[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 17]
[House]
[Pages 23379-23380]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              THE ECONOMY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Cohen) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, today would have been the end of the 110th 
Congress. It appears it won't be for we will be returning to work on 
the bill that failed to pass today. I am a first-year Member, Madam 
Speaker, as you well know. And this was probably the most important and 
most difficult vote that any of us had to cast.
  I came in today not knowing how I was going to vote. I listened to my 
constituents. I listened to economists. I listened to members of my 
party and members of the other party and tried to study on the issue. I 
ended up voting for the bill because I think it was the right thing to 
do for our country which I do believe, after reading Thomas Friedman 
and listening to others, is on the brink of an economic disaster.
  The fact is, we need action. This Congress should have acted in a 
bipartisan fashion to take action. It was difficult to vote for the 
bill, just like it's difficult sometimes to take medicine that doesn't 
taste good or to have the doctor give you a shot or to go through a 
medical procedure. Sometimes you need it when you're sick. You want to 
avoid it because you don't want the bad taste or the pain of the 
surgery or the shot, but you know it's going to do you good. To do 
things that would allow people who have caused us this problem, people 
on Wall Street and investment bankers who are living all too well, to 
have some of their bad debts taken from them and to give them some 
relief was difficult.
  But the bottom line is it affects everybody in America. It affects 
everybody's pension. It affects everybody's savings. It affects 
people's jobs. It affects the basic economic structure of our country. 
And to have capitalism and an economic system that works, you have got 
to have a financial system, an economic system which bankers are part 
of. And it has to be one that works.

[[Page 23380]]

  We're interrelated. We had banks in Europe close. Two British banks 
and a German bank closed yesterday. And Wachovia was taken over today. 
Other banks in America are in trouble. A banker whom I have confidence 
in and respect for called me and suggested that if this Congress didn't 
take action, that there would be runs on banks and bank failures. There 
would be conduct that would be reminiscent of the 1920s.
  On Saturday I had some time and I went out and visited the Franklin 
Roosevelt Memorial. And I looked at the sculptures of the people in 
lines, the people that were affected by the Depression and the quote 
from Franklin Roosevelt that is inscribed on those walls that said 
``The test of our progress is not whether we add to the abundance of 
those who have much. It is whether we provide enough to those who have 
little.
  And I thought about that and the failure of the Senate to pass the 
economic stimulus bill that we had passed here in this House to help 
people with food stamps, with Medicaid and with unemployment 
compensation that have already been affected, that while the bill we 
had today would have helped everybody, it would have most directly 
affected people who have much in abundance. And yet the Senate wasn't 
willing to help those who had too little. And I thought it ran counter 
to what Franklin Roosevelt spoke about.
  There was lots in the bill I didn't like. There were things that 
could have been better considering the judicial standards and courts 
having more authority and more oversight. There were things in the bill 
that could have helped people who are in their homes now with 
bankruptcy options for judges to allow people to remain in their homes. 
And those things weren't there.
  But on balance, I think we have to avert a disaster which I think we 
can be coming very close to experiencing. And I think the failure of 
this House to act in a bipartisan fashion, which it should have, is 
unfortunate for America.
  It was a difficult vote, but I'm proud to have cast it. I hope that 
when we come back, and we will on Thursday, that the Republicans will 
come with more votes. They didn't deliver the votes they were supposed 
to. I was proud of their leadership as well as I was with mine in 
trying to do something right for America on the last day of this 110th 
Congress.
  Madam Speaker, like you I'm very proud to be a Member of this 
Congress and to represent my country. I cast a vote that I know some 
people in my district might question because of the failures of the 
bill. But not to act would have been wrong. And on balance I felt like 
the right thing to do for our country to avert economic disaster was to 
vote for the bill. I hope we come back and have a better bill. Whether 
it is FDIC insurance going up to $200,000 or more, which I have 
recommended, whether it is part of the economic stimulus package being 
added to the bill, or options for bankruptcy judges to keep people in 
their homes, those are all ways that we can improve the bill. Hopefully 
we will improve it. And hopefully we will save our economy, the savings 
of our constituents and jobs of our constituents and keep America a 
strong and great country which I know it will be.
  Madam Speaker, God bless America.

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