[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 33 (Thursday, March 17, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H1679-H1680]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    IN DEFENSE OF CHAIRMAN GREENSPAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Foley) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FOLEY. Madam Speaker, I come to the floor today to bring up a 
subject that is of great concern to me and that is the tarnishing of a 
gentleman's reputation in this town and that is Alan Greenspan, the 
head of the Federal Reserve. I do not always agree with Alan Greenspan; 
but over the last couple of days, he has been called a political hack, 
he has been called a lot of things, and I think it is important to come 
to the floor to defend somebody's credibility in this town that has 
been largely responsible for the tranquil waters we find ourselves in 
on the financial markets.
  Alan Greenspan has been reappointed by Republican and Democratic 
Presidents because of his ability to manage our national economy, his 
ability to see through problems that have cropped up around the world, 
his ability to intervene at times when it has saved the countries that 
we have assisted; and now because he has disagreed, or at least 
ventured an opinion on private accounts relative to Social Security, he 
has now come under scrutiny, ridicule, and been called things like 
political hack. Senator Reid made these comments on TV recently. 
Senator Clinton made the comments recently. Senator Clinton, I would 
remind her that her husband reappointed Alan Greenspan to this post.
  I think it is important to note that how dare anybody disagree with 
the

[[Page H1680]]

other side of the aisle and if they do so, they will find themselves 
subjected to the kind of terminology like political hacks. It takes me 
back to the Medicare debate that we had in this Congress when AARP 
decided to embrace the Republican plan. Up until that day, the other 
side of the aisle described the AARP as the gold standard of 
organizations out protecting the welfare of seniors in America. The day 
they chose to embrace a plan offered by President Bush, they became the 
scoundrels, the leadership of their party went down and picketed at 
their front door and declared that the AARP was an enemy of senior 
citizens.
  What a difference a year makes. Now that they are opposing any plans 
even to consider personal accounts, they are back in the good graces 
and AARP once again is fighting for people. What is desperate about 
this attack is that Alan Greenspan has presided over the economy in an 
extraordinary fashion. It is interesting that when Mr. Greenspan 
speaks, the world listens. The Wall Street market-makers listen. 
Political leaders around the world listen. His words are carried across 
every wire story in the world because of the impact his words have on 
the economies of our Nation and our allies. He is not viewed as a 
political hack by those allies. He is viewed as a sage, stable, steady 
hand on the controls and levers of the American economy.
  As I said earlier, I do not agree with Mr. Greenspan on all issues. I 
think sometimes we raise rates too slowly or raise them too quickly and 
then ultimately do not lower them enough to get the kind of economic 
recovery that we had hoped through rate adjustment. That being said, 
though, I hardly would describe a man that is lauded by virtually every 
facet of the American economy as a political hack or somebody whose 
time has come for them to leave.
  So I just make the point that I do not mind debating the intricacies 
of Social Security; I do not mind having a debate representing the 
fifth largest Medicare-eligible population in America, the various 
opinions on whether you raise caps, change age of retirement, consider 
for a moment personal accounts just as a conversation point; it does 
not have to necessarily end up in law, but let us at least talk about 
it to see if it fixes Social Security. But it does trouble me that 
somebody of Mr. Greenspan's credibility, somebody of his reputation, 
somebody who has certainly served this Nation in a wonderful way would 
be pilloried by a political party simply because he chose to talk about 
how we may solve the woes of Social Security in the future.
  I commend him for his work. I salute him for his brilliance on 
handling America's markets. I ask the other side of the aisle to 
reflect back on the history of his service to this country as the 
Federal Reserve chairman. I ask them to look at the collapsing of some 
economies in Asia during his tenure when he sought and was able to 
rescue those economies from fiscal collapse. It is often said if the 
United States gets a cold, the rest of the world gets the flu. The same 
could happen if you allowed the economies of these nations to collapse 
without our intervention.
  I salute Mr. Greenspan, and I do ask that my colleagues refrain from 
making him the object of their political ire. Let us debate the merits 
and the wisdom of our direction, but let us not ruin somebody's 
personal and business career simply to get even for their statements or 
their opinions.

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