Brown on Trump: 'I don't think he cares about workers'

Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown didn't spare the rod to spoil the president today, when he took Donald Trump to the woodshed on the many ways he and allied Republicans not only don't understand the "Dignity of Work" but don't much care about workers. 

President Donald J. Trump

"I don't think he cares about workers," Sen. Brown told Ohio media on a conference call Wednesday. 

Fresh from a tour of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, four states key to winning the 2020 Democratic primary, the 66-year old, 3-time senator representing red Ohio in Washington indicated his pleasure with meet-and-greet turnouts. 

Should he declare his candidacy for president, Sen. Brown will join a platoon of 20-plus Democrats who have stepped into the long, laborious and expensive trip to the White House. The former Ohio congressman and two-time Secretary of State lit into Trump as a "phony populist who divides and betrays workers." 

Asked by Spinelli on Assignment (SOA) to respond to the frontal attack President Trump and allied Republicans have mounted, that casts far and wide the net of "socialism" embraced by Sen. Bernie Sanders and a few new Democratic house members as inherently un-American, Brown chose not to address the issue of socialism head on. 

Had he done so, he likely would have cited Social Security or Medicare as two beneficial "socialist" programs Americans rely on, even if they don't understand how they work. Brown pivoted instead to his central theme of the "Dignity of Work," saying "honoring jobs" in general "unites us all." 

The focal point of Brown's call with state media today was to announce his reintroduction of the "American Cars, American Jobs Act."  Sen. Brown and others, including Ohio's junior Sen. Rob Portman and new Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, may be beating a dead car, as General Motors plans to layoff thousands of workers more as it prepared to close the Lordstown assembly plant. 

Brown's office said he "continues to call on GM to do the right thing, honor the dignity of these workers, and reinvest in its Lordstown plant." Meanwhile, GM stock opened at $39 today, up from a 52-week low of $30 last November but down from a high of $45 last July. 

“We know how devastating that is for the workers, for their families, for local businesses, for the entire community," Brown said in prepared remarks. "We also know it doesn’t have to be this way. We need to overhaul our trade and tax policy, and end this corporate business model where companies like GM close American plants, collect a tax break to move overseas, only to sell those cars back into the U.S."

Two key points of Brown’s bill, one he said he's talked to President Trump about, give customers a

Brown speaks to SOA.

$3,500 discount when they buy cars made in America and a $4,500 discount if that American car is electric or a plug-in hybrid and revoke a special GOP tax cut on overseas profits for auto manufacturers that ship jobs overseas 

After GM announced it would launch more than 20 new zero-emissions vehicles by 2023, Brown added a provision to incentivize the purchase of electric cars. He hopes it encourages GM to bring one its new electric vehicles to Lordstown.   

Asked by SOA whether it was odd that Ohio wants electric vehicles but has never offered a state tax credit to encourage their purchase, as many other states do, Brown joked that it's not odd or curious that "things about corruption in state government" are as they are, including Ohio spending billions on for-profit schools that fare poorly. Brown chided Trump and supporters as "perfectly willing to raise taxes on workers while cutting tax breaks for the wealthy."

Brown’s "American Cars, American Jobs Act" bill would benefit Ohio companies and workers throughout the auto supply chain, a media release said. Brown's bill "would put U.S.-made cars on equal footing with foreign-made vehicles and update the tax code to remove incentives for auto companies to offshore jobs."

Six of the nine U.S.-manufactured electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles on the AALA list qualify for the $4500 rebate, including all passenger vehicles made in Ohio, bill information noted. 

Brown said other candidates are picking up his "Dignity of Work" theme, and while that may be a compliment, he said he delivers the pitch best. In that role, pundits see Brown talking the language of midwest state workers best. Accordingly, he upbraided President Trump for failing to act to help Lordstown workers after making false promises to workers and families in the Mahoning Valley and boasting about auto jobs coming to Ohio as Lordstown workers are set to lose their jobs. 

Brown called President Trump’s remarks last week a slap in the face to Lordstown workers, and again called on the President to step up and help save the jobs of Lordstown workers.