[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19530]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            AMERICAN ECONOMY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, Wall Street's big banking boys, those self-
proclaimed geniuses of high finance, are bankrupting America. These 
plunderers of our economy who have fought tooth and nail against 
financial regulation now are running home to mama. They who virulently 
oppose government oversight in the markets have come begging to the 
U.S. Government, mama, to bail them out of their bad decisions. They 
want mama to make it all better.
  Well, mama, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury, now run by Wall 
Street's best friends, have happily been shelling out from our 
taxpayers more than $300 billion already and counting for those 
irresponsible Wall Street giants. Meanwhile, homeowners in my district 
are suffering as a result of these high flying bankers' self-
aggrandizing decisions.
  I've not seen Secretary Paulson or Chairman Bernanke running around 
Ohio over the weekend, expressing concern about working people's houses 
and about helping them work out troubled loans. No. All they're doing 
is sending those folks the bills.
  The first check that mama wrote was in March. The Fed's main role in 
the Bear Stearns buyout by JPMorgan Chase was a $29 billion loan to a 
corporation it created to buy $30 billion worth of assets from Bear 
Stearns. If the assets gained value, the Fed would profit. If the 
assets lost value, the first $1 billion would be lost by JPMorgan 
Chase, but the rest of the losses would be borne by--guess who?--the 
American taxpayer.
  Then mama wrote a blank check, a big one, to Fannie Mae and Freddie 
Mac. Now, that bill is already $200 billion, and it could rise to $2.4 
trillion, a blank check. Last year, the head of Freddie Mac earned 
compensation of $18.3 million, and Fannie Mae's chief, David Schmidt, 
received $11.6 million directly, not counting all of their other 
bonuses and stock options and who knows what else.
  Now mama has written a third check for the crisis on Wall Street, and 
has effectively nationalized American International Group today with an 
$85 billion loan.

                              {time}  2015

  I wonder why we don't just change the name of the U.S. Treasury to 
the Sovereign Wealth Fund, because we are borrowing money from other 
countries in order to bail out these institutions.
  By the way, from 1999 to 2004, the CEO of AIG, Maurice ``Hank'' 
Greenberg, was named to Forbes Magazine as among the ``world's richest 
people,'' with a net worth in 2004 of $3.6 billion. What a cozy group 
they have up there on Wall Street.
  The CEO named earlier this year, Robin Willumstad, had been the 
president of Citigroup since 2002, and his base salary was $1 million, 
plus up to $4 million to $8 million in targeted annual bonuses, plus 
$13 million targeted annual incentive pay and a one-time $24.5 million 
restricted stock award to vest over 4 years.
  Were our homeowners to get a deal like that. The American people are 
truly getting bilked. They didn't get a fair share of the upside, and 
they are getting all of the downside and a huge IOU. Foreclosures are 
going up in Ohio. And while Wall Street is made whole, the folks back 
on Main Street are losing their homes and getting the bill.
  So while the banks get to run home to Mama and they are crying, we 
really have to ask ourselves, what has Mama given us here? What does it 
say about our values when we pump hundreds of billions of dollars into 
preserving Wall Street's bad boys while ignoring the plight of the 
American people?
  Across Main Streets, from coast to coast, people are losing their 
homes. But are Mr. Paulson or Mr. Bernanke giving them any bet on the 
upside? They are not even helping them on the downside. All they are 
giving them is a bill for Wall Street's excesses. When Roosevelt talked 
about malefactors of wealth, boy, was he right.
  I feel sorry for our country, I feel sorry for this Congress, that we 
can't do a better job of standing up for the people today who are 
losing their homes in Ohio. Thirty-eight thousand more perched at the 
edge. Our State needs $20 billion just to do workouts in our State. 
Where is the Federal Reserve? Where is the Treasury Department? Why do 
they only help the rich people? What about the rest of the people who 
have to work for a living?
  I can't think when I have been as upset as I am tonight about what is 
happening by the big shots, and the people who are paying the bill are 
getting shoved off the edge.
  Wake up, America. Wake up, America. Pay attention to what is 
happening here. Contact your Member of Congress. Every citizen of this 
country that is a taxpayer and every citizen who owns that home 
mortgage has a right to a decent life, not just the big shots up at the 
end of Wall Street up in New York City.

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