October 2, 2008 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H10647 

DOING NOTHING IS 

UNACCEPTABLE 

(Mr. WILSON of South Carolina 

asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.) 

Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. 

Speaker, the economic recovery bill we 

have before us does not include every 

free market idea I believe would improve it. But when the retirement savings of hardworking Americans are 

threatened, when businesses start to 

fail, jobs begin to dry up, or jobs of 

American taxpayers are in danger, it is 

clear that the price of doing nothing 

far exceeds the price of what we are 

considering. 

Small businesses and families are the 

heart of this bill. They did not cook 

the books or make bad financial decisions. They had faith in the free market and worked hard for their success. 

This bill is an imperfect option in a 

tragic situation, but it protects jobs 

and taxpayers. It provides transparency and oversight to the actions of 

the Treasury. It provides free market 

alternatives to spending tax dollars, 

like insurance, loans, and an increase 

in the FDIC cap. And it helps keep taxpayers from paying an even higher 

price for the misdeeds of Wall Street. 

In conclusion, God bless our troops, 

and we will never forget September the 

11th. 

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BAD BETS MADE BY WALL 

STREET 

(Mr. DEFAZIO asked and was given 

permission to address the House for 1 

minute.) 

Mr. DEFAZIO. The legislation the 

House will take up tomorrow that was 

jammed through the Senate last night 

will do nothing for the weakening fundamentals in the United States. It isn’t 

going to help with declining housing 

prices, foreclosures, job loss, income 

disparity, or lack of health care. None 

of those things will be addressed. It 

doesn’t address the crumbling infrastructure. It is not aimed at the real 

economy. It is aimed at the fraud, the 

speculative activity and the bad bets 

made by Wall Street executives. 

Now they purport this is necessary to 

free up credit, and some are going to 

say I am voting for the bill because it 

lifts the FDIC limit. The administration can do that without spending $700 

billion. They are going to say I’m doing 

it because it changed the mark-to-market rules. Those two things are critical 

to my banks at home in Oregon, but 

you can do that without spending $700 

billion with a stroke of the pen. 

It leaves out one other critical measure, the certificate’s net worth that it 

would use for the savings and loan. 

That would take legislation, and that 

is not in here. 

We are going to spend $700 billion to 

solve a problem that could perhaps be 

resolved for no cost to the American 

taxpayer. If we are going to borrow 

money, borrow it to invest in America’s Main Street, not Wall Street. 

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ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE SPEAKER 

PRO TEMPORE 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members should heed the gavel. 

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DON’T BREAK THE AMERICAN 

TAXPAYER 

(Mr. POE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 

minute.) 

Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, the bill to bail 

out the elite financial industry in New 

York that caused this mess failed this 

House, but our Senate colleagues are 

sending us a new bill, four times longer 

than the 100-page bill rejected by us. 

The bill to stabilize the financial industry is now packed with squeaky 

pork. One would ask, what does pork 

have to do with the financial industry? 

Well, nothing of course. But the Senate 

bill with the piglets will help these entities: new tax earmarks for film and 

TV production; litigants in the Exxon 

Valdez incident; wooden arrows used by 

school children. 

There are more tax earmarks: auto 

racing tracks; Indian tribes; wool research; and get this one, Virgin Islands 

and Puerto Rican rum. I am not making this up. There are more breaks for 

the railroads and the mining industry. 

None of these solve our banking and financial crisis. Why are they in this 

bill? 

The House needs to deal with this financial situation to make sure that 

those responsible are held accountable 

and that the American taxpayers 

aren’t forced to go broke paying for 

this financial rescue. 

And that’s just the way it is. 

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RIGHT DEAL, NOT FAST DEAL 

(Ms. KAPTUR asked and was given 

permission to address the House for 1 

minute.) 

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, as the 

House approaches a vote on the Senate’s Wall Street bailout bill, I urge 

caution to my colleagues. We need regular order, not panic. We want the 

right deal, not a fast deal. There is a 

better way to address the credit crunch 

facing our banks than taxpayers printing money for Wall Street’s bad actions. We must use the FDIC as we did 

in the 1980s to resolve thousands of 

problem institutions. In those days, we 

had over $100 billion worth of resolutions that cost but $1.8 billion to the 

insurance fund, not the taxpayer. 

We need to have the Securities and 

Exchange Commission work with our 

banks on how they account for the real 

estate on their books not with arbitrary indexes and measures, but rather 

to true value. That would unlock billions of dollars, $500 billion in the system today, and would ease interbank 

lending. 

Let’s use the right medicine, not a 

Band-aid through which a hemorrhage 

will soon break as our deficit explodes 

even more and the value of the dollar 

declines further. Let’s have the wisdom 

and courage to do what’s right. 

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AMERICAN JOBS AND ECONOMY 

AT RISK 

(Mr. CAMPBELL of California asked 

and was given permission to address 

the House for 1 minute and to revise 

and extend his remarks.) 

Mr. CAMPBELL of California. Mr. 

Speaker, on Monday afternoon after 

this House rejected and defeated the 

economic recovery bill, Americans lost 

over $1 trillion in the stock market. 

They lost over $1 trillion in their savings and in their investment and in 

their retirement accounts. If we do not 

act, that will be just the beginning. 

Why, they would have been better off if 

we had taken the $700 billion in that 

bill and thrown it in the Potomac. But 

that is not what this bill will do. 

This bill takes that $700 billion and 

buys assets which have three different 

backstops to make sure that the taxpayers not only get all of their money 

back, but could perhaps actually make 

a profit. 

Mr. Speaker, American jobs are at 

risk, the economy is at risk, their retirements are at risk. We must act. I 

hope we follow the Senate’s lead tomorrow and pass this bill. 

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ECONOMY STRUGGLING 

(Mr. PERLMUTTER asked and was 

given permission to address the House 

for 1 minute.) 

Mr. PERLMUTTER. Mr. Speaker, 

third-quarter data released yesterday 

highlighted the decrease in home values in 24 out of 25 metropolitan areas, 

and jobless claims rose to a 7-year 

high. Our economy is struggling, and 

people across America are having trouble selling their homes and buying inventory for their businesses. 

While no one likes the situation we 

are in, we must do what we can to help 

America and its families. So I support 

the financial legislation which has 

been proposed and is coming to us from 

the Senate. 

I encourage the Treasury to work 

through the Small Business Administration, the Farm Credit Administration, and the Federal Home Loan Bank 

Board so credit flows to people living 

in Colorado and across the country. 

This is one of the most important 

pieces of economic legislation we have 

had in decades. And, clearly, the fluctuations in the markets over the past 

few days and the credit crisis we face 

must demonstrate we cannot give up 

on a solution. I believe this is a plan 

that will help stabilize the market and 

protects taxpayers, and I support it. 

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FREE MARKET, NOT SPREE 

MARKET 

(Mr. KUCINICH asked and was given 

permission to address the House for 1 


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