man in president just a few minutes ago i was over at the joint economic committee where we were had mr bernanke chios the head of the federal reserve talking about the economic challenges that we're facing a in this country and to put to the administration as led by the federal reserve was really going to do about it and i must say that we were long in an analysis in terms of how we got here but  very short in terms of giving a great deal of hope but to the american people as to the next steps that we're going to be taken by the administration to help to resolve this problem and that is i find enormously distressing i think american families ought to be certainly encouraged by the efforts that are being made in this body to try and develop a housing a program led by as senator dodd and and also by senator shelby and a number of others and i understand that the leaders are going to have some announcements later on in the day about the progress that's being made which is really i think that's very important and significant  and hopefully selves to provide some help and assistance to permitting families to remain in their homes and hopefully permit some of those that have been foreclosed to be able to regain they opportunity to return to  their to their homes we have seen in the recent weeks widespread breakdown in the financial markets the crisis has had far reaching effects on the rest of the economy leaving seven point four million americans unemployed and two million families at risk of foreclosure practically twelve thousand a day families are facing that it's true in my state of massachusetts strew throughout to new england other parts of the country so we need to act quickly now to keep families in their homes and we are looking forward to the car committees to make a recommendation with legislation that will permit us to do so it is time madam president to restore the confidence in our credit markets that means cracking down on abusive practices in the mortgage industry and shining more light on the operations companies like bear stearns the federal government stepped in with thirty billion dollars to bailout for bear stearns and that's a lot of corporate welfare coming before any relief for the millions of families on the brink of losing their homes and hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidized loans are being given out freely to banks and investment houses but the administration is telling millions of americans struggling to find work that is too soon to give them additional unemployment benefits that's unacceptable and congress needs to act mr president madam president i reviewed at the at the meeting earlier today  the general economic circumstance that we find ourselves and as a result of these past few a years since this administration since the president took office the dollar has lost a third of its value the federal debt has skyrocketed by nearly four trillion dollars our debt to foreign investors has increased by a trillion dollars the stock market has grown by only two point five percent each year since two thousand and one far lower than the seven point five percent returns that average since one nine hundred sixty eight and it lost two point seven trillion in value just since last may two point seven trillion in value since last may finally this crisis has wiped out two point seven trillion in home values in the past year alone and some economists believe that we could lose as much as eight trillion dollars before the crisis is open so mr reminded mister key that i hear from my constituents in massachusetts is see their har earned savings being wiped out and now we are reading the papers that older workers are being forced to put off their retirement because of losses in the values of their own and retirement savings so we ought to know what we can do to help to respond to the staggering loss of the nation's wealth and how working families can cope with their last savings and well that's a fair question and i must say i didn't feel that we got much of an answer during the course of the hearing so small earning some have said that well we have a devalued dollar this will increase our exports but it's true that after the dollar has been weakening for sixty as the value of our imports is still roughly twice that out of our exports and we're still running a huge trade deficit and the some of said that the fed is taking appropriate steps by lowering interest rates and offering discount loans but consequences of this whole economic a dilemma is it's a impact upon the states its impact on the states states are finding nor miss the challenge in dealing with their economic situation and they have t alternatives they have two alternatives and both of them are bad and will have very adverse impact on middle class and working families first they can raise their taxes which is at a time when families are hard pressed to keep ends meet they can go ahead and raise the taxes and that is the wrong policy or secondly they can reduce and cut back on services such as medicaid medicaid programs and other programs that reach out to the neediest in the community and that obviously has enormously adverse impact there are ways of helping the states we've done that in the past and when i ask whether he would favor this administration to provide some help and assistance to the states so they don't reduce services but the neediest people in the state he said that's a decision for congress to make when i asked him he is the principal spokesperson for the administration where is the administration what is their position i know the power of the congress on fiscal policy where is the administration we want to work with the administration to try and restore our economy and when desired goal but just stating that as being the desire for the administration at a time when we're facing the serious economic of challenges remains i think and then adequate answer the idea th chairman of the federal reserve which state to the congress that day he effectively has no position in the administration has no position on fiscal policy  providing help and assistance to the state is just mind boggling to me mind boggling complete failure to really understand the economic challenge that the people are facing so mr president i asked of the chairman whether  he did not think that we ought to have at least some system available to the federal reserve when we are going to find that the financial community is going to be involved in the financial products that are effectively risky for consumers we have a regulatory agency the f d a that is tries and does a pretty good job increasing challenge in terms of food safety we have an f b i agent trying deal make sure that our scription drugs are going to be safe and efficacious as a pretty good job we're working to try and strengthen those agencies now we have regulatory agencies and terms