October 2, 2008 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H10687 

AN ANALYSIS OF THE EMERGENCY ECONOMIC STABILIZATION ACT OF 2008 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under 

the Speaker’s announced policy of January 18, 2007, the gentleman from Ohio 

(Mr. KUCINICH) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority 

leader. 

Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker and 

Members of the House, tomorrow this 

House of Representatives will take a 

momentous vote. It is a vote which will 

determine whether or not this House 

will be able to meet the needs of millions of homeowners who are facing 

foreclosure or whether or not we are 

simply going to go along with a $700 

billion bailout to America’s banks and 

to Wall Street, which has searched that 

somehow these benefits are going to 

trickle down. 

We know that the Senate took action 

to pass its own version of the bill, and 

we in turn will have the opportunity to 

vote on that Senate version. I want to 

share with my colleagues an analysis 

of the Senate bill so that when we 

come to vote on it, we know exactly 

what this bill will not do. 

In the bill that will be presented to 

the Congress, there are no stronger 

protections for homeowners and no 

changes in the language to ensure that 

the Secretary has the authority to 

compel mortgage services to modify 

the terms of mortgages. Now, this is 

significant because, as many economists agree, the central focus of the 

unraveling of the economy has been 

with people not being able to pay their 

mortgages for a variety of reasons. And 

when that happens in millions of 

homes, that has a percolating effect. It 

affects the banks and it affects Wall 

Street. You would think that given the 

fact that this is the underlying problem that we would be considering a bill 

that would directly address dealing 

with the terms of the mortgages. But 

this bill doesn’t do that. 

Let me tell you why this becomes 

very significant. I come from Cleveland, Ohio, a city which has been at the 

epicenter of the subprime mortgage 

crisis. But as we know, with the 

subprime mortgage crisis comes an entire range of bankruptcies, but also 

other properties start to get pulled 

under in terms of their value. 

There is a neighborhood in my district called Forest City Park, Mr. 

Speaker. It is an area that I’m quite familiar with because my political career, which goes back 41 years, has had 

a lot to do with Forest City Park. It’s 

a community where they had a very 

long-lasting civic association that 

came together in support of each other 

keeping up their community and in 

property. People met to improve playgrounds, to improve streets, to improve 

parks and properties. And people came 

together in a kind of sense of joy that 

people in communities have when they 

share a common goal and a common interest. And Forest City Park was one 

of those neighborhoods, like many 

neighborhoods across this country, 

where people took pride in their property, where people spent their whole 

lives trying to improve their property, 

and their property was their biggest investment. 

Mr. Speaker, if you were to come 

with me to the Forest City Park area, 

there are still homes that are being 

kept up. There are still people who 

sweep their doorstep every morning 

and who even clean the streets on their 

own. But the good part of the neighborhood has been inundated and caught up 

in this subprime mortgage crisis. 

House after house after house has gone 

into foreclosure. House after house 

after house is being boarded up. Fires 

are starting in neighborhoods, taking 

up some of these properties that were 

once the pride of the community. 

Now, we know how this subprime 

mortgage crisis started. We know it 

started with speculation on Wall Street 

where they created derivatives that 

came from groups of mortgage-backed 

securities. We know that property values were inflated deliberately, that 

people desperate for a home were told 

that they can get their home without 

any documentation, just sign on the 

dotted line. The value of it was inflated 

so Wall Street firms could have inflated assets on their books and then 

keep trading and trading and trading 

them, and then when property values 

started to drop, when there was an economic slowdown, people couldn’t pay 

their mortgages, everything became 

unraveled. How many people’s dreams 

were destroyed? Well, in Forest City 

Park there were many dreams destroyed. There were many people who 

saw a life’s work disappear because of 

the lack of regulation. 

And today they and millions of 

Americans like them look to Washington to try to say what are we going 

to do to help people who, through no 

fault of their own, are caught up in a 

colossal economic machine which has 

ground to a halt, putting its full physical pressure on the people at the great 

margins of our society and people in 

the middle as well? Millions of homeowners are looking to us. And yet we 

come up with a bailout that doesn’t 

offer the homeowners anything. Over 

300 pages of tax cuts and tax breaks 

that have absolutely nothing to do 

with the housing crisis at the center of 

this financial storm. 

