Ten years ago...I was in Lordstown, Ohio, at the GM [General Motors] plant around the time of the auto rescue --almost a decade ago -- watching the first Chevy Cruze come off the line in Lordstown, Ohio, a plant that had been there for decades already in Youngstown.

Two years ago, I was at the GM Lordstown plant for its 50th anniversary. I saw the pride the community takes in that plant. GM itself estimated 10,000 people turned out to watch the parade. The line to tour the plant stretched down the street and around the block. It's what this plant and this auto industry mean to the communities they serve.

When the news broke late Sunday night or early Monday morning that General Motors is closing this plant and laying off up to 15,000 workers in Ohio and around the country, one reporter for the Youngstown Vindicator tweeted it was "all hands on deck day, with just about everyone in the... newsroom dropping everything to cover the GM Lordstown story."

Those reporters, not "enemies of the people," people who in fact -- these reporters -- who care about their community, don't make a lot of money, are willing to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted,¹ not enemies of the people. These reporters understood what these job losses will mean, not just to those workers but to this community, the Mahoning Valley, of about a half a million people.

While people's lives were being upended in the Mahoning Valley and around the country, while parents were having painful conversations around kitchen tables, local businesses were nervously looking at their balance sheets, you know what happened? Wall Street traders were celebrating. As the announcement to layoff workers happened, the stock price went up. Look what happened to their [GM] stock price after their announcement.

Wall Street and its cronies in Washington simply don't value workers and they don't understand the dignity of work. They don't look at workers as vital to a company's success. Indeed, they view the American worker as nothing more than a cost to be minimized. And they reward companies -- Wall Street rewards companies when they lay off workers. They reward companies when the workers' pay is cut or the benefits are scaled back. Wall Street rewards companies when the workers get hurt.

Wall Street and its cronies in Washington simply don't value workers and they don't understand the dignity of work. They don't look at workers as vital to a company's success. Indeed, they view the American worker as nothing more than a cost to be minimized. And they reward companies -- Wall Street rewards companies when they lay off workers. They reward companies when the workers' pay is cut or the benefits are scaled back. Wall Street rewards companies when the workers get hurt.    

Of course we expect companies to always try to maximize profits, but we weren't elected, in this Body, to serve corporations. We were elected to stand up for the Americans we serve, to stand up for the small business owners. And this broken business model is exactly why we need a trade and tax policy that actually invests in American workers. Instead, this crowd in Washington is only making it worse.

Earlier this summer, in the very same day that GM Lordstown laid off the second shift in the Mahoning Valley, we got word that GM plans to build its new Chevy Blazer in Mexico, bypassing American workers and sending more jobs to Mexico. Fifteen hundred workers lost their job the same day GM announced they were building a plant in Mexico. I mean, how stupid do we have to be to think that there is not a connection there?

That decision was no coincidence. The tax bill that this Congress, that almost every single Republican voted for and every single Democrat voted against -- this tax bill that this Congress passed, this President signed provides a 50% off coupon -- off the taxes -- for every company that moves overseas. For instance, American companies right now -- Chevy Cruze made in Youngstown, Ohio, General Motors pays 21 percent corporate tax rate. Chevy Cruze -- another kind of Chevy Cruze made by General Motors Mexico pays a 10-and-a-half percent tax rate.

So, you work in the United States, you pay 21% taxes. You go overseas, you get a 50% coupon off on your taxes. You know why? Because this Congress and President Trump signed a bill that will do nothing but outsource jobs.

It didn't have to be that way. The Patriot Corporation Act, which I handed to the President in the President's cabinet room a year or so ago -- a year and a half ago, would have simply said this: If you pay your workers well, if you provide health care and retirement for your workers, if you make your product in the United States of America, you get a lower tax rate.

I handed [a] copy of that bill to the President. He said he liked it. Then, you know what happened? Instead...that bill, that could have been the Patriot Corporation Act, that could have been the taxpayer's bill of rights, that could have been the corporate freeloader fee -- when companies abuse their workers, they pay a fee. Instead, that bill made its way down to the majority leader's office -- and you know what happened. The special interests went to work.

And you know what happened then -- when the special interests went to work? They created this 50% off coupon for their taxes so those companies that moved to Mexico or moved to France or moved to Bangladesh or anywhere else get a 50% tax cut.

Who suffers the consequences? It's American workers. We need to stand up for the people whom we serve and we need to fix this. After GM ended the second shift at Lordstown, I met with GM CEO Mary Barra and demanded answers. She said retooling the plant to go from the Cruze to the SUV Chevy Blazer would simply cost too much. It was too expensive. So we came up with a plan -- first of all, they had just taken their huge tax cut they could have invested it in workers. Instead, they invested it in corporate buy-backs -- the executives who make 300 times what the average well paid worker at GM makes.

But I came up with a plan to fix this. If they were not going to reinvest that money, we could level the playing field. We called it the American Cars, American Jobs Act.

Two simple parts. First, customers who buy cars that are made in the United States get 3500 dollars off at the dealership. Real dollars, real money at the dealership. The discount would apply under our definition, made in America, to nearly a hundred cars, trucks, and SUVs, including all passenger vehicles, including the Jeep Cherokee made in Toledo -- all passenger vehicles assembled in Ohio.

Second, companies that cut the number of American jobs they had on the day the GOP tax bill passed...they lose their break. We take away that 50% off coupon on their taxes. If you choose to send jobs overseas, you lose that coupon. If you keep jobs in the U.S., you keep your discounted rate.

Remember back in July, I believe, of 2017, Donald Trump, the President of the United States, was in Youngstown. He said to them, we'll "never again sacrifice Ohio jobs [or jobs from any state in our union] to enrich other countries."² He then said, "Don't sell your [house]." We're going to bring all these jobs back into these old plants. We're going to knock [down] these old plants and build new plants. We're going to bring all these jobs back. But you know [when] he said, we'll never again sacrifice Ohio jobs, that's what his tax bill did. His tax bill provided that 50% off coupon.³

People trusted him in the Mahoning Valley. He won areas that democrats used to win. They put their faith in him. What did Trump do? He gave these corporations a huge tax break that will cause more jobs to go overseas.

It's all part of this President's phony populism. He puts one group against another to distract from the fact that this White House looks like a retreat for Wall Street executives, except on the days when it looks like a retreat for pharmaceutical executives, except for the days it looks like a retreat for gun lobby executives.⁴ He campaigns across states like Ohio, saying he's for working people. Then he passed tax cuts for companies sending their jobs overseas.

He said in 2016, campaigning in Ohio, "If I'm elected, you won't lose one plant. You'll [have plants] coming into this county...I promise you that."⁵ If the President of the United States meant what he said, if he said you're not going to lose plants, if he said companies that have moved overseas are going to come back to Lordstown, and come back to Mansfield, and come back to Toledo, and come back to Dayton, then, Mr. President, what you need to do is support the American Cars, American Jobs Act.

Let's end this tax break, this incentive for companies to shut down production in Xenia, Ohio and move overseas.

Let's end this tax cut for corporations to shut down these American plants and move American jobs overseas.

If you love this country, you fight for the people that make it work.

Mr. President, let's do that and pass the American Cars, American Jobs Act.

I yield the floor.