[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12811]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            CORPORATE GREED

  (Mr. BROWN of Ohio asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, this morning in Birmingham, President 
Bush gave another speech aimed at restoring investor confidence at the 
same time the country's equity markets were well on their way to a 
sixth day of losses. Why is that?
  Could it be because so many administration officials in the Bush 
White House are themselves former corporate CEOs, lawyers, or 
accountants who lack the moral authority or the will to change 
corporate practices, or even to enforce current law? Or could it be 
because in the middle of the current financial crisis, the President 
and the Vice President have been forced to answer questions about their 
own ethics and business practices as oil company CEOs? Or could it be, 
because despite his rhetorical calls for corporate America to clean up 
its act, the President continues to oppose real reform on Capitol Hill?
  Maybe, Mr. Speaker, with the recent spate of corporate collapses, the 
American people have begun to wonder whether running the company like a 
corporation, as the President and Vice President have promised, is all 
that good an idea.

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