My colleague Mr. POE earlier in the 

day outlined some of the tax breaks: 

tax breaks for litigants in the Exxon 

Valdez incident, wooden arrows used by 

school children, tax breaks and earmarks for auto racing tracks, wool research, the Virgin Islands and rum. 

Now, maybe we could argue that some 

of those breaks in and of themselves 

ought to be considered. But why would 

they be in a bailout bill? The Senate 

expects us to consider and pass a bill 

we have already defeated merely because they have added millions of dollars of tax breaks that will strain the 

Federal budget even more. 

So let me recap. We are coming back 

with a bill that has no stronger protection for homeowners, no changes in the 

language to ensure that the Secretary 

has the authority to compel mortgage 

servicers to modify the terms of mortgages, over 300 pages of tax cuts and 

tax breaks that have absolutely nothing to do with the housing crisis at the 

center of the storm, and, get this, no 

stronger regulatory changes to fix the 

circumstances that allowed this to 

happen. 

How did it come to be that we could 

see this condition occur where speculation ran wild on Wall Street and yet 

the very agencies that ought to be 

watching it have had nothing to do 

with stopping it? The cop at the Securities and Exchange Commission 

walked off the beat, did not restrain 

firms that they knew were speculating 

with derivatives to a factor of 30 and 40 

times. How could this happen? How 

could the Federal Reserve, knowing 

that banks were up to their ears in 

these financial instruments, not look 

to see how that might threaten the underlying financial stability of a bank? 

They walked off the beat. And so it 

comes to this Congress to decide what 

to do. 

The thing about this that I think is 

the most vexing is this condition: that 

our government, which is already trillions of dollars in debt, in effect is 

going to have to borrow $700 billion 

from the banks, with interest, to give 

the banks a $700 billion bailout. Where 

are we going to get the money? We’re 

not cutting $700 billion out of the budget; we’re going to borrow the money. 

And when we borrow the money to give 

to the banks, the banks in return will 

give us their toxic debts. 

We are being told this is the only 

way we can solve this financial crisis. 

Whom are we solving this crisis for? 

Are we solving it for homeowners? Obviously not. We’re solving it for speculators. We’re solving it for foreign investors because what we find out is 

that, as Brad Sherman has pointed out, 

hundreds of billions of dollars in this 

bailout will be used to buy toxic assets 

currently held by foreign investors. 

How did we get to this situation? 

Under this bill the administration 

can buy any asset from any financial 

institution for any price. For those of 

you who are thinking this is going to 

bail out U.S. businesses, think again. 

We can have banks from all over the 

world scouring, scouring their financial 

ledgers, looking at their worst debts, 

and then they’re going to send them 

over to the United States, and then the 

taxpayers of the United States are 

going to pay for them. 

This bill should have had a provision 

saying that the Treasury can only buy 

assets proven to come from an American investor. That way it’s about 

America. This bill should have something about taking care of America 

first. 


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We are not even taking care of America’s investors first. We are not even 

taking care of America’s speculators 

first. We are not taking care of America’s homeowners first. This is about 

foreign investors. Is our economy so 

weak that we can’t stand up, solve our 

problems here at home, or is it that we 

are so heavily leveraged, that foreign 

markets have such control over us, 

that they can force this Congress to 

pass a bill to help bail them out? 

Foreclosures are devastating our 

communities. People are losing their 

jobs. The price of necessities is skyrocketing. This legislation, just like 

the one that we defeated a few days 

ago, will do nothing to solve the problems plaguing American families or 

help them to get out from under the 

oppressive debt that they have been 

forced to take on. 

We have demanded language in the 

legislation that would empower the 

Treasury to compel mortgage servicers 

to rework the terms of mortgage loans 

so homeowners could avoid foreclosure. 

Owning a home is at the center of the 

American Dream. The American Dream 

is threatened here. The American 

Dream is under attack. The American 

Dream needs to be protected. The 

American Dream needs to be restored. 

The American Dream needs to get 

some life in it from this House of Representatives. Yet, the American Dream 

is going to have to wait another day. 

We are told that if this passes, the 

market may go up. The market went 

up 485 points a day after we defeated it. 

But we are told that if this passes, the 

market may go up. 

Let me tell you what is not going to 

go up. The hopes of America’s homeowners. Because nothing is done for 

them in this bill. So who’s going to tell 

the widow whose husband may have 

worked a lifetime to assure them a 

piece of property, which got into trouble because maybe she did a reverse 

mortgage, who’s going to tell her that 

there’s nothing in this bill for her? 

