H10818 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE October 3, 2008 

Treasury Secretary incited a panic 

amongst our people and the world, all 

to compel a compliant Congress to deliver upon this demand: ‘‘Main Street 

must bail out Wall Street, or how the 

people will suffer.’’ 

Justly, the people’s House voiced the 

will of the sovereign people and refused. Recalcitrant, the administration 

zealously intensified its attempt to 

shift $700 billion worth of consequences 

from Wall Street onto Main Street and 

pronounced a new ransom dictum: ‘‘No 

bailout for Wall Street, no tax relief 

for Main Street, and how the people 

will suffer.’’ 

To this demand, the Congress 

capitulated. The saddest part of this 

immorality play is how the people will 

suffer regardless, and they know it. 

Working Americans, whose well-deserved tax relief must never be predicated upon rewarding others’ misdeeds, 

understand this self-described, shortterm stabilization bill cannot claim 

with certainty to attain its professed 

intent, let alone solve the new global 

economy’s latest structural dysfunctions. 

Worse, as a multitude of economists 

and entrepreneurs prove, this bailout 

bill will reinflate the bubble by $700 

billion and thereby only delay our day 

of economic reckoning. It cannot be 

otherwise because the bailout bill’s 

central economic construct is patently 

and grossly unfair to Americans. 

Succinctly: Congress will buy ‘‘toxic 

assets’’ with your money that private 

investors won’t buy with their own 

money. What a deal for you. Therefore, 

belying the ludicrous claims, this bailout is designed to save Wall Street, not 

Main Street. It is small wonder Americans rejected this odious proposal, and 

equally unfathomable how Congress ultimately approved it. 

In the aftermath, a deeper truth 

emerges from the ruins. In setting a 

new economic precedent during this 

pregnant moment fraught with consequence, we also face a transcendent 

choice between two competing visions 

for our Nation’s future: Global materialism versus American traditionalism; ‘‘creative destruction’’ versus 

‘‘innovative restoration’’; Wall Street 

versus Main Street. 

In the tumultuous transition from 

our humane American traditions into 

an insane global age, we viscerally 

glean the evolving forces dwarfing our 

mortal power to protect the cherished 

realms of faith, family, community and 

country, while in each heart beats the 

murmur of Yeats: ‘‘Things fall apart; 

the centre cannot hold. Mere anarchy 

is loosed upon the world, the blooddimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere 

the ceremony of innocence is drowned. 

The best lack all conviction, while the 

worst are full of passionate intensity. 

Surely some revelation is at hand.’’ 

From this Congress, Americans 

sought reassurance their representative institutions remained vibrant and 

sufficient to shelter and steer our Nation through the amoral global flood 

tide’s enveloping chaos. We have answered them today. In voting ‘‘yea,’’ 

you have not solely chosen Wall Street 

over Main Street, you have chosen the 

big over the beautiful, the giant over 

the gentle, the great over the good. 

And this decision now shapes our destiny. This being the case, we bailout 

opponents must grudgingly admit a 

tinge of envy for its supporters. Tonight, you will go to sleep praying you 

are right; we will go to sleep praying 

we are wrong, while in each breast the 

murmur returns. 

Now the future beckons from its ominous shadows, and through the impending gloaming we can but glimpse how 

the people will suffer. As breaks that 

nightmarish day, let us arise and combine to transcend the insanity of our 

age, forge a humane global economy, 

and restore our American home to a 

God blessed land of hope, devotion and 

dreams. 

f 

EMERGENCY ECONOMIC 

STABILIZATION PACKAGE 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a 

previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. JACKSON-LEE) 

is recognized for 5 minutes. 

Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. I thank 

the speaker very much, and again for 

his leadership. 

I rise not because I would have wanted this vote today on the Emergency 

Economic Stabilization rescue package 

to be characterized as it has been characterized as ‘‘a vote of the moment’’ 

historic vote because I believe historic 

votes are votes that are absolutely imperative, that no one could foresee, 

that the challenges cannot be handled 

in any other way. 

In this instance, we have been floating money for the past 8 years, ignoring regulation, ignoring the spiraling 

unemployment. And even though the 

motives were good to give opportunities to those who eagerly work every 

day and seek the American Dream, the 

vehicles, the facilities by which we allowed them or gave them the opportunity to seek and to attain those 

dreams was not theirs, it was the financial houses that saw big dollars in 

the eyes, the minds and the hearts of 

hardworking families that simply 

wanted to provide a homework desk for 

their children, their children’s own 

room. So it caught Members, if you 

will, cast about in the suggestion and 

the characterization made by the administration, but made as well by 

media rushing to hysteria. 

Then, of course, in the midst of this 

debate did not come the Senate’s vote, 

which many people will think was oneupsmanship, but really what came as 

startling numbers—the numbers of 

159,000 people who lost their jobs in 

this last month, the highest in 5 years; 

the fact that we needed to extend unemployment, not because people are 

deadbeat, but because they’re out of 

luck, because they need this opportunity; came the number of 759,000 jobs 

that we have lost; came the unfortunate facts that credit crunching was 

going on, not necessarily for the seventh grader who may want to go to college 5 years from now, but for the person who desperately needs to buy a car 

or the small business that desperately 

needs to make their payroll. 

