[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 160 (Thursday, October 2, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2209]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              EMERGENCY ECONOMIC STABILIZATION ACT OF 2008

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. DANA ROHRABACHER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, September 29, 2008

  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Madam Speaker, today's vote reaffirms the 
independence of Congress and makes it clear that we will not be 
stampeded into spending hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars in a 
precipitous manner. This legislation would have directed $700 billion 
of the people's money to bailout rich and powerful interests who acted 
irresponsibly. It would have been a classic example of taking from 
those who have been responsible and giving it to those who have not.
  We were told without this effort our country would suffer a financial 
calamity of historic proportion. However, Congress has spoken, and 
today's defeat of the bill is a rebuke of such scare tactics. These 
tactics made many of us even more skeptical of being rushed to act, 
especially when we are being asked to allocate hundreds of billions of 
taxpayer dollars.
  There were no reforms included in the bill that would have addressed 
the initial root causes of this financial mess, so there is no reason 
to believe if we passed the bill that we would not find ourselves in a 
similar crisis and on the edge of a similar economic abyss over and 
over again. The elites in the financial industry wanted us to give them 
a blank check. Well, that's not responsible, and it doesn't take a 
financial genius to predict the resulting special interests feeding 
frenzy. Whether this feeding would ever avert an economic debacle is 
yet to be seen.
  Effective reform takes time, commitment, and cooperation, which were 
obviously not a part of this speeded up, hysteria driven proposal. I 
remain willing to work with all of my colleagues in the House to fix 
our broken financial system. In the end, this bailout proposal was 
socialism for the rich, or better, socialism without a human face. It 
deserved to be defeated.

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