[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 18]
[House]
[Page 24567]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            UNCLE ``SANTA'' SAM AND THE BIG THREE AUTO BOYS

  (Mr. POE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. POE. Madam Speaker, it's Christmas time in the city, so the 
Federal Government is about to give away more taxpayer dollars to those 
with their corporate hands out.
  Now the Big Three Automakers say they need Uncle ``Santa'' Sam to 
save them from themselves even though they have been bad all year. And 
they expect ``Joe Sixpack'' from Dime Box, Texas, to pay for their 
naughty deeds.
  We can't call it a bailout because that might be too honest a 
statement to our citizens; so we call it a ``bridge loan.'' Actually 
it's a bridge loan to nowhere.
  And Congress wants to create a Car Czar to oversee the control of how 
the Big Three make new cars. They tell us it's not the nationalization 
of the car business, but it sounds close enough for government work to 
me.
  Anyway, does anybody really think the Federal Government knows 
anything about the car business?
  If you like the way the Federal Government fouled up the mortgage 
industry by over-regulating Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that has cost 
the taxpayers billions, or you like the way the Federal Government 
controls passenger rail service with Amtrak that loses billions of 
dollars every year, you'll love the way the Federal bureaucrats make 
new cars.
  The new federalized auto industry will have the competence of FEMA, 
the pleasantries of the Post Office, and the compassion of the IRS.
  And that's just the way it is.

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