[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 20188]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            THE BAD OLD DAYS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Cuellar). The Chair recognizes the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, in my Seventh Congressional District in 
Washington State, and in towns and cities across the United States, the 
American people are justifiably outraged and at the same time 
dumbfounded that the President would send the Treasury Secretary up 
here to Congress asking for a blank check, declaring the sky will 
immediately fall if he doesn't get it. With a straight face, but no 
straight talk, he demanded unchecked, unlimited power to spend $700 
billion of taxpayer money any way he sees fit. From the moment this 
President took office 8 years ago, his administration has done 
everything possible to roll back the clock to the roaring '20s, and now 
they want to roll the American people to pay for it.
  For the last 8 years, this administration rewarded Wall Street and 
ignored Main Street. For 8 long years, this administration encouraged 
practices that have taken America back to the finances of 1929. But now 
this administration wants the American people to pay $700 billion for 
Wall Street's ignorance and greed, and what are they going to do with 
it? The American people are asked to sacrifice, but what about Wall 
Street? What does the President ask of them? Wall Street lobbyists are 
here by the busload, trying to cut deals to sweeten the pot for the 
people who pay them millions. When someone suggested any potential 
bailout ought to include a provision to refinance some mortgages, the 
lobbyists declared the sky would fall. And when somebody declared that 
there would not be golden parachutes for executives who masterminded 
this mess, we were told that that would be punitive. And then when the 
White House relented and said they might give a little on golden 
parachutes, the American people are supposed to be thankful and give 
in.
  In case anybody has forgotten, the golden parachutes originally 
pegged at $13 million for the chief executives of Freddie and Fannie 
were cut. They ended up only getting $9 million. Does that sound like 
sacrifice to you?
  Friends and supporters of this administration have had 8 years of 
unregulated, unfettered access to the wallets of the American people. 
Their complex derivatives and mathematical formulas were used to create 
financial products that can best be described in a single phrase: house 
of cards. This administration permitted, encouraged, and now wants to 
mortgage this house of cards to the American people. They take no 
responsibility for their role in the crisis. Instead, they warn the 
American people that they might suffer mightily if they do not act 
within a week. Suddenly the administration and the Republican Party 
that regularly decry government intervention now clamor for it, but 
only because they can't find $700 billion anywhere else.
  How do they propose to pay for it? Does the President offer to reduce 
the massive tax holidays enjoyed over the last 8 years by the rich? Did 
they offer something that would benefit the working Americans who don't 
want to pay for this?
  To all the American families where the husband and wife work two, 
three, four jobs to make ends meet, to all the single moms and dads who 
play by the rules, the administration has offered you a threat and a 
share in paying this $700 billion mortgage on a house of cards. This 
administration has brought America to the brink of national bankruptcy, 
and they are banking on fear again. They used fear to go to war. They 
used fear to take away your civil rights and spy on you. And now they 
are using fear of financial collapse, and they are just trying to scare 
you into getting them to do whatever they want.
  There's a line that aptly describes this situation: ``Fool me once, 
shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.'' Don't be fooled.
  Mr. Speaker, remember, trust is something that is already bankrupt. 
The bank of trust in this administration is absolutely bankrupt. They 
have misled, lied, misrepresented, whatever word you want to use, on 
issue after issue. And now they give us 7 days. Come back, take out 
your wallet, and give them everything that's in it, $700 billion. Well, 
actually, we don't have to give them anything. We're going to borrow it 
from the Chinese. Let's borrow our way.
  When will they talk about how you pay for the profligacy of this 
administration?

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