Tester Likes Iron A Lot

Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) likes iron.

"I like iron. I like iron a lot," said Tester before the auto execs, explaining that he recently bought a new truck and was determined to buy American. He said, however, that he had trouble finding a truck with a one as the first VIN number. (One, he clarified, signifies that the truck was built in the U.S.)

He wanted assurance from the executives that if Congress did give money to the industry that they would build the vehicles in the United States. "If Canada wants money spent up there, go talk to the Canadian taxpayers," he said.  

Tester also complained to the executives that his new truck gets three or four miles-per-gallon fewer than his 2004 truck. That's the industry's problem in a nutshell, he said.

Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah), one of the last to speak, told the executives he wouldn't be doing any finger wagging about how the auto industry needs to be restructured. “I won’t give them a lecture on that score. I think they understand it better than I do," he said. And if they didn't before arriving here, they do now.