Southern Senators and Congressional Members Not Helping NASCAR
From ABC’s “This Week.”
STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator Shelby, you’ve been reluctant to sign on to any rescue plan for the auto industry. Is there any kind of a plan they can put together that would get your support?
SHELBY: Not a bailout plan, not taxpayers. What these people do—the management, in my judgment, and the judgment of a lot of other people—they can’t turn these companies around. They’ve got failed models, failed leadership.
They’ve been paid billions—millions and millions of dollars for running weak companies. This didn’t happen overnight. This has been going on for years.
I believe the companies could turn themselves around. With the proper management, proper leadership, they could get lean; they could get competitive.
But I believe what they’re interested in is getting on the taxpayers’ relief fund. And, as Senator Schumer said, I don’t believe $25 billion will be enough. I don’t believe $50 billion will be. I believe it will take several hundred billion, and still, they might not make it.
So I believe they’ve got an opportunity to go through restructuring in Chapter 11.
Alabama is the home to Mercedes-Benz, Honda and Hyundai assembly plants. Other
automakers have chosen Alabama to build their engines, including International Diesel,
which produces advanced technology diesel engines here. When Toyota built its first V-8
engine facility outside of Japan in 2003, it selected Alabama. Over the last 10 years, the
automotive industry has invested over $7 billion and created more than 35,000 new jobs
in Alabama.
http://www.aama.to/auto_profile.pdf
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