Who’s going to tell the laborer, who 

has worked day in and day out, working himself and his fingers to the bone, 

and where he is behind in his mortgage 

payments, and the bank is telling him, 

No, you can’t give me $500. I want the 

whole $1,200 or we are going to go into 

foreclosure. Who’s going to tell them 

that there’s nothing for him in this 

bill? 

This is a sad day in our Republic 

when we see the most pressing needs of 

the American people sacrificed to the 

speculators on Wall Street. And, of 

course, there is another dimension to 

this debate, and that other dimension 

deals with the free-market economy. 

What in the world are we doing here, 

where we are basically interfering in 

the market with a $700 billion investment, and suddenly we are telling all 

these speculators, Don’t worry about 

it. The government is going to use the 

American tax dollars to ensure your 

risk. 

The whole basis of the market, as all 

of us know, has to do with risk. You invest; it is a risk. There’s nothing guaranteed. And so we are telling people 

who are in the market, particularly 

those who are in the market for billions of dollars, Go ahead and take a 

risk. Uncle Sam will back you up. Well, 

if we can tell that to the speculators, 

why can’t we tell that to America’s 

homeowners when they are not betting. 

If someone goes to Las Vegas and 

bets the ranch, and loses the ranch, the 

casino didn’t give them a new ranch. 

Speculators bet the ranch. And we are 

going to help restore their position 

with this legislation. 

We are told there’s a crisis in liquidity. We have been told by Bill Isaac, 

the former head of the Federal Deposit 

Insurance Corporation, that it’s not 

the liquidity problem that is said to 

exist. That in fact banks don’t want to 

loan to each other because of this psychology that is going on in the marketplace. They are afraid that other banks 

are going to go down. This is the 

United States of America. We should 

have the power to deal with this. 

Ireland. Ireland. Ireland, the historic 

home of my mother’s side of the family. Ireland figured out that they put 

the full faith and credit of Ireland behind the bank deposits, and they stabilized their economy. No one is losing 

any money. 

We need innovative approaches here. 

We don’t have them. What we have is a 

reward for speculation. The free-market economy, that whole idea is being 

shredded with this hand of the government moving in. 

Now, people will say, Well, what is 

your plan? My plan is this. Number 

one. That we must have legislation 

that has an approach of dealing with 

the problem at its base. Helping the 

millions of homeowners. You help the 

many and the few will benefit. You 

help the few and the many will not 

benefit. We all know this. Trickle 

never gets down. 

We also know this. If we can introduce a bill that can say that we can 

give Treasury or the FHA the ability 

to buy a controlling interest in these 

mortgage-backed securities, and work 

out something for the homeowners, we 

can have a whole new condition where 

the government goes to work for the 

homeowners of America. 

Franklin Roosevelt understood the 

importance of coming forward with the 

New Deal plan that helped resurrect 

this country’s economy. We can solve 

this problem of the homeowners. It 

could be that we create a new Homeownership Loan Corporation. But 

whatever it is, we have the ability to 

do it. 

I am here to offer what I call a recovery plan for Main Street. And here’s 

how we can prime the pump of this 

economy. We can prime the pump of 

the economy, number one, with health 

care for all. Insurance companies make 

money not providing health care. As 

the coauthor of H.R. 676, a universal, 

single-payer, not-for-profit health care 

system, Medicare for All, I understand 

that millions of Americans want health 

care that is accessible and affordable. 

Medicare for All will help businesses, 

large and small; will create jobs, as 

well as save the jobs of thousands of 

people, including those of doctors, 

nurses, and health care workers, who 

are currently leaving medicine because 

it is run by insurance companies. 

One dollar out of every $3 of the $2.4 

trillion spent annually in America for 

health care goes to the insurance companies. If we take that money, $800 billion in unproductive, wasteful spending, and put it directly into care, we 

will have enough money to cover everyone. We are already paying for 

Medicare for all, but not receiving it. 

This is the way you get an economy 

going. This is the way you move money 

in the economy. Not only help people 

restore their homes, but also help people get the health care that they need. 

Another way that you start to move 

money in the economy is through a 

prescription benefit for seniors. H.R. 

6800 is the MEDS Act, which provides a 

fully paid prescription drug benefit 

under Medicare for all seniors. I wrote 

this bill to help alleviate the economic 

pressure that comes from the high cost 

of prescription drugs. 

