[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11450]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        ON THE WORLDCOM DISASTER

  (Mr. SHOWS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SHOWS. Mr. Speaker, I represent Clinton, Mississippi, the 
hometown of WorldCom, the latest culprit in a continuing series of 
corporate scandals that have victimized average Americans. The 
revelation that WorldCom hid almost $4 billion in expenses from its 
employees and shareholders has turned upside down the lives of 
thousands of my constituents and many thousands more across the 
country.
  Just think about the thousands of Mississippi families that had pride 
in their homegrown business and who placed their hard-earned money into 
this company's stock. Now they are losing everything. Corporate greed 
is not a Mississippi value.
  Already, 17,000 employees are about to lose their jobs. Undoubtedly, 
many more layoffs will happen. The stock market is taking a terrible 
hit, and seniors whose pension funds rely on WorldCom stock will now 
need help. Baby boomers who are getting close to retirement and 
families with investments to pay for their kids' college educations 
will be hurt, too.
  Mr. Speaker, there are thousands of people being hurt across the 
country because of what WorldCom has done, some of the leaders, not 
WorldCom personally.
  I was talking to a man from Newton, Mississippi, the other day. His 
father, most of his portfolio contains WorldCom stock. Now he is 
devastated.
  I call on Washington to treat this as the disaster that it is and 
help people through this crisis.
  And I call on the barons of WorldComm, past and present, who control 
the ledgers, to unfurl their golden parachutes and give back to their 
employees and investors the grotesque salaries they earned while they 
cooked the corporate books.
  And, Mr. Speaker, as we learn more about this financial disaster, I 
cannot help but imagine what would happen to millions of seniors if we 
were to privatize Social Security and let the stock market determine 
their futures.
  We must stand with our families today. We must stand with the folks 
who work hard, pay their bills and deserve better than the greed that 
is taking their savings and investments.

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