[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 83 (Thursday, June 4, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6152-S6153]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        AUTO STOCK TAXPAYER ACT

  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, today along with Senator Bennett and 
Senator McConnell and Senator Kyl, I will introduce the Auto Stock for 
Every Taxpayer Act--to require the Treasury to distribute to individual 
taxpayers all its stock in the new General Motors and Chrysler within 1 
year following the emergence of the new GM from bankruptcy proceedings. 
This is the best way to get the auto companies out of the hands of 
Washington bureaucrats and politicians and into the hands of the 
American people in the marketplace where they belong. So instead of the 
Treasury owning 60 percent of shares in the new GM and 8 percent of 
Chrysler, you would own them if you were one of about 120 million 
individual Americans who paid Federal taxes on April 15.
  This is the fastest way to get the stock out of the hands of 
Washington and back into the hands of the American people who paid for 
it. To keep it simple, and to help the little guy and girl also have an 
ownership stake in America's future, Treasury would give each taxpayer 
an equal number of the available shares.
  The Treasury Department has said it wants to sell its auto shares as 
soon as possible, but Fritz Henderson, president and CEO of General 
Motors, told Senators and Congressmen in a telephone call on Monday 
that while it is the Treasury's decision to make, this is a ``very 
large amount'' of stock, and that orderly offering of those shares to 
establish a market may have to be ``managed down over a period of 
years.''
  Those shares might not be worth very much at first, but put them away 
and one day they might contribute something toward a college education. 
For example, General Motors' 610 million shares were only worth 75 
cents just before bankruptcy, but they were worth $40 per share 2 years 
ago, and $75 a few years before that.
  Already we can see what government ownership of car companies will 
look

[[Page S6153]]

like. Yesterday the presidents of General Motors and Chrysler spent 4 
hours in front of congressional committees talking about dealerships.
  I assume they drove themselves here from Detroit in their 
congressionally approved method of transportation, probably their 
newest hybrid cars.
  They did not have much time yesterday to design, build, or sell cars 
and trucks for their troubled companies. Unless we get the stock out of 
the hands of Washington, this scene will be repeated over and over 
again.
  There are at least 60 congressional committees and subcommittees 
authorized to hold hearings on auto companies, and most of them will 
hold hearings, probably many times.
  Car company executives who need to be managing complex enterprises 
will be reduced to the status of an assistant secretary in a minor 
department hauling briefings books from subcommittee to subcommittee.
  You can imagine what the questions will be and the president of each 
company will probably be asked these questions: What will the next 
model look like? What plant should be closed and which one opened? How 
many cars should have flex fuel? What will the work rules be? What will 
the salaries be? Where will the conferences be held, and in which 
cities should they not be held?
  Congressmen will want to know why the Chevy Volt is using a battery 
from a South Korean company when it can be made in one of their 
congressional districts. There will be a lengthy hearing about the 
number of holidays allowed, and thousands of written questions 
demanding written answers under oath.
  And it is not just the Congress we have to worry about. The President 
of the United States has already called the mayor of Detroit to 
reassure him that the headquarters of General Motors should stay in 
Detroit, instead of moving to Warren, MI. And the mayor of Detroit has 
announced his satisfaction with talking with members of the President's 
auto task force to make sure that the executives of the car companies 
do not get any ideas about moving their own headquarters.
  Then there is the Treasury Secretary--and his Under Secretaries--who 
will want to keep up with what is happening to the taxpayers' $50 
billion investment in the New General Motors.
  There is a very active economic czar in the White House. He will have 
some questions and opinions as well about how to run the car companies, 
not to mention the Environmental Protection Agency officials who might 
be busy deciding what size cars they ought to build.
  And, of course, it was not very long ago that this administration let 
General Motors know that it was making too many SUVs and that its Chevy 
Volt was going to be too expensive to work. That was the opinion here 
in Washington. And the President of the United States himself fired the 
president of General Motors.
  Giving the stock to the taxpayer who paid for it will get the 
government out of the companies' hair and give the companies a chance 
to succeed. It will create an investor fan base of 120 million-plus 
American taxpayers who may be a little more interested now in what the 
next Chevrolet will be. Think of the fan base of the Green Bay Packers, 
whose ownership is distributed among the people of Green Bay.
  This is the fastest way back to the wise principle: If you can find 
it in the Yellow Pages, the government probably shouldn't be doing it. 
More than the money, it is the principle of the thing.
  The other day, a visiting European automobile executive said to me 
with a laugh that he had come to the ``new American automotive capital: 
Washington, DC.''
  To get our economy moving again, let's get our auto companies out of 
the hands of Washington and back into the marketplace. Let's put the 
stock in the hands of 120 million taxpayers, the sooner the better.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DODD. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call 
be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DODD. Madam President, I gather we are still in morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct.

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