H372 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE January 15, 2009 

And then there is the talk of a stimulus package, and I think we should 

have one. Again, I think the consequences of inaction are going to be 

very severe on this economy. 

But there is one thing that the stimulus package should do. It should actually stimulate the economy, and do it 

quickly. If we wait a year or 18 months, 

the economy will probably find its own 

bottom. It will be a bad one, but it will 

find its own. What we need to do is 

things, stuff, that will take effect and 

have an impact in the next 6 months, 

largely, 1 year at the most, so we can 

prevent the loss of as many jobs and 

homes and businesses as we can. 

Now, many people on both sides of 

the aisle are bringing up the same 

things and priorities that we all do, 

and that is great. I am a Republican. 

There is lots of tax cuts I like as a Republican. I know there is a lot of spending that Democrats like, and there is 

good arguments to do some of both. 

But we have a patient who has pneumonia, and if you say you should eat 

right and exercise, yes, you should. 

Eating right and exercise is always 

good. But if you have pneumonia, you 

need antibiotics, and telling the patient to eat right and exercise won’t 

cure their pneumonia, and we need to 

cure the pneumonia first before we can 

eat right and exercise. 

So we need things that are directly 

targeted towards the next 6 months in 

creating jobs, and one of the things I 

think we should do is look at the demand side of things. People are scared. 

People are afraid. Even people with 

jobs, with plenty of security. We should 

be stimulating people to buy homes 

and cars, and doing it quickly. 

f 

FORENSIC ACCOUNTING OF WALL 

STREET BANKS NEEDED 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a 

previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. KAPTUR) is recognized for 5 minutes. 

Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, I am 

glad I was here on the floor to respond 

to the prior Member who felt compelled to say that he thought the Wall 

Street bailout was working. I would 

like to know what evidence he has to 

prove that, since we have no forensic 

accounting of what the Wall Street 

banks that got all this money did with 

the money. Maybe he has some special 

access inside these institutions and can 

provide it to the RECORD, because I will 

tell you what happened yesterday. 

I went before our Rules Committee 

and I proposed a very simple amendment. My amendment was that before 

we give one more dime of the people’s 

money, we require the Treasury to do a 

forensic accounting of every bit of 

money that was sent up there to Wall 

Street. And I was denied my amendment. 

There is no Member of this Congress 

that can say with accuracy, including 

the gentleman who just spoke, that he 

knows where the money is, because, 

you know what? They haven’t told us. 

All you know is what you have read in 

the newspapers, and how can we extend 

more money from the American people 

when we don’t even know what happened to the money that went out the 

door? 

So you can say whatever you want 

and create a fiction, but the fact is 

that foreclosures are going up across 

this country. That bill that was passed 

last year was supposed to help people 

hang onto their homes. In Ohio, foreclosures have gotten worse every 

month. 

What I am telling people right now 

is, stay in your homes. If the American 

people, anybody out there is being foreclosed, don’t leave, because I will tell 

you what. If you had a smart lawyer 

like those banks up there on Wall 

Street can get, they would take you 

into court and they couldn’t find the 

mortgage. They couldn’t find the mortgage. 

So why should any American citizen 

be kicked out of their homes in this 

cold weather? In Ohio it is going to be 

10 or 20 below zero. Don’t leave your 

home. Because you know what? When 

those companies say they have your 

mortgage, unless you have a lawyer 

that can put his or her finger on that 

mortgage, you don’t have that mortgage, and you are going to find they 

can’t find the paper up there on Wall 

Street. 

So I say to the American people, you 

be squatters in your own homes. Don’t 

you leave. In Ohio and Michigan and 

Indiana and Illinois and all these other 

places our people are being treated like 

chattel, and this Congress is stymied. 

We have the worst economic crisis 

since the Great Depression and our 

committees are muzzled. Power is 

given to one chairman or one person. 

We are all equal here. We have a 

right to be heard. The concerns of our 

constituents have a right to be registered in the committees of this 

House, not choked down as what is happening here today. It is just a tragedy. 

And if we don’t fix the economic cure, 

it is going to get worse, and the cure is 

to go after the home foreclosure crisis. 

Who does that? Treasury? No. That is 

absolutely the wrong place. We need 

the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Securities and Exchange 

Commission empowered to do the real 

estate workouts on books across this 

country. Those are the normal institutions that are used. And then you have 

got HUD there now with FHA that can 

take these mortgages once they are refinanced. But that is not what is happening across our country. There is no 

help for the homeowner. That whole 

section they talked about today, Help 

for Homeowners over at HUD, nobody 

has even benefited. We said last year 

they wouldn’t, and that is exactly what 

has happened. 

So I say to the American people, stay 

in your homes. You have earned them. 

And don’t you get out until you get a 

really good lawyer who can find your 

mortgage up there on Wall Street. Because, you know what? They won’t be 

able to find it, and therefore they can’t 

prove you should be evicted. 

f 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a 

previous order of the House, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. 

JONES) is recognized for 5 minutes. 

(Mr. JONES addressed the House. His 

remarks will appear hereafter in the 

Extensions of Remarks.) 

f 

WHEN THE WELL RUNS DRY: A BIPARTISAN APPROACH TO ENTITLEMENT REFORM 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a 

previous order of the House, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. WOLF) is 

recognized for 5 minutes. 

Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, our financial situation is at a critical mass. 

Everywhere you look, everything you 

read, more bad news, no end in sight. 

Of massive budget shortfalls Presidentelect Obama has said, ‘‘If we do nothing, we will continue to see red ink as 

far as we can see.’’ 

Last week, the Congressional Budget 

Office projected the Federal budget deficit will balloon to $1.2 trillion this fiscal year, and that does not include the 

economic stimulus package proposed 

by the incoming administration. These 

staggering numbers are deeply troubling today and pose a dire choice for 

our children and our grandchildren. 

Simply put, our Nation is slowly 

going broke. Without a change of 

course initiated by Congress, we will 

follow what Comptroller General David 

Walker characterized as a financial 

‘‘tsunami strong enough to swamp the 

ship of state.’’ It will sweep our children and our grandchildren off their 

feet, leaving far less opportunity for future generations. 

Out-of-control spending is not just an 

economic issue, it is a moral issue also. 

Is it right for our generation to live 

very well, knowing that future generations of Americans will inherit a broken system in the form of massive 

debt, Social Security and Medicare obligations, unsustainable spending and 

commitments that cannot be kept? 

Entitlement spending has such a 

tight grip on the rest of the Federal 

Government that every day the 111th 

Congress waits to act is another day 

that vital discretionary programs, domestic and international, are in jeopardy. That is what we are facing today. 

Everyone, whether you are a Republican or Democrat, should be alarmed. 

As parents and grandparents, we should 

care that without adequate resources 

our children won’t receive the firstclass education they need to compete 

in the global market. Already the tests 

show that one-third of U.S. students 

lack the competency to perform the 

most basic mathematical computations. 

People should care that scientists at 

the National Institutes of Health who 


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