[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 2 (Tuesday, January 12, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E7]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        BANKRUPTCY NOT BAILOUTS

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. LAMAR SMITH

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 12, 2010

  Mr. SMITH of Texas. Madam Speaker, Americans have one word for 
Congress when it comes to more bailouts: ``No!'' Taxpayers want to hold 
accountable those who wrecked American companies and our economy--not 
give them new, federal checking accounts.
  The Obama administration does not get the message. What was its 
Christmas ``present'' for taxpayers? A Christmas Eve gift of unlimited 
bailout billions to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
  House Democrats don't get the message either. Just before Christmas, 
they rammed through a partisan financial ``reform'' bill to 
institutionalize bailouts--not bury them.
  There is a common thread in the Democratic gift-giving. It is 
Chicago-style patronage politics, rung up by the billions. Fannie and 
Freddie's patrons gladly drain taxpayer coffers to preserve these tools 
of liberal social policy. Meanwhile, as the latest academic study 
shows, politically connected banks get the most bailouts. Little does 
it matter that these were the institutions that brought us to the edge 
of ruin.
  Republicans and the American people have a better solution. Send the 
institutions that have failed us to bankruptcy. There, accountability 
will carry the day--not patronage politics.

                          ____________________