So as a person who voted no because 

I believe the restraints on the Secretary of the Treasury were unfettered, 

the vote that I took on Monday, these 

rising issues drew on my conscience. 

No one had to call me. I wasn’t pushed 

by this candidate or that candidate. It 

was the deliberation that Members individually reflected upon as they listened to constituents, as we, in essence, refuted some of their points or 

agreed with some of those, no to the 

bailout. But I think we have to take 

stands sometimes that are painful; and 

not that anyone should be sympathetic 

to that, that is our job. But this was 

not a historic moment. And the only 

reason I say that is it was the making 

of something that did not have to happen. 

So how do we go forward? Well, I am 

grateful to a leadership that understood that we had to take this particular position. And they did it with 

diplomacy and acumen and smartness. 

So I thank them, all of them, the 

Democratic leadership. But at the 

same time, we have to be vigilant. My 

support came today because I believe 

that we are, if you will, recessed at the 

call of the Chair. If we find that this is 

not helping Mr. and Mrs. America, Mr. 

and Mrs. Main Street, this Congress 

can come back lickity split, and I will 

be there. 

We also recognize that there may be 

unfettered powers by this particular 

Secretary of the Treasury, but we have 

the Constitution, we have our powers 

to stop any use of power that may be 

abusive. 

In addition, we can again question 

the FDIC and make them function, the 

SEC, and make it function, the Federal 

Reserve, and make it function. We 

should continue to emphasize that 

those who engage in criminal improprieties should be subject to criminal 

prosecution. We should press for the 

American man and woman and homeowner the rights of bankruptcy so individually they can go in in a dignified 

way and restructure their loan and 

keep their house. 

We should recognize that section 109 

should be a section that is required. It 

has to do with working out mortgages. 

It says ‘‘encourage it.’’ We want to 

make sure that we prioritize those who 

are holding bad mortgages, who have a 

home they want to save, and make sure 

that the Secretary is working to require them to change. 

And on judicial review, we need to 

make sure that it really works. We 

need to put aside money for those who 

need that to restructure their loans. 

Mr. Speaker, I close by saying yes, I 

voted ‘‘aye,’’ because those who were 

victims needed something to move the 


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October 3, 2008 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H10819 

credit crunch along so that they could 

be helped, and I hope that we have done 

something that makes a difference. 

f 

SUNSET MEMORIAL 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a 

previous order of the House, the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. FRANKS) is 

recognized for 5 minutes. 

Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. Mr. Speaker, I 

stand once again before this House with yet 

another Sunset Memorial. 

It is October 3, 2008, in the land of the free 

and the home of the brave, and before the 

sun set today in America, almost 4,000 more 

defenseless unborn children were killed by 

abortion on demand. That’s just today, Mr. 

Speaker. That’s more than the number of . innocent lives lost on September 11 in this 

country, only it happens every day. 

It has now been exactly 13,038 days since 

the tragedy called Roe v. Wade was first 

handed down. Since then, the very foundation 

of this Nation has been stained by the blood 

of almost 50 million of its own children. Some 

of them, Mr. Speaker, cried and screamed as 

they died, but because it was amniotic fluid 

passing over the vocal cords instead of air, we 

couldn’t hear them. 

All of them had at least four things in common. First, they were each just little babies 

who had done nothing wrong to anyone, and 

each one of them died a nameless and lonely 

death. And each one of their mothers, whether 

she realizes it or not, will never be quite the 

same. And all the gifts that these children 

might have brought to humanity are now lost 

forever. Yet even in the glare of such tragedy, 

this generation still clings to a blind, invincible 

ignorance while history repeats itself and our 

own silent genocide mercilessly annihilates the 

most helpless of all victims, those yet unborn. 

Mr. Speaker, perhaps it’s time for those of 

us in this Chamber to remind ourselves of why 

we are really all here. Thomas Jefferson said, 

‘‘The care of human life and its happiness and 

not its destruction is the chief and only object 

of good government.’’ The phrase in the 14th 

amendment capsulizes our entire Constitution. 

It says, ‘‘No State shall deprive any person of 

life, liberty or property without due process of 

law.’’ Mr. Speaker, protecting the lives of our 

innocent citizens and their constitutional rights 

is why we are all here. 

The bedrock foundation of this Republic is 

the clarion declaration of the self-evident truth 

that all human beings are created equal and 

endowed by their Creator with the unalienable 

rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Every conflict and battle our Nation has 

ever faced can be traced to our commitment 

to this core, self-evident truth. 

It has made us the beacon of hope for the 

entire world. Mr. Speaker, it is who we are. 

