[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 76 (Monday, May 18, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H5674]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           ADMINISTRATION CLOSES PRIVATE CHRYSLER DEALERSHIPS

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Madam Speaker, the administration closed 900 
Chrysler dealerships overnight last week and put an estimated 100,000, 
mostly nonunion workers, on the street and out of work. Even though 
many of these dealerships were profitable, it didn't make any 
difference to the Auto Task Force, since these unelected and 
unaccountable bureaucrats have absolute power ever since the government 
nationalized Chrysler.
  And I thought the administration promised more jobs, not fewer ones.
  In Chicago-business style, the administration is strong-arming these 
businesses and workers with a process that leaves them without legal 
recourse and sticks the business owner with millions of dollars of 
unsold vehicles by forcing them to close.
  It should hardly escape anyone's notice that this is just what 
Dictator Hugo Chavez did earlier this month when he nationalized two 
U.S. oil company production facilities in Venezuela. Echoing a scheme 
that handed a U.S. company's assets over to Chavez's cronies, the 
administration nationalized these auto businesses and rewarded their 
own special interest groups, and once again, is picking the winners and 
losers in Chicago-style politics.
  And that's just the way it is.

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