[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 147 (Tuesday, September 16, 2008)]
[House]
[Page H8141]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




McCAIN'S ASSESSMENT OF ECONOMY SHOWS THAT HE REALLY IS NOT AN EXPERT ON 
                              THE ECONOMY

  (Mr. WELCH of Vermont asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WELCH of Vermont. Mr. Speaker, it's becoming quite apparent that 
our economy is in peril. The biggest casualty in this economy are 
middle-class families trying to hang on by their fingernails.
  We have got a different point of view by our leadership. President 
Bush says that the 500-point collapse is just, quote, a correction. Mr. 
McCain, Senator McCain says the economy is fundamentally sound.
  The reality is that the economy has become weak, with policies that 
have deregulated financial institutions leading to the collapse of some 
of our longest-standing, historically most solid institutions like 
Lehman Brothers. For 8 years, the Bush-McCain economic policy has had a 
radical proposition that we can deregulate everything and leave 
everything to Wall Street, and it will all take care of itself.
  Now American families, businesses on Main Street, are beginning to 
pay the price for this economic failure under the Bush administration.
  The only way we can change our economy is by returning to the basic 
principle that our economic policies should all be about building the 
middle class.

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