M E M O R A N D U M
TO: Reporters and Editors
RE: Auto bailout
DA: December 11, 2008
Senator Chuck Grassley released the following statement after voting against the auto bailout.
“The bill we voted on tonight left a lot to be desired. Several weeks ago I laid out criteria that I wanted to see in an auto bailout bill. Simply put, that criteria was not met. We cannot expect the taxpayer to bail out companies when their own investor-owners won’t even help. I’m afraid we’re throwing good taxpayer money after bad to companies that have dwindling assets. There was a serious attempt to find a bipartisan agreement on this matter, but it was unsuccessful and the Democrat leadership decided to push ahead with the flawed House proposal which did not require the unions to renegotiate their contracts by a date certain, deal with a change in leadership, or curb compensation for corporate executives or union leaders.”