[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 28 (Wednesday, February 11, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H1162]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        A MELTDOWN OF CONFIDENCE

  (Mr. YARMUTH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, over the past few months we have seen not 
only a financial meltdown, but also a meltdown of confidence. People we 
had worshiped, people who ran huge businesses, people we had considered 
experts proved to be simply Wizards of Oz. We pulled back the curtain 
and found they were as flawed and fallible as the rest of us. And now 
we have an economy that gets worse from day to day.
  Each of us has stood here and preached about what steps we think will 
fix our economy. We have heard Members who have never worked in the 
private sector talk about how to create jobs; we have heard people who 
can't balance their own checkbooks talk about admonishing bankers; and 
we have heard the head of the Republican Party incomprehensibly say, 
``Work is not a job.''
  None of us has confidence that everything in the economic recovery 
package will work; but we should all realize that unless the American 
people have confidence that we are working together, the odds of its 
success are greatly diminished.
  I urge all my colleagues to forget their political calculations, 
calculate the consequences of failure to our country, and support the 
only plan available for fixing our economy.

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