[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 186 (Tuesday, November 27, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7107-S7108]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             General Motors

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, first, I would like to talk about the 
unfortunate news we heard from General Motors.
  Yesterday, General Motors announced it was closing five factories and 
laying off 15,000 workers. The news is a gut punch to workers in Ohio, 
Michigan, and Maryland. Our hearts go out to them and their families. 
Many of these people have labored for decades, and many in their 
families have worked at GM. I know this from our GM plants in New York. 
To lose your job when you have put so much into it, only to wake up in 
the morning and say, ``my job is to make the best car possible,'' is a 
gut punch and worse.
  We need to do more--a lot more--to encourage investments in American 
jobs, in American infrastructure, and to bring back manufacturing. What 
we don't need is more rhetoric from the President, who has made a whole 
lot of promises but who has, unfortunately, failed to deliver for these 
workers.
  Here is what President Trump said last year about manufacturing jobs 
in Ohio:

       They're all coming back. . . . Don't move. Don't sell your 
     house. . . . We're going to fill those factories up or rip 
     them down and build new ones.

  Here is what else he said:

       If I am elected, you won't lose one plant. . . . You're 
     going to have jobs again. You won't lose one plant. I promise 
     you that.

  President Trump promised people in the campaign that we would not 
lose one plant. A lot of people voted for him for that reason. Guess 
where he said we would not lose one plant. Guess where President Trump 
promised the people we would not lose one auto plant--in Warren, MI. It 
is one of the plants that is now slated to close. The words are a 
painful reminder of just how bankrupt many of President Trump's 
promises turn out to be.
  Do you remember Carrier? The President swept into office and promised 
that Carrier would stay open, thanks to him. He had done a big rally, 
and 6 months later, Carrier had laid off hundreds of workers in Indiana 
and had moved its positions to Mexico.
  This is what the President does. He makes big, bold, impossible 
promises without having much care for the results. Instead of 
overpromising, the President should roll up his sleeves and work with 
GM to prevent it from cutting jobs.
  The American taxpayer has supported GM through tough times. Last 
year, the Republicans handed GM a windfall of $150 million in its tax 
bill so GM could bring back money from overseas. It said it would do it 
and employ people. Well, it is bringing back money from overseas, but 
it is not employing people. That is what American companies are doing. 
GM pocketed the tax break we gave it and is closing up shop anyway--
with nary a word from the President until after the fact.
  I see my friend from Illinois here. We Democrats believe you don't 
give tax breaks to big companies unless they do something for their 
workers--not stock buybacks, but employ people, train people, pay them 
good wages, give family leave. The President gives corporate America--
wealthy, big corporations--just what they wish but does nothing to 
protect workers, except to talk a lot.
  So I would ask my friends in New York State and throughout the 
Midwest and throughout America--working families, the kind of people I 
came from: When are you going to understand that this man sells you a 
bill of goods? that this President talks a good game but never delivers 
on his promises? That is what Americans and working Americans, in 
particular, should understand about President Trump.
  The awful closings from yesterday are terrible. They are a sad symbol 
of a President who has failed the American working people and given 
them a

[[Page S7108]]

lot of hot air and no real gains. Corporate America--the wealthy--are 
doing great. Working people--average Americans, people who sweat--get 
nothing. They are losing jobs.
  We need more from this Congress than another tax cut for the wealthy, 
and the American worker needs more from President Trump than empty 
rhetoric. Just yesterday, he said: Well, there will be new plants. How 
many people are going to believe that? He has been saying that for 2 
years.