[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12412]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      WE NEED ACTION, NOT RHETORIC

  (Mr. DeFAZIO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, the President had an opportunity to show 
strong leadership and get tough with corporate crooks yesterday. His 
speech was long, 27 minutes, on rhetoric but is short on action.
  The Business Roundtable and the National Association of Manufacturers 
applauded loudly; they endorsed it. Of course, they are the same people 
who fought every reform that was proposed over the last decade that 
could have prevented these abuses. They loved the President's proposal 
because it was short on action.
  The aide to the White House said, well, the proposals were watered 
down over the last few weeks because the President did not want to hurt 
the economy by imposing too much regulation. Hurt the economy? What has 
WorldCom done by evaporating $80 billion of equity, thousands of jobs 
and people's IRAs and 401(k)s? What has Enron done by manipulating the 
energy market and driving up energy costs in the western United States 
by 40 percent, while Ken Lay, the President's favorite guy, stole $100 
million? That is hurting the economy.
  We need action, not rhetoric.

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