And yet today another day has passed, and 

we in this body have failed again to honor that 

foundational commitment. We have failed our 

sworn oath and our God-given responsibility 

as we broke faith with nearly 4,000 more innocent American babies who died today without 

the protection we should have given them. 

So Mr. Speaker, let me conclude this Sunset Memorial in the hope that perhaps someone new who heard it tonight will finally embrace the truth that abortion really does kill little babies; that it hurts mothers in ways that 

we can never express; and that 13,038 days 

spent killing nearly 50 million unborn children 

in America is enough; and that it is time that 

we stood up together again, and remembered 

that we are the same America that rejected 

human slavery and marched into Europe to arrest the Nazi Holocaust; and we are still courageous and compassionate enough to find a 

better way for mothers and their unborn babies than abortion on demand. 

Mr. Speaker, as we consider the plight of 

unborn America tonight, may we each remind 

ourselves that our own days in this sunshine 

of life are also numbered and that all too soon 

each one of us will walk from these Chambers 

for the very last time. 

And if it should be that this Congress is allowed to convene on yet another day to come, 

may that be the day when we finally hear the 

cries of innocent unborn children. May that be 

the day when we find the humanity, the courage, and the will to embrace together our 

human and our constitutional duty to protect 

these, the least of our tiny, little American 

brothers and sisters from this murderous 

scourge upon our Nation called abortion on 

demand. 

It is October 3, 2008, 13,038 days since 

Roe versus Wade first stained the foundation 

of this Nation with the blood of its own children; this in the land of the free and the home 

of the brave. 

f 

WALL STREET BAILOUT 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a 

previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. FOXX) 

is recognized for 5 minutes. 

Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I don’t 

think any vote in the Congress has had 

as much attention in recent years as 

the vote we took on Monday and the 

vote that we took today. I think that is 

good for the American people to have 

had their focus placed on the Congress 

in the midst of all that’s being said 

about the presidential debates, the 

presidential race. In fact, not just because I’m a Member of Congress, but 

because of what Congress does in relationship to the Presidency, I think it is 

important that there be more balance 

in the focus on our branches of government. I think there is not enough 

about what happens in Congress, and I 

hope that what happened this week 

will cause more people to pay attention 

because every day that we pass a bill, 

we have an impact on people’s lives, 

and folks can either be proactive or reactive to what we do. 

But I think the vote that we took 

Monday and the vote that we took 

today was one that everyone—I know 

in my conference, in the Republican 

Conference—took extremely seriously. 

And I have confidence that everyone 

who cast a vote made a careful decision 

based on their conscience, and that’s 

the way it should be for every vote 

that we take. 

But now that this bill has passed the 

Congress, we must work together in a 

bipartisan way to hold those accountable who got us into this mess. We had 

many groups this week that worked in 

a bipartisan way to try to effect this 

bill. Unfortunately, we were not given 

a chance to do that because the process 

promised to us by the Democratic majority has never materialized. We were 

promised open rules, we were promised 

debate, we were promised the ability to 

offer amendments, that was not allowed today, that was not allowed 

Monday. We could have made a very 

bad bill better had we had that opportunity. 

I do believe that my Republican colleagues who worked on this bill got 

some good things into the bill, but it 

was still not a good bill, in my opinion. 

We have reckless financial institutions, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and 

those others who are at fault must be 

held accountable, and we must have 

meaningful reforms so we don’t find 

ourselves in this situation again. 

The problem we’re facing now began 

in the 1990s, when the Federal Government decided to put pressure on mortgage lenders to make loans to high-risk 

borrowers in order to increase homeownership in America. Increased homeownership is a noble goal and a piece of 

the American dream, but pushing 

homeownership for people who could 

not afford the payments that come 

with homeownership was a fatally 

flawed approach. This created a new 

market for lenders who soon rushed to 

make heaps of money by inducing people who could only afford small houses 

to buy large ones instead. 

b 1515 

In other words, this crisis has its 

roots in a failed government botching 

an attempt to do something good. This 

is not a crisis of the market. Capitalism works. Our market system 

works. This is a failure of our government. 

Congress must address this underlying problem, in the subprime lending 

glut that stemmed from Fannie and 

Freddie’s reckless underwriting of 

subprime lending. Both of these government-sponsored enterprises were 

ringleaders in the subprime circus, 

heading up the move into risky lending 

and even backing much of the financial 

industry’s shaky mortgage loans. By 

backing the excesses of subprime lending, Fannie and Freddie fed the monster that today threatens our economic 

strength. 

And nothing in the bill that was just 

passed does anything about that, and 

that’s one of the many flaws of the bill. 

And today in Congressional Quarterly, 

we read that there is not the oversight 

that we need to have, and we need that 

oversight for this legislation. 

Mr. Speaker, I share the belief of my 

predecessor here: I go to sleep tonight 

praying that those of us who opposed 

this bill were wrong and those who supported it were right. 

f 

THE BAILOUT BILL 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a 

previous order of the House, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. GOHMERT) is 

recognized for 5 minutes. 


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