[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 149 (Thursday, September 18, 2008)]
[House]
[Page H8402]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         ATTENTION NEEDED FOR MAIN STREET, NOT JUST WALL STREET

  (Ms. KAPTUR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. KAPTUR. American taxpayers, think about this: So far this year 
the Bush administration has put you on the hook for $30 billion to prop 
up an investment house on Wall Street, Bear Stearns. Now you have been 
pledged to insure $200 billion to $2.4 trillion for the stock of loss-
plagued Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And taxpayers this week have been 
put on the hook for the insurance company American International Group 
to the tune of $85 billion. It seems like for Messrs. Paulson and 
Bernanke, any blank check for Wall Street can't be bigger. Every day it 
gets bigger.
  Now, what about Main Street? In the State of Ohio, we are 
hemorrhaging with mortgage foreclosures. There are no workouts. Messrs. 
Paulson and Bernanke haven't come to Ohio to make some of that cash 
available. Ohio needs $20 billion to do workouts now. We will have over 
100,000 more foreclosures this year. All that legislation we passed 
here in Congress, it has no bite, because it isn't helping people now.
  We need some attention to Main Street, not just Wall Street.

                          ____________________