[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 20189]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            BY HELPING MAIN STREET, WE CAN HELP WALL STREET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
Jersey (Mr. Holt) for 2 minutes.
  Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, here's the problem as I understand it with the 
financial crisis that is called the worst in decades, maybe ever.
  Time and complicated securities. The rescue must be done immediately 
or else the financial house will collapse, Paulson says. Second, the 
taxpayers say they don't know if they are getting anything of fair 
value for the $700 billion they are asked to put up. No one knows the 
value of these securities, and Paulson says there isn't time to find 
out. Trust him, he says. He won't pay too much. Maybe the market can 
even help him determine the fair value.
  Yes, we may need to act quickly to staunch the crisis of confidence. 
Yes, the government may have to commit a lot of money to prop up the 
value of the investments. But rather than coming to the rescue by 
standing behind the investment paper, which is a mix of good and bad 
mortgages that have poisonous bad mortgages mixed with good, rather 
than committing $700 billion to something that Paulson and Bernanke and 
others say they don't really understand, why not stand behind the 
mortgages themselves? At least then the public will know what they are 
getting for their $700 billion and it will help the homeowner, the 
neighborhood, the community, and the investor.
  There is an antecedent. The Home Owners' Loan Corporation of the 
1930s through the 1950s helped people, individuals, with their 
mortgages. It was a Federal program that shored up a collapsing market. 
And, incidentally, when it finally went out of business, it showed a 
net plus for the taxpayer.
  Let's take a breath, show the world that the Government of the United 
States will not let the financial house collapse. And let's go to the 
root of the problem.
  I have been taking calls in my office from people who say ``help Main 
Street, not Wall Street.'' Well, in fact, by helping Main Street, we 
can help Wall Street. But by helping Wall Street, we don't necessarily 
help Main Street. Bailing out those holders of financial paper does not 
stop the homeowner from the foreclosure. If we go to the root of the 
problem, we can help both.

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