Ryan and Sensenbrenner Abandon American Workers

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Congressman F. James Sensenbrenner like Paul Ryan, claimed to have the smarts and the upper hand when he was against using TARP funds to help the Big 3 automakers BECAUSE they both knew the money was being spent on subsidizing failing corporations. They knew that the 800 employees of Chrysler’s Kenosha Engine Plant would someday face “restructuring” (read: lose their jobs), that’s what companies do when they fail, AND they knew the autoworker's jobs would most likely be relocated to facilities outside the U.S. They knew...

Sensenbrenner Excerpt:
Now, outsourcing jobs in a terrible economic market is really bad governing; but then having those workers help pay for their jobs to be outsourced through taxpayer bailout funds is a slap in the face and absolutely appalling. This is not the economic recovery Wisconsinites hoped for and expected.

Yes Congressmen, outsourcing American jobs is bad business, but more so particularly that you knew when the day outsourcing comes to your home districts, if it were up to you, your displaced factory workers would be scrooged out of any possible help afterwards. How is that? Because you voted against the Trade and Globalization Assistance Act.

A few highlights of HR 3920:
-Allows service sector workers and public workers to be covered by trade adjustment assistance (TAA) (Sec. 101-102, 141).
-Increases the amounts that can be appropriated for training under TAA from $220.00 million to $440.00 million for the 2008 and 2009 fiscal years, and to $660.00 million for all subsequent fiscal years (Sec. 127).
-Increases the income tax credit a TAA recipient can claim on payments for health coverage from 65 percent of the amount paid by the individual to 85 percent of the amount paid by the individual (Sec. 141).

View more highlights of HR 3920 here.

View other details on HR 3920 here.

Sensenbrenner was the only Wisconsin delegate to vote against the Trade and Globalization Assistance Act of 2007. Among the bill's objectives was one to reauthorize trade adjustment assistance to workers whose employment had been adversely effected by globalization.

And what about Paul Ryan's vote? Well, he was absent from Congress later in the day and did not vote, but.....

Congressional record PERSONAL EXPLANATION:
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin.
Madam Speaker, I was absent for legislative business conducted after 3 p.m. on October 31, 2007, due to a family matter that required my personal attention.
As a result, I missed rollcall votes 1025 and 1026. Had I been present, I would have voted‘‘nay’’ on rollcall vote 1025, final passage of H.R. 3920, the Trade Adjustment and Assistance Act of 2007.

Not only did both Ryan and Sensenbrenner carry the legislative torch that led to the outsourcing of millions of jobs over the past decade, they were almost nearly as successful in dragging down the American worker even further after they became displaced from their jobs. I don't think you can get any lower than that. Absolutely disgusting.

And now Ryan points blame at Obama and Democrats?