[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 50 (Tuesday, March 24, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H3758]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      GYRATION IN THE STOCK MARKET

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, as you can see here in this graph, what the 
President called gyrations of the stock market, in February of 2008, a 
year ago, the Dow Jones Industrial Average sat at just 13,000 points.
  Just before Congress passed the so-called rebate check package worth 
$168 billion of borrowed money, Speaker Pelosi said, ``This package 
gets money into the hands of Americans struggling to make ends meet . . 
. and stimulates our slowing economy.''
  Yet since then, the market has lost nearly half its value. That's 
trillions of dollars in wealth wiped out in 1 year from retirement 
accounts and the savings of hardworking families across America.
  The rebate package a year ago was just the first in many attempts to 
borrow and spend our way out of this situation. Here we have the $300 
billion housing bailout, $200 billion for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, 
$700 billion in TARP funds. Look at the drop after that: $14 billion, 
auto bailout; $787 billion, stimulus, before the market dropped.
  Our actions have economic consequences.

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