[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 15]
[House]
[Pages 20801-20802]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  FINANCIAL GUN TO THE HEAD OF AMERICA

  (Mr. POE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, because Wall Street has made bad judgment 
calls, the American taxpayer has been forced to bail them out at $700 
billion. Seven hundred billion, what does that mean? That means every 
man, woman, child and illegal in the United States will have to fork 
over $2,000 apiece to bail out the money grabber barons on Wall Street. 
And that's just wrong.
  Why is it, Mr. Speaker, the bigger the business, the more the Federal 
Government thinks it should swoop in and save these incompetent 
business people? Small businesses, mom and pop stores, don't get this 
break. When they make bad financial decisions, they go out of business. 
But the rich and famous Wall Street New York City fat cats expect ``Joe 
Six-Pack'' to buck it up and pay for all this nonsense.
  Reward people for being irresponsible and expect responsible people 
to pay

[[Page 20802]]

for the sins of the financial industry? I don't think so.
  Putting a financial gun to the head of America is not the answer. The 
government has no authority to force Americans to ante up a $700 
billion ransom to save the hides of the rich robber barons on Wall 
Street.
  And that's just the way it is.

                          ____________________