We can pay for it by letting the government negotiate drug prices with the 

pharmaceutical companies the same 

way that they do with the Veterans’ 

Administration. We can also do it—pay 

for it with reimportation. 

The third thing we can do that can 

help the American economy is to stop 

the oil companies from price gouging. I 

was one of the first ones to step up and 

challenge the corrupt price gouging 

and market speculation of the oil companies by proposing a windfall profits 

tax on oil and natural gas companies, 

with revenues put into tax credits for 

the purchase of fuel-efficient American-made cars. 

However, it may be that nationalization is the only way to put an end to 

the oil companies’ sharp practices. I 

mean, after all, we are nationalizing 

one of the largest insurance companies, 

with AIG. We are helping to nationalize the stock market and a lot of 

banks. Why don’t we go for the gold, 

where the big money is, and nationalize the oil companies and then take 

the profits and give it back to the people so we can take a whole new direction in energy and not be strapped any 

more by these oil companies. 

The fourth policy that I believe will 

help with the Main Street recovery 

plan deals with protecting the American homestead. As chairman of the 

Domestic Policy Oversight Subcommittee, I am working to protect 

people’s basic right to have a roof over 

their head, whether as an owner or 

renter. It was my subcommittee which 

investigated and exposed the manipulation of mortgage markets. I am working to craft a new Federal policy so 

that neighborhoods with the highest 


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October 2, 2008 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H10689 

number of foreclosures can get the 

most help. 

The fifth thing we can do to restore 

our economy is to have a program of 

Jobs for All. We know what Franklin 

Roosevelt did, the old New Deal economics, jobs for all, a new WPA program. That Jobs for All program, with 

the cosponsorship of Congressman 

LATOURETTE is a bipartisan New Dealtype jobs program that rebuilds America’s infrastructure. It would create 

millions of good-paying new jobs, rebuilding our roads, bridges, water systems, and sewer systems. 

The sixth thing in a plan to restore 

the American economy—there’s an alternative to this bailout—is to have an 

American manufacturing policy. I am 

drafting legislation calling for an 

American Manufacturing Policy Act 

that, for the first time, will state that 

the maintenance of steel, automotive, 

and aerospace, is vital to our national 

economic security, and must be maintained through an integrated publicprivate rebuilding of our roads, bridges, 

and water systems. 

I am calling for a new plan for Main 

Street under a Works Green Administration. It’s the WGA turned into an 

environmental program where we focus 

on restoring the planet. This is one in 

which the government creates millions 

of jobs by incentivizing the design, the 

engineering, manufacturing, distribution, and maintenance of millions of 

wind and solar microtechnologies for 

millions of homes and businesses, dramatically lowering energy cost and reducing our dependence on oil. 

We need a new trade policy, and that 

is the eighth plank in a plan that restores Main Street. And that is what 

we should be talking about here. But 

that is not what the bailout does. A 

plan that restores Main Street says we 

have to have fair trade. It must mean 

the end of NAFTA. This country has 

lost millions of good-paying jobs, and 

more jobs have been outsourced. 

We must have education for all. That 

is the ninth plank. That is why I introduced H.R. 4060, a universal prekindergarten program to ensure that all children ages 3 to 5 have access to full 

quality day care. 

We have to protect pensions. I am 

working to change bankruptcy laws so 

pensioners’ claims will be first ahead of 

the banks, and that corporate executives who misuse pension workers’ 

funds are subject to criminal penalties. 

We have to strengthen the Pension 

Benefit Guarantee Board. 

Before I give the final six points in 

this, Mr. Speaker, and yield to my 

friend, Mr. SHERMAN, I’d like to ask the 

Speaker how much time is left. 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Ohio has 35 minutes. 

Mr. KUCINICH. I am going to yield 5 

more minutes to myself, and then go to 

my good friend, Mr. SHERMAN, for as 

much time as he may consume. 

b 1945 

Let it be said that there are other options here to stimulating the American 

economy. I just named 10 different 

points, and I am going to name an 11th. 

We have to protect Social Security. 

From my first moments in Congress 

when I exposed Wall Street’s efforts to 

privatize Social Security and attacked 

it in our own Democratic Caucus when 

privatization was being proposed, I 

have watched this effort at times to 

privatize Social Security. 

