MSNBC "The Ed Show" -Transcript

Interview

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SCHULTZ: As bad as the situation may be for Toyota, I think there"s a real opportunity here for American car manufacturers.

Let me bring in Democratic Congressman Gary Peters of Michigan.

It would seem to me that if I were a car dealer anywhere in America, I might take out a pretty aggressive commercial, Congressman, saying, you know, you should have been buying American all along. Or is that over the top for these politically correct times?

What do you think?

REP. GARY PETERS (D), MICHIGAN: Well, I think it"s very important for American car buyers to know that our domestic auto industry are making some great cars. You know, JD Power consistently ranks both Chrysler and General Motors and Ford at the very top when it comes to customer satisfaction. The Insurance Institute of Highway Safety has ranked all of the big three cars at the top of the list when it comes to highway safety.

And you"ve got the "Motor Trend Car of the Year," both the Dodge Ram Truck, as well as the Ford Taurus as Car of the Year. So there"s great products, so we"re certainly hoping as people are thinking about buying a car, that they are going to those domestic showrooms.

In the past, some people drove right by them. Now is the time to go in there, kick the tires, and you"re going to find that it"s a first-class quality product.

SCHULTZ: You know, in business, Congressman, sometimes you"ve just got to go for the jugular, don"t you? I mean, isn"t this the moment?

I mean, you look at Ford"s sales in January, up 25 percent. GM sales in January was up 14 percent.

Now is the time. And it would seem to me that for the American worker, for the American economy, this--it would seem to me that everybody would be standing on top of the highest hill they can find and say, see that? Buy American, American workers, and just capitalize on this.

I guess...

PETERS: Well, you are right, ed. Yes, you are right, Ed. There is no question.

As we have talked about on this program, and you have said it you have said it many, many times, Ed, the best way to get the American economy going is to have folks buy American-made cars, American workers, American steel and glass. And if there was any perception in the past that American cars may not have had the same quality as some of our foreign competition, I think that"s been laid to rest.

We have got great cars, American-made cars. People need to be going into those showrooms. They are going to get a first-class, quality car, ,and they are going to be helping the American economy, American workers, and American businesses all at the same time.

SCHULTZ: All right. I want to talk about the TARP money that"s going to be used for small businesses.

You"re in favor of that, I take it?

PETERS: I am. In fact, it"s probably--the number one impediment right now for job creation is the lack of lending to our small businesses. As you know, those big money center banks, those big Wall Street banks that received a lot of TARP money, they are not lending to small businesses.

SCHULTZ: No.

PETERS: They are not out there doing that, and so we need to be helping the folks who I know will be helping them, which is our smaller, community banks. That"s the case in Michigan.

We have got these large Wall Street banks that take our deposits, but they lend the money somewhere else. We have got to help those community banks that know the local business and always, disproportionately, lend to small businesses. That"s where the help has to go.

SCHULTZ: And Congressman Peters, quickly, on a scale from one to 10, what are your chances of getting the Republicans to help you on job creation?

PETERS: Well, so far, they have been not willing to be helpful on anything. We have got to continue to press the case that this is just absolutely critical.

We need bipartisan solutions. We need to be coming together. The American people are asking for it. They deserve it. We need to have that and get that done.

SCHULTZ: Congressman, good to have you on. Thanks so much.

PETERS: Great to be here.

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