[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 14]
[House]
[Pages 19934-19935]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          WALL STREET BAILOUT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Sherman) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SHERMAN. Let me join the bipartisan chorus of skeptical voices 
about this $700 billion bailout.
  We live in an era of great concentration of power in the Executive 
Branch and great concentration of wealth on Wall Street. Today, we are 
asked to approve the greatest power grab any executive has ever asked 
for and the greatest transfer of wealth Wall Street could imagine. $700 
billion is supposed to be given to the administration, and they will 
give it to Wall Street.
  They are going to buy the worst of the worst assets in the back of 
any investment bank's closet. They can decide what to pay. They can buy 
from this one and not that one. They can have as much politics and as 
much cronyism as they are able to conceal, and there will be no 
oversight So, they can conceal a lot. No standards, no accountability. 
They can pay any price to any person for any toxic asset, and they can 
refuse to pay any price to any person for any toxic asset.
  This $700 billion is on top of the Fannie and Freddie Mac bailouts, 
which were not bailouts so much of those entities. Those entities are 
really now part of the government. They were bailouts of the Wall 
Street investors in the bonds that had been guaranteed by Freddie and 
Fannie.
  So we have already transferred hundreds of billions of dollars to 
Wall Street; we are now told to do $700 billion. And be sure, if we do 
the $700 billion now, they will be back for a few hundred billion in a 
while and a few hundred billion beyond that.
  The truth is we don't know. The truth is they don't know. If we pass 
this bill, Wall Street could be sagging in a few weeks anyway. If we 
don't pass this bill, Wall Street could rebound by the end of the year. 
No one can make your 401(K) safe. No one can tell you whether your 
401(K) will be safe regardless of whether we pass this bill or not. The 
only thing that is certain is that if we pass this bill, Wall Street 
executives will be happy.
  This bill allows whatever money we give to a Wall Street firm, they 
can invest it overseas the next day. And if a foreign entity has 
invested in these bonds, these toxic assets, they don't get bailed out 
by their own government; they can sell those bonds to a U.S. entity on 
Monday, and the taxpayer can be stuck with these toxic assets by 
Tuesday.
  We are told we are going to get regulatory and corporate governance 
reform next year; but this bill does not include a fast track provision 
to assure that serious proposals are considered, particularly when they 
are subject to filibuster in the Senate. Why no fast track for every 
kind of regulatory and corporate governance reform?
  The administration was gagged kicking and screaming into providing $3 
billion of help to home owners who face troubled loans. They want over 
$1 trillion for Wall Street. That shows you the ratio of their 
compassion.
  There is nothing in this proposal from the administration to limit 
executive compensation. So when we pay $1 billion to a Wall Street 
firm, the next day they can use that money to hand out huge and 
enormous bonuses to their executives. I would propose that we have a 50 
percent surtax on the executive compensation paid to the executive of 
any bailed out entity, starting with Bear Stearns and Fannie and 
Freddie and AIG, and continuing through those who benefit from this 
bill.
  We clearly need a stimulus, at least a well-crafted stimulus program.

[[Page 19935]]

  And, finally, why should the Department of the Treasury have total 
carte blanche? We should require that every major contract entered into 
under this bill and every purchase of toxic assets be approved in 
advance by the GAO; otherwise, this is just a license to the Treasury 
to hand out money in return for trash, cash for trash, and they get to 
decide how to do it.
  If you are skeptical about this bill, please meet with me and others 
at 2:30 today in Room 2220, that is 2220 at 2:30, and let's discuss how 
we can make a bill that reflects American values and not Wall Street 
values.

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