Imagine if we had privatized Social 

Security. Imagine what happens when 

the market goes down and people begin 

to lose the only guarantee in some 

cases anyone has. We have to protect 

Social Security. It is rock solid 

through the year 2032 without any 

changes whatsoever. Protecting Social 

Security must be part of a plan to keep 

Main Street solid. 

We have to protect bank deposits. It 

is a positive development that now people are talking about insuring a quarter of a million dollars of bank deposits 

through the FDIC. But the fact of the 

matter is, you can do that without 

being in a bailout bill. 

Protecting investors. We need to 

bring back strong regulation to Wall 

Street. As chairman of domestic policy, I challenge the Wall Street hedge 

fund speculators who have been a 

threat to all investors, and I intend to 

keep active watch on the machinations 

of Wall Street. 

We need a new national security policy called ‘‘Strength Through Peace.’’ I 

helped lead the effort against the Iraq 

war. We forget about the Iraq war in 

this debate often, but the truth of the 

matter is that war is going to cost the 

American people anywhere between $3 

trillion and $5 trillion and as many 

lives as have been lost by our soldiers 

and as many lives as have been lost by 

innocent Iraqis. 

We need a new direction in America. 

We have to end the war and bring our 

troops home. We must engage in diplomacy. We have to reduce the military 

budget and stop these outrageous cost 

overruns by firms like Halliburton. 

We have to work so there is safety in 

America, safe neighborhoods, safe 

homes. I introduced a bill, H.R. 808, 

which creates a comprehensive plan to 

deal with the issues of violence in 

American society; domestic violence, 

spousal abuse, child abuse, violence in 

the school, racial violence, gang violence, gun violence, that exact a social 

and economic toll on America. 

We can work our way through these 

dilemmas. This is America. We have 

unlimited ability to solve our problems 

and to meet challenges. But we have to 

realize that what we have here is not 

simply an economic challenge, it is a 

spiritual challenge. 

Today we are being challenged by 

greed. Greed will bring down our Nation if we don’t stand up for those 

whose prime values have been fairness, 

frugality and faithfulness. 

We must remember who we are as 

Americans. We can begin to strengthen 

ourselves by defeating this bill. Where 

people are being threatened, let us rise 

up with courage. Where people are 

being told that there is no other path, 

let us provide alternatives. And let us 

reclaim the Nation that we love. 

Standing above us, rising above us is 

an American eagle, a beautiful American eagle at the canopy of this House. 

This eagle, which spreads itself over 

the fullness of this Congress, has a left 

wing and a right wing. That American 

eagle needs two wings to fly. That 

American eagle was able to soar a few 

days ago, and hopefully it will soar 

again tomorrow. 

The motto under that eagle, E. 

Pluribus Unum, out of many we are 

one. Let us be one for the mass of 

Americans. Let us be one for the homeowners. Let us be one for those who 

want jobs. Let us be one for those who 

want health care. Let us be one for 

those who want a country they can call 

their own, the people of the United 

States of America. 

1. Health Care for All: Insurance companies 

make money not providing health care. As the 

co-author of H.R. 676, a universal, singlepayer, not-for-profit health care system, Medicare for All, I understand millions of Americans 

want health care that is accessible and affordable. 

Medicare for All will help businesses large 

and small, create jobs as well as save the 

jobs of thousands of people including those of 

doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers 

who are currently leaving medicine because it 

is run by the insurance companies. $1 in 

every 3 dollars of the $2.4 trillion spent annually in America for health care goes to the insurance companies. If we take that money 

($800 billion in unproductive wasteful spending) and put it directly into care, we will have 

enough money to cover everyone. We are already paying for Medicare for all, but not receiving it. H.R. 676 changes that. 

2. Prescription Drug Benefit for Seniors: 

H.R. 6800 is the MEDS Act, which provides a 

fully paid prescription drug benefit, under 

Medicare, for all seniors. I wrote this bill to 

help alleviate the economic pressure that 

comes from the high cost of prescription 

drugs. We can pay for it by letting the government negotiate drug prices with the pharmaceutical companies as well as by permitting 

re-importation. 

3. Stop the Oil Companies’ Price Gouging: 

As you know, I was the first one to step up to 

challenge of the corrupt price gouging and 

market speculation of the oil companies by 

proposing a windfall profits tax, on oil and natural gas companies. with revenues put into tax 

credits for the purchase of fuel-efficient American-made cars, However, it may be that nationalization is the only way to put an end to 

the oil companies’ sharp practices. 