of consumer product safety trying to keep toys that would be dangerous to children away from children so we have a tradition of establishing regulations and regulatory agencies to help protect the consumer and given the abuses that we have seen with financial products in recent times should we not have a similar agency to help protect consumers help protect consumers consumers or to hardworking spend a good deal of their time working all day the rest of the time trying to look out after their children spend some time with their children and helping them to read and education don't have a lot of generally we we had what i consider a kind of a wishy washy answer on this one that the federal reserve has some powers it's useful to have some power but no precision with regards to what can be done in order to a serious serious economic challenge families know that in my state families that are trying to keep their homes trying even at this time of the year to get sufficient resources for home heating o families to maybe experience the joy that many families have in the last week when they've got the notices from the the colleges my part of the country that have accepted their children to go on to higher education and then  sobered up by the extraordinary costs wondered whether they can afford it frequently they use their house as collateral and now they wonder whether they can afford it and they see the ever increasing cost of gasoline and they're struggling to wonder if they can hold on to their jobs let alone their insurance serious economic times mr president demand demand leadership at the executive level demands leadership here in the congress demands a bipartisan response to the said challenges and we have done that that at this time mr president i have review briefly here for the senate about where we are economic recession i answered yes it's whether how you describe it the americans surveyed think that the economy now is in recession by seventy six and there's very good reasons  two hundred sixty billion dollars in subsidized loans to banks this is through the rediscount window discount window and we don't know how the public's taxpayer really being protected with these loans we don't we don't understand how those of how how the how the public interest how the taxpayer are really being protected we have seen at other times when we have had loans and the most dramatic one was the automobile industry when actually the congress was repaid for the loans it was a successful negotiation without which show we would have seen the complete collapse of the automobile industry here in this country the loss of millions of bob's and that was carefully worked out and the public interest was protected but we don't know what that two hundred sixty billion dollars subsidized loans now and yet when we had  asked could we get the administration to help and assist us with the extension of the unemployment benefits the answer was no no to ten billion dollars to help individuals who work and who wa work who have a history of working and are losing their jobs because of the economic downturn and need to have that help and assistance in the interim before they get the next a job with the administration help them the answer was no and yet there's two hundred sixty billion dollars in loans to the banks this isn't right mr president this isn't a fairness and this isn't being responsive to the needs  of families and working people in this country this gives an idea mr president about what is happening with while wages have been basically stagnating these gives you an idea of the  increasing costs for consumers the eighty four percent increase in gasoline we've seen the health insurance continues to rise forty four percent college tuition forty seven percent  the value of the and wages effectively stagnant over this this period and put enormous pressure on these families this chart here mr president shows that millions of american families thousand seven hundred fifty thousand here it is january two thousand a to one up one hundred and twenty four percent from two thousand and six these are families that are losing their homes this is president something that i think none of us have a thought would take place in this country all of us are mindful of the extraordinary pressures that still exist on families katrina and the hardships that they are facing a by and large we don't generally think that because people are going to lose their houses to foreclosure they're going to be pushed outside but these a growth of these tent cities and then the closing of these tent cities have has been a new phenomenon in the landscape of america this is the home prices in major cities have fallen average of eleven percent of the last year alone this chart over here you can see in different parts of the country what has been happening but has been generally going down across the cross the country some areas a great deal more than another it's grown the losses in california las vegas some of the  states in the south have gone down a good deal more than others but nonetheless it is been uniform and been been serious this mr president demonstrates the economy is shedding more and more jobs in january of two thousand a twenty two thousand jobs last february of zero eight sixty three thousand eighty five thousand jobs were cut in the past two months we're going to get the numbers of jobs later in this week and friday of this week most believe that you'll see this continued trend mister individuals losing their jobs how many greater indicators when you find out you're losing your home you're unable to keep your job cost of your need to have any quality of life is going up through the roof not to recognize that we have some important responsibilities here to our fellow citizens this is a shows mr president seven point four million americans are competing for four million jobs each the numbers of americans who are unemployed these are the jobs openings that are out there at the present time so you have many more unemployed and there are job openings and if that's the case and these people want to work they're glad to work they want to work give them an opportunity to work is starkly we said if you have that opportunity we're going to give you some unemployment compensation and just carry you for a while till we get this number of job openings up or restoration of our economy and then you'll be able to get the job but at least say to people who have worked and worked hard try to provide for their family they're going to be eligible for some unemployment compensation it's the fund itself is surplus at this time workers have paid into the fund and if they haven't paid in they don't are unable to gain resources generally speaking so this is the reason that we have  been struggling to get some help and assistance and unemployment this mr president is a rather ominous