>> fritz henderson, a lot of concern about the future of gm in terms of losing market share. same old story, you could be back to restructuring. what is the plan to stabilize u.s. market share? you had pleaded to u.s. consumers at the beginning to give you another chance. is this the right time to rethink the way you have approached the market? give some texture on how those things will change. the market share story at gm those have a silver lining. >> the last 60 or 90 days has been hectic. we have been intensely focused on getting issues behind us. the approach we're taking -- i will focus my attention on the u.s. market

first of all, by the gentleman just said about senator fritz -- let me set him straight on this. they have some hospitals here, they do not own anything from united healthcare. that is number one. number two, the reason i do not like the system is because we have only 46 million people who are uninsured. we do not have the entire country. out of that 46 million, 15 million are illegals. it will cost us billions of dollars, not just -- if not trillions of dollars. host: appreciate the call. from inside "usa today," " moderates in congress feel health-care push pickup susan collins of maine and democratic senator evan by of indiana -- byron york, his column "digging in for obama's healthcare aventis." debbie joins us from alabama. good morning. caller: could morning, steve. a 50% of the american people are happy with their health care? they're asking the wrong question. they are happy they have health care, but as soon as they are sick -- i am a registered nurse, and when they come into the hospital, they do not want to pay their bills, the insurance companies. the second thing i w

fritz henderson who's chief executive officer of the general motors corporation, mr. john mccelaney, and mr. russell aubrey watley iii, owner dealer, russell watley motor company. and i'm going to do a little switch here. i would like to start by calling on the two auto dealers. and i think they will help us set a tone and it will be helpful to all concerned. so mr. lopez, if you would be willing, sir, we call on you for your comments. try to hold them to five minutes. >> we want toities cuss how dealerships by gm and chrysler are drastically hurting small businesses. my name is pete lopez, from censer, west virginia. a small rural town of approximately 3,800 people about an hour out of charleston, west virginia. i'm the owner of spencer auto gl group, which is made up of two dealerships on main street america. chrysler, jeep, dodge, plus chevrolet and buick dealerships. we stfs six county areas in west virginia, and i am the face of chrysler and general motors to my community and my customers. mr. chairman, within the past three weeks, i have been informed that both

and i fear that anyone who has earned the admiration and respect of senator fritz hollings and senator lindsey graham and senator jim demint is a person of great ability. [laughter] >> and the ability to bring people together and to win their respect, really it means so much in the role that you're going to play. i am only going to ask one question and preface it by some remarks that would show where my biases is in my biases protecting children. it always has been and i know you come from that place as well. but i just want to make sure you know that in the 80s when i came to congress that all of our regulations were based on protecting 8155-poun a 185-poun. all of the tests went to the nih. there were no women in the test. there were no children in the tests. we worked together, all of us across party lines, change that and i think the beauty of our work is very simple. when you protect the children, you protect everyone. if you protect 155-pound, healthy man, it's going to be good for all those guys who are in that category. but the vulnerable folks, the children, the pregnant women

in washington, every member of congress now thinks he's a czar who can call old fritz and tell him how to make cars. unquote. but consider for a moment the implications of all 535 of us in congress regularly participating in such incest whitehouse behavior. it is one thing -- incestuous behavior. it is one thing to argue to general motors to put the state your name plant in tennessee right next to the nissan plant. that was an arm's length transaction. it's quite another thing for me as united states senator and a member of the government, that on 60% of the company to urge g.m. executives to build cars in my state. i can pretend i'm making my case on the merits -- central location, right to work laws, four-lane highways, hundreds of suppliers, low taxes, a successful japanese competitor 40 miles away, a german company that's picked tennessee to make its north american cars. but my incestuous relationship as owner taints the whole affair. so i will continue to confer car czar awards seeking to end the incestuous nature of these meetings and time-waving hearings until congress and the p

of american business in washington every member of congress now thinks he's a czar who can call old fritz and tell him how to make cars." unquote. i will continue to confer car czar awards until congress and the president enact my auto stop for every taxpayer legislation, which would distribute the government stock in general motors and chrysler to the 120 million americans who pay taxes on april 15. that's the fastest way to get ownership of the auto companies out of the hands of meddling washington politicians and back into the hands of americans in the marketplace. it also may be the fastest way for congressmen to get themselves reelected. according to "the national tennessean," an auto pacific survey reports that 81% of americans polled -- quote -- "agreed that the faster that the government gets out of the automotive business the better." and 95% disagreed that the government is as gd -- disagreed that the government is a good overseer of corporations such as general motors an chrysler. unquote. 93 disagree that having the government in charge of general motors and chrysler would res

fritz henderson, chief executive officer of general motors corporation. mr. braley, you want to introduce john? >> i'm pleased to have john who's president of the auto dealers president in clinton, iowa, in my district and also has another franchise in iowa city, welcome, john. >> mr. spitzer -- betty help me out elyiri a. >> he has been in the business a long time in eylira and the surrounding years. 100 years i believe in the auto dealership. [inaudible] >> well, those are pretty deep roots and i am honored and i'm grateful, mr. chairman, that you brought mr. spitzer to share his experience not only in obviously providing our communities with the cars they need to drive but helping to shore up so much within our community by sponsoring organizations and contributing to the quality of life there. >> next we have mr. bob thomas, mr. walden, would you like to say a few words there. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. mr. thomas is a constituent of mine from bend, oregon. his grandfather formed the dealership for general motors in 1918. he served as lieutenan