4. Protecting the American Homestead: As 

Chairman of the Domestic Policy Oversight 

Subcommittee, I am working to protect your 

basic right to have a roof over your head, 

whether as an owner or renter. I have Investigated and helped to expose the manipulation 

of mortgage markets, and I am crafting a new 

federal policy so that neighborhoods with the 

highest number of foreclosures get the most 

help. 

5. Jobs for All: Congressman LATOURETTE

and I have co-authored the bi-partisan New 


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H10690 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE October 2, 2008 

Deal-type jobs program, H.R. 3400, ‘‘Rebuilding America’s Infrastructure.’’ It will create millions of good-paying new jobs rebuilding our 

roads, bridges, water systems and sewer systems. 

6. American Manufacturing Policy: I am 

drafting the American Manufacturing Policy 

Act, which for the first time, will state that the 

maintenance of U.S. steel, automotive, and 

aerospace industries are vital to our national 

economic security and must be maintained 

through integrated public-private cooperation, 

new trade policies, and investment. 

7. Works Green Administration: I am also 

drafting plans for a green New Deal jobs program, in which the govemment creates millions of jobs by incentivizing the design, engineering, manufacturing, distribution and maintenance of millions of wind and solar microtechnologies for millions of homes and businesses, dramatically lowering energy costs 

and reducing our dependence on oil. 

8. Fair Trade: The U.S. has lost millions of 

good-paying jobs, and more jobs have been 

out-sourced. As you know, I have helped to 

lead the way in opposition to trade giveaways. 

I strongly urge repeal of NAFTA. We must include workers’ rights, human rights and environmental quality principles in all trade pacts. 

We must also protect the Great Lakes’ water 

resources from the reach of multi-national corporations. 

9. Education for All: I know families need 

help with the rising cost of day care. That is 

why I introduced H.R. 4060. a universal prekindergarten program to ensure that all children ages 3–5 have access to full-day, quality 

day care. 

10. Protecting Pensions: I am working to 

change bankruptcy laws so pensioners’ claims 

will be first, ahead of banks, and that corporate executives who misuse workers’ pension funds are subject to criminal penalties. I 

want to fully fund the Pension Benefit Guarantee Board. 

11. Social Security: From my first moments 

in Congress, I have exposed Wall Street’s efforts to privatize Social Security and attacked 

it in the Democratic Caucus when it was being 

proposed. Can you imagine where seniors 

would be today if Social Security had been 

turned over to the stock market? Social Security is solid through 2032 without any changes. 

12. Protect Bank Deposits: I will work to 

make sure the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, FDIC, has sufficient funds to provide 

for insurance of deposits up to $200,000 at all 

banks and savings and loans. This is an urgent matter since so many banks are said to 

be vulnerable. 

13. Protect Investors: Bring back strong regulation to Wall Street. As Chairman of the Domestic Policy Subcommittee, I challenged the 

Wall Street hedge fund speculators as a threat 

to small Investors. I intend to keep active 

watch over the machinations on Wall Street. 

14. Strength through Peace: You’ll remember when I led the effort against the ill-conceived Iraq war, which has now cost more 

than 4.100 U.S. soldiers’ lives, cost U.S. taxpayers between $3 trillion and $5 trillion, and 

resulted in the deaths of more than a million 

Iraqis. We must bring our troops home and 

end the war. We must engage in diplomacy. 

We must reduce the military budget, and we 

must stop outrageous cost overruns by the 

likes of Halliburton. 

16. Safety in America: I am proud of my 

work for peace. In July 2001, I introduced a 

bill, which today is H.R. 808, that for the first 

time creates a comprehensive plan to deal 

with the issues of violence in American society, particularly domestic violence, spousal 

abuse, child abuse, gang violence, gun violence, racial violence, and violence against 

gays by establishing a Cabinet-level Department of Peace and Restorative Justice. This 

proposal has sparked a national movement 

and when implemented will save taxpayers 

millions of dollars. 

16. Monetary Policy: It is long past the time 

that we looked at the implications of our debt 

based monetary system, the privatization of 

money created by the 1913 Federal Reserve 

Act. the banks fractional reserve system and 

our debt-based economic system. Unless we 

have dramatic reform of monetary policy, the 

entire economic system will continue to accelerate wealth upwards. I am currently working 

on drafting legislation for an ‘American Monetary Act’ to address these and other issues in 

order to protect the economic well-being of 

America. 

