Press Office
Press Releases
Congressman Nunes prepares for an interview with Fox News Live anchor E.D. Hill.
Thank you for visiting my internet press office. This page contains all of my current press statements and will be updated regularly.
All official media inquiries should be directed to my
|
Print this page |
Washington DC – Today, Congressman Devin Nunes issued the following statement concerning House passage of legislation that will provide Ford, GM and Chrysler $14 billion in government financing.
“A few months back, we all watched in horror as Congress handed over $750 billion to the Treasury Secretary to “bail out Wall Street.” Following the now famous prognosis of a looming depression, the lemmings who are our leaders leaped into action. They hoped in vain that their new hedge fund czar would be able to mastermind a soft landing for our economy by nationalizing our collective bad debt. It didn’t work.
Today, as American automotive companies face their own financial crisis, House leaders are again seeking to intervene in the market. This time, they pin their hopes in the establishment of a car czar. This new government official will be given $14 billion. His orders? Save Ford, GM and Chrysler from bankruptcy. However, the new czar’s mission is doomed to failure. He will be forced to confront a $100 billion problem and a hostile environment dominated by one of the nation’s most powerful unions.
The challenges faced by the Big Three cannot be solved with government financing. The companies are simply not competitive. General Motors pays $72 an hour to its unionized workforce for the same work done at Toyota plants in the U.S. for $48 an hour. Furthermore, Toyota, BMW, and other foreign car companies have the ability to reduce their workforce based on consumer demand. American automotive companies are forced to pay laid off employees 90% of their salary. There is no business model that will work that includes such costly and inflexible labor components.
As far as I am concerned, the gloom and doom extortion racket has got to be shut down. I am sick and tired of hearing threats about another Great Depression from people who have utterly failed in the market – whether they are from Wall Street or Detroit. None of the financial experts or Wall Street pundits who were parading around Capitol Hill before the bailout vote had predicted the financial collapse. Many of them had been responsible for it. The same is true in the case of the auto industry.
Congress was wrong to pass the Wall Street bailout bill. We should not repeat the mistake. The American auto industry has been shackled into a death spiral by union contracts and government regulations. If we want to help, we must resist the temptation to feed the beast. We must force it to change.”