[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 46 (Tuesday, March 17, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H3478-H3479]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         KEEPING PROMISES MADE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GOHMERT. We've heard a lot about AIG and how they shouldn't have 
been getting those bonuses they got--$165 million--but let's take a 
real objective look here.
  These executives took one of the biggest, most important companies in 
the world, in the country, and they ran it into the dirt. They 
bankrupted a lot of other companies. But they didn't have to go into 
bankruptcy because they convinced the government to come in with 
taxpayer dollars and give them $173 billion.
  Now that's pretty extraordinary. They still have their jobs. Why 
wouldn't they get a bonus? Good night. You run a company into the dirt 
and then talk the government into giving you $173 billion in taxpayer 
dollars, that's deserving of something, and apparently somebody thought 
it was worth a bonus.
  Well, the fact is they shouldn't have gotten bonuses. They should 
have been in receivership. But I keep looking for people to finally 
keep the promises that they have made.
  We heard that we were going to get change that people could believe 
in. We saw with the bailout back in September what some of us knew was 
a horrible mistake, and we said it then.
  Even though I am a Republican, I was looking forward to change from 
the deficit spending. Yet we have just gotten more and more and more of 
the same. When are we going to get change? Isn't it about time we quit 
the deficit spending? It would sure be nice.
  We were told that there would be no more lobbyists in this 
administration. I liked the sound of that. It sounded good. Well, it 
turned out he meant no lobbyists except for the ones they actually 
hired to be part of the administration.
  We were told there would be new ideas in this administration; we'd go 
in a new direction; we'd have change. But then we got a Secretary of 
the Treasury that is given credit for thinking of a lot of the plan 
that Paulson had, even though I still haven't been able to figure out 
what plan that was.
  So we didn't get change. We're getting more of the same. More and 
more of the deficit spending. When are we going to get the change?
  We have heard from the majority over and over again for the last 4 
years that deficit spending is bad. I agreed with them my first 2 years 
here, 2005 and 2006. So when they took the majority, I thought, Well, 
the good news is they'll finally stop this ridiculous deficit spending. 
But they didn't. It got worse and worse and worse.
  Then when they found that there was a President from the same party, 
instead of together, since they control the House, the Senate and the 
White House, to completely bring an end to deficit spending, it's just 
gotten worse and worse.
  This madness has to stop. We are blessed right now with a President 
who's one of the most gifted communicators I have ever seen in my 
lifetime. But what we are finding is that true leadership is not going 
to be found between the lines in a Teleprompter. You can look at the 
Teleprompter, you can read from it, but that is not where leadership 
is.
  I heard right here from that podium, Mr. Speaker, at the State of the 
Union last month these words: ``We're going to assure the continuity of 
a strong, viable institution that can serve our people and our 
economy,'' and President Obama said, ``I understand that on any given 
day, Wall Street may be more comforted by an approach that gives banks 
bailouts with no strings attached, and that holds nobody accountable 
for their reckless decision. But such an approach won't solve the 
problem.''
  He went on to say, ``This time, CEOs won't be able to use taxpayer 
money to pad their paychecks or buy fancy drapes or disappear on a 
private jet. Those days are over.''
  And then here we come the following month--there were no strings 
attached--to say, You know what? You ran this company in the ground. 
You don't get a bonus with taxpayer dollars.
  I'm kind of outraged over that. Like my friend, Mr. Forbes, I'm kind 
of outraged that people are outraged they didn't stop this, when some 
of us--you go back to some of our comments on this very floor--we said, 
Read the bill. It's a problem.

[[Page H3479]]

  Well, it's time for true change. Let's get what we should have and 
not what people talk about.

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