We may very well be faced with the choice of retaining the AAA credit rating or abandoning some of our key infrastructure projects, which are about jobs for the future. I will choose jobs in that equation every time.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
It's not a stretch to say the whole financial industry revolves around the compass point of the absolutely safe AAA rating. But the financial crisis happened because AAA ratings stopped being something that had to be earned and turned into something that could be paid for.
Michigan is also the only industrial state that has a AAA credit rating.
The once-unthinkable loss of the AAA rating will constitute a further hit to already fragile business and consumer confidence.
Minnesotans lost their jobs because the credit rating agencies didn't do the only job they're supposed to have, the only job they had, which is to give accurate, objective ratings to financial products.
Regardless of what our national credit rating is, people will always want a roof over their heads, food on their tables, fuel for their cars, and clothes on their backs.
Our men and women in uniform make enough sacrifices for our country. Their credit rating should not be one of those sacrifices.
Our thinking behind these agreements is that we want all jobs in General Motors to be good jobs.
Obviously we want to keep the jobs we've got.
Let me remind you that credit is the lifeblood of business, the lifeblood of prices and jobs.
I don't think the AAA is an end in itself; we will maintain prudent financial management with or without the AAA.