chart because this is generally the economists pick the unemployment will skyrocket next year look at this this is two thousand and seven four point in the increasing number of unemployed two thousand nine we're going to see over this next year increasing unemployment across this country that is a phenomenon and if we know that's going to happen and that is the testimony before the joint economic committee why are we preparing ourselves to reach out and to make sure that this kind of pressure that's on these families is reduced or at least accommodated to some extent we know what is going to happen mr president this administration missed the boat so to speak in understanding where we were going in terms of the economy they should have known they didn't know doesn't for some of us who look  at the record of the administration and whether it's katrina or arac you can understand how they have missed the boat on a number of different issues but to certainly we're finding out on the economic they've certainly missed this boat millions in america could lose real  health care in a recession we're seeing the job loss declining bargaining power and benefit cuts by employers bring a decline in the health insurance coverage during a recession in a mild or moderate recession for two point two million americans will lose their health insurance and we know what that happens when they lose it it is effectively the waiting room urgency room is the primary care the average cost there is four hundred eighty dollars for a visit to the emergency room so even when they lose this they go to the emergency room who picks up the tab for they don't have the money to go in that emergency room is the local taxpayers people pay for it one way or the other it's just with this it's going to mean additional kind of pressure on local taxpayers who are going to be increasingly pressured themselves because they're going to lose the benefits are they going to have to pay more in taxes and the spiral continues so mr president and we have very little willingness of the administration to help and assist states your local communities to permit these families to retain their health insurance which they could  do which we have done at other times this is a rather sad indicator mr president this is the food stamp use nears record as crisis squeezes workers here twenty eight million americans are projected to receive food stamps  in two thousand and nine bracket numbers in the history of this country families that are needing to use the food stamps because they're in such a desperate this was meant to be an emergency a program and it is an emergency program but we're finding my more and more americans depended on it visit the food banks as i have we have just such as super food banks in boston and in massachusetts that have gone back normally effective well run programs that are involved in the community and go in and visit and talk to the people and find out the difficulty that they have in getting good food and also the kinds of pressures that they're seeing every single day the food bank this is the what is happening mr president could force millions more into  poverty by two thousand and eleven we've seen the growth of poverty during this administration five point seven million people to close to two million people children have gone into poverty this is before this recession and the number is growing and reflecting itself i listen to this morning with a good deal of interest about the increasing number of school  dropouts colin powell was on was on most of the morning approach graham's on it directly attributable mr president directly attributable to attribute it to the increased poverty you get increase poverty in these communities you're going to have increasing number of children that are going to drop out increasing about gangs increasing amounts of violence that you're going to have that we have seen the complete insensitivity of the administration to bright help insists systems to local communities whether it was in the community policing program which was such a success the cops program which provided provides funding for can community policing the burn grant programs that help and assist local law enforcement no no we've got to cut those programs back and we're seeing going to see the increasing poverty with all of its dangerous aspects mr president these are very interesting a chart because this shows mr president twenty two percent more workers are exhausting their federal unemployment today than at the start of the as high of a persistent continuing unemployment level of individuals that are looking for jobs that have been unemployed for a period of time as we have at the present time this extraordinary phenomenon these are our fellow citizens who've been workers worked hard want to work continuing to look for jobs haven't even dropped out of the job market still want to work and yet they are being cut loose here in being i was making here where you had the the the time the unemployment rate here down through here even in out of work for at least twenty six seventeen thirteen fourteen look where we are mr president we are at twenty two million a seven this is great that this is twenty two percent this figure over here twenty two percent that compares with these figures here seventeen thirteen fourteen all the times where we've increased help and assistance to it so what we're demonstrating is increasing sensitivity insensitivity to these families  mr president i'll just take a few more moments there are things that can be done if we if we were able to get mr bernanke e to indicate that he felt that some economic stimulus program could be put in place we're looking for those that have been tried tested and demonstrated to be effective you can see for error on this chart for every dollar that's invested in food stamps it is a dollar seventy three impact in terms of the economy for unemployment a dollar sixty four you're buying for every dollar that's invested infrastructure dollars fifty nine the tax cuts which this administration favors demonstrates it does not have  chart again just indicates about how the costs are rising faster than the rate of inflation so mr president i think we knew know what needs to be done we need an economic stimulus program that's going to be targeted to middle class working families that's going to benefit to those we heard today in the joint economic committee about what we have been doing for the large investment firms hundreds of billions of dollars but still not the will not the desire to try and help and assist the real families they're having the most difficult time of it that's wrong mr president i don't think the american people tolerate that they shouldn't and they should be assured that there are many of us who will not tolerate it and it will work and work effectively till we develop the kind of economic