I yield to my friend from California, 

who has done such a wonderful job in 

organizing what is called the Skeptics 

Caucus, at a time where skepticism is 

called for. Through enlightened articulation of facts, he has come forward, as 

has my good friend and colleague from 

Ohio, Representative MARCY KAPTUR, 

who has courageously stood here day in 

and day out challenging this corrupt 

bailout. 

I yield to my friends, and I thank you 

for your service to America and for 

your service to your communities. 

f 

A SKEPTICAL VIEW OF THE WALL 

STREET BAILOUT 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under 

the Speaker’s announced policy of January 18, 2007, the gentleman from California (Mr. SHERMAN) is recognized for 

the remainder of the time. 

Mr. SHERMAN. I thank the Chair. I 

have got 30 minutes, and I will share 

some with the gentlewoman from Ohio 

in just a second to describe the flaws 

with this bill. Believe it or not, 30 minutes is not long enough. But first I 

want to mention about the calls that 

are coming into our office. 

The calls used to be from people 

around the country. Now Wall Street 

firms have their employees unplugging 

those headsets to call investors and instead calling Members of Congress. So 

now the calls coming in to at least my 

office have shifted from 20–1 against 

this bailout package for Wall Street, 

down to about 3–1 or 4–1 against this 

bailout. 

I ask my colleagues not to be confused. Edit out some of those calls that 

are coming to you from folks who are 

being paid to make the call, and you 

will realize the country remains absolutely overwhelmingly opposed to this 

Wall Street bailout bill. 

I thank again the gentleman from 

Ohio, and I will make a few more 

points. 

We had a meeting of the Skeptics 

Caucus, which is now a bipartisan 

Skeptics Caucus, where we heard from 

Bill Isaac. Mr. Isaac was Chair of the 

FDIC, having first been appointed to 

that board by President Carter and 

then appointed by Reagan. You don’t 

find very many people who have support on both sides of the aisle like 

that. 

Bill Isaac led the FDIC in solving the 

1981 crisis, which was probably worse 

than the crisis that we have now. He 

used the emergency powers of the 

FDIC. He was able to solve that credit 

crisis without significant cost to the 

taxpayer. 

We ought to hear from Bill Isaac. 

And I look forward to us defeating this 

bill tomorrow so we can have hearings 

and all my colleagues, not just those 

who came to the Skeptics Caucus, can 

hear from Mr. Isaac and so many others, because the starting point is this 

testimony that we didn’t hear before 

any hearing, because there have been 

no hearings on this bill, but rather a 

letter sent to Members of Congress by 

hundreds of eminent economists, including three Nobel Laureates. And 

they said, we ask Congress not to rush, 

to hold appropriate hearings, and to 

carefully consider the right course of 

action. 

So, Nobel Laureates, economists eminent in their field, say the sky will not 

fall if we take some time. The only way 

to pass this bill is to keep up the panic. 

The panic has to be calmed down. We 

have got a few days. We have got a 

week. We have got 10 days, and that is 

more than enough time to write a 

much better bill. 

But let me summarize some of the 

other things that Bill Isaac told our 

Skeptics Caucus. A vote ‘‘no’’ on tomorrow’s bill is not a vote to do nothing. It is a vote to defeat that bill and 

to start writing a much better bill. 

Under the bill that comes before us 

tomorrow, in Mr. Isaac’s belief, half of 

all the money is going to be used to 

bail out foreign investors who made 

dumb business decisions. Now, I am not 

real sure that I want to use taxpayers’ 

money to bail out American investors 

who made bad business decisions. But 

why are we bailing out the Bank of 

China? Why are we bailing out the 

Saudi royal family? We are doing so because they demand it. They communicate those demands at the highest 

level to our administration. 

After I yield to the gentlewoman 

from Ohio, I will describe how the bill 

clearly provides that we can send as 

much money as Treasury wants not to 

bail out American investors, but to 

bail out foreign investors. And when I 

say foreign investors, I don’t just mean 

companies here in the United States 

that happen to have foreign owners. 

I have sought at the Rules Committee to simply put an amendment in 

this bill to say that we are not going to 

buy any toxic asset that wasn’t demonstrably owned by an American on September 20. That amendment will not be 

allowed. It was not allowed last time; 

it won’t be allowed this time. 

Why? Because they think they can 

hide from this Congress and from the 


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