘we should neither be lame, nor should we duck the economic crisis of our country. We must come back and go to work.’ Instead, here we are again fiddling and diddling to a parliamentary tune, engulfed in more shenanigans and quagmire.”

Senator Mikulski will keep fighting to pass her legislation during the remaining days of the 110th Congress. Should Senate Republicans continue to block votes on legislation, Senator Mikulski will reintroduce her legislation in the 111th Congress, which begins in January.

VIDEO: Senator Mikulski’s statement will be available via satellite this afternoon:

Satellite Coordinates: 15:40-15:45 p.m. AMC 1 (C-Band/Analog) Transponder 23 Download Frequency: 4160 Audio Frequencies: 6.2 & 6.8 Polarity: Horizontal C band/analog satellite Trouble number: (202) 224-1278

A video of Senator Mikulski’s floor statement will also be available this afternoon at: http://mikulski.senate.gov/Newsroom/VideoGallery/index.cfm

AUDIO: To hear and/or broadcast Senator Mikulski’s floor speech, please call (800) 511-0763 and enter actuality number 3172 or go to: http://demradio.senate.gov/actualities/mikulski/mikulski081120.mp3

Senator Mikulski’s floor speech, as prepared for delivery, is below:

“First let me say, Mr. President, that I'm pretty frustrated with the Senate right now. I'm frustrated that we are lame, in this lame duck session.

“I was telling my constituents, as I moved around Maryland, as is my habit and joy, that I view this as a November work session. You know, get back to work. The election is over. We now know who won. Now it's time to govern and govern with responsibility, to come back and go to work. So we come back and here we are again whirling around in parliamentary quagmire.

“‘Can we bring it up? I object. No, we could be filibustered.’ While we are fiddling and diddling to a parliamentary tune here, our economy is burning, and the question is, do we burn the economic house down around us by inaction?

“I am a champion of the jobs in the automobile industry. I don't champion an industry. I champion the jobs in the industry. I don't believe this Congress understands what the automobile industry is. Yes, it is manufacturers, union and nonunion, whether it is the Big Three in Detroit, on the one hand or whether it is foreign logo cars being made in the southern states of our country: the Toyotas in Texas and Kentucky, the Nissans in Tennessee and so on.

“We're talking about jobs. We're talking about people who make the cars. We're talking about dealers who sell them, service them, maintain them, and the support services. In many rural parts of my state, the automobile dealers are the biggest employer outside of the local school system and the local hospital. So I want to talk about jobs, and that's what I've been talking about.

“But while we talk about the rescue plan, what is so shocking to me is the rigidity of the Administration to help wrap up their time in the White House and their time to get our economy going. The fact is that they are unwilling to look at the rescue package as a tool for saving jobs rather than saving banks. Now, this is where I feel we have gotten ourselves off on the wrong track. When I voted for the rescue plan, I thought I was voting for dealing with the credit crisis and bringing the financial system to some form of stability. It was a little too trickle-down for me, but we were in a crisis.

“But what has happened is, instead of dealing with helping with jobs, we've been helping with banks. The bailout has been a handout to Wall Street banks. They’ve made out like bandits. Now, ‘them that got’ want to get more, while promising not to do anything in return.

“Let’s review how we got to this. We were told we were facing Armageddon, that we had to pass a $700 billion bailout to save the financial system, end the credit crisis and help the homeowners. Secretary Paulson got $700 billion of the taxpayers’ money. Who is the taxpayer? It’s the single mother, the teacher, the farmer, the waterman, the waitress and the insurance salesman. What were the Congress and the American people promised for this astronomical sum of money? They were promised that the system would stabilize, that the credit would flow and that the economy would get rolling again.

“What did we really get? Secretary Paulson gave us a bait and switch. He changed the plan. First, he said he would buy toxic mortgages and now he is using money to buy ownership stakes in banks. Paulson threw money at the banks with no strings attached, and now we have no results. We have spent close to $350 billion and where are we? Nowhere.

“The stock market is down and unemployment is up. First people lost their jobs, then people lost their life savings. So let’s talk about ‘them that got.’ Remember: their greed and incompetence got us into this superfund site. Wall Street said to the regulators and the policymakers, ‘Stay away’, ‘Get out of the way’, ‘It’s our way or the highway’. Now having got buckets of money from taxpayers, they are still saying the same thing, ‘Get out of our way’, ‘It’s our way or the highway’. ‘And, by the way, give us more and let us keep our high pay.’

“Well, it is not only what we hear from them it is what we don't hear from them. You know what is so shocking to me after this money goes to the big banks? There's no sense of gratitude. There's no sense of gratitude that the waitress, that single mother, that farmer, that firefighters is willing to do this. There’s no gratitude, no remorse, no promise to sin no more, no ‘let’s make amends’. Instead, they pay themselves lavish salaries, bonuses and perks, like lavish spa retreats.

“At $350 billion, I don’t want to be a passive investor. Congress must tell Wall Street, ‘You need to go to work and dig out of this mess. Help us do what the rescue plan was supposed to do and rescue the economy not the Wall Street managers. Work for America, it’s America that’s paying your salaries. Give us your best thinking. Give us your energy. Give us your ideas.’ It’s time to restore our economy and restore our national honor. So pull up your pants and your pantsuits, and go to work and let’s rebuild this economy! Mr. President, I yield the floor.”