[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 48 (Thursday, March 19, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H3687-H3688]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              AIG SCANDAL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Well, today was 6 months overdue here in the House. Last 
fall, when President George Bush and Secretary Henry--``Hank,'' as 
people like to call him--Paulson--just a regular guy from Wall Street 
who earned $750 million in 1 year before he left Wall Street to come 
here and be Secretary of the Treasury, protecting Main Street interests 
under the Bush administration--panics the Congress, said the world was 
on the verge of collapse, and submitted, on a Friday

[[Page H3688]]

evening, a three-page bill asking that we appropriate $700 billion and 
give it to Henry ``Hank'' Paulson and let him spend it however he 
deemed fit.

                              {time}  1545

  Unfortunately, Congress didn't really improve too much on that 
original draft. Congress got stampeded. I didn't. I voted against it. 
And for one glorious moment, one night, one day, we stunned the world 
by stopping that bill here in the House and saying there are not enough 
protections for American taxpayers in this bill. There's no guarantee 
we'll get paid back. There's no real restraint on how Henry ``Hank'' 
Paulson of Wall Street is going to spend the money. We fear it will go 
to bonuses, it will go to waste, it will go to his buddies on Wall 
Street and he'll use it to penalize his enemies on Wall Street. And 
that's exactly what happened.
  And here we are now, at least $350 billion later of that $700 
billion. It's estimated, by one group that does weekly estimates, we've 
lost about a third of the money. The American taxpayers are being told 
they'll have to pay that back over the next 30 years.
  In the meantime, many of these companies and these lords are 
rewarding themselves with bonuses. We're told, well, these are 
certifiably smart people. I mean, how can these firms continue to exist 
without them?
  Well, the firms like AIG don't exist anymore except for the largesse 
from the American taxpayer. They bankrupted their companies. How could 
anybody think they deserve a performance bonus or a retention bonus of 
any sort? What they need is a bonus push out the door. And that should 
have happened a long time ago. And I've got to say the Obama 
administration is trying. A big hole was dug here. They are trying to 
make some sense out of what Bush and Paulson did.
  But I am not impressed by our Treasury Secretary, Mr. Geithner, and I 
think that President Obama should rethink whether or not he is the man 
for the job at this time. When did Secretary Geithner know about these 
bonuses that were coming due at AIG? He was head of the New York Fed. 
He was very involved in bailing out AIG through the Federal Reserve 
last fall. Did he just find out or has he known? And did he neglect to 
tell the President, did he neglect to tell the Congress that these 
bonuses were pending? I don't know for sure. But we need to have that 
question answered.
  Geithner was hired because he said, well, Wall Street's comfortable 
with him. I'll tell you what. I'd like a Secretary of the Treasury who 
Wall Street doesn't like because that person is protecting Main Street 
Americans and the taxpayers of this country instead of coddling these 
fat, overpaid people on Wall Street who have bankrupted their own 
companies and are trying to bankrupt America and have caused nationally 
and worldwide an economic collapse. These certifiably smart people.
  So today we began to correct the mistakes that were made here last 
fall under pressure from Bush and Paulson. But people need to be 
brought to account. We need to hire the 1,100 agents that the FBI has 
been asking for for 4 years to fill out their financial fraud and 
crimes unit. We need to hire those 1,100 people and maybe give some of 
these people who today are getting bonuses Federal hospitality in the 
future, a little uniform and a nice warm place to sit behind bars.
  We need those investigators. We need that budget. We need to 
thoroughly review everything that's gone on. And we really need to 
question the leadership of Secretary Geithner in these matters.

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