[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 18]
[Senate]
[Pages 24285-24286]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              SAVING JOBS

  Ms. MIKULSKI. I wish to speak in morning business on the topic of the 
economic situation which the country faces and where we are.
  I want to acknowledge that the Senator from Oklahoma has some 
interesting ideas, and I would like to know more about it because I am 
pretty frustrated about what has happened with the taxpayer rescue 
money we have gotten.
  First, let me say, though, I am pretty frustrated with the Senate 
right now. I am frustrated that we are lame in this lameduck session. I 
was telling my constituents as I moved around Maryland, as is my habit 
and joy, that I have used this as a November work session--you know, 
get back to work. The election is over. We know who won. Now it is time 
to govern and govern with responsibility, to come back and go to work. 
So we come back, and here we are again whirling around with a lot of 
parliamentary quagmires. Can we bring it up? I object. No. We could be 
filibustered, et cetera. While we are fiddling and diddling to a 
parliamentary tune here, our economy is burning. And the question is, 
Do we burn the economic house down around us by inaction?
  Now, you might not like this rescue plan or that rescue plan or what 
about the automobile. I am a champion of jobs in the automobile 
industry. I do not champion an industry, I champion the jobs in the 
industry. I do not believe this Congress understands what the 
automobile industry is. Yes, it is manufacturers, union and nonunion. 
Whether it is the big three in Detroit and the UAW or whether it is 
foreign logo cars being made in the Southern States of our country, the 
Toyotas in Texas and Kentucky, the Nissans in Tennessee and so on, we 
are talking about jobs. We are talking about people who make the cars, 
and then we are talking about dealers who sell them, service them, 
maintain them, and the support services. In many rural parts of my 
State, the automobile dealers are the biggest employers outside of the 
local school system and the local hospital. So I want to talk about 
jobs, and that is what I have been talking about.
  But while we are talking about the rescue plan, what is shocking to 
me is the rigidity of the administration to help wrap up their time in 
the White House and their time to get our economy going, the fact that 
they are unwilling to look at the rescue package as a tool for saving 
jobs rather than saving banks.
  Now, this is where I believe we have gotten ourselves off on the 
wrong track. When I voted for the rescue plan, I thought I was voting 
for dealing with the credit crisis and bringing the financial system to 
some form of stability. It was a little too trickle-down for me, but I 
thought, we are in a crisis, square your shoulders and get out there 
and do it. Well, what has happened is, instead of dealing with helping 
with jobs, we have been helping with banks. The bailout has been simply 
a handout to Wall Street banks. And you know what, they have made out 
like bandits. Them that got want even more and do not promise to do 
anything in return.
  Let's review how we got there. We were facing Armageddon. We were 
concerned about the collapse of our financial system that America 
essentially helped create in terms of a financial system. We were 
talking about a frozen credit system that would affect big business and 
small business in our community. We were also concerned about the 
homeowner who was losing their home. Well, what did we do? We said: OK, 
we are going to make a public investment of $700 billion of taxpayers' 
money in the economy, through our Secretary of the Treasury. Now, who 
was this investor? Well, the taxpayers became investors.
  You know, we use that term, ``taxpayers.'' What does it mean? Well, I 
will tell you what it means to ``Senator Barb'' from Maryland. It means 
that single mother, that single mother who is trying to hold her family 
together, maybe in a job that pays $10 or $12 an hour, trying to keep 
her kids together, collect her child support, make sure she has an 8-
year-old car still running and make sure those kids are in school to do 
something. She does not have a lot of money, and we take a chunk of it. 
What about the farmer and what about the waterman who right now is out 
in this cold weather trying to bring oysters to our Thanksgiving table? 
We are going to have a table of bounty; they have a table of trouble. 
But no, we are going to take their money and give it to Paulson to give 
it to AIG.
  Mr. INHOFE. Would the Senator yield for one question?
  Ms. MIKULSKI. Let me finish describing the taxpayer, and I will come 
back to you.
  What about the waitress--you know, somebody who carries, in that 
diner, big plates of food? And what does she end up with at the end of 
the day? A few tips, a bad back, varicose veins, and a government that 
is not on her side. That is where Paulson got the

[[Page 24286]]

money from. OK. So that is where that $700 billion came from. Then I 
will talk about what he did with it.
  I turn to my colleague.
  Mr. INHOFE. I thank the Senator for yielding. I appreciate the very 
favorable comments she has made about my legislation. What is 
interesting about this is it is supported by a whole host--Senator 
Sanders is supporting it, as well as on the far right we have Senator 
Coburn and Senator DeMint. So we are not the only ones who feel this 
way.
  But the point I would like to make and ask you if you agree is, $700 
billion--you heard me describe how to put that in and understand how 
much that means to the American people. It is $5,000 for each family 
who files a tax return. We have an opportunity to save half of that 
right now. I would encourage the Senator from Maryland to join in this 
effort because I think it can get done and it could get done during 
this time.
  Ms. MIKULSKI. Well, I will consider looking at his legislation, I 
assure him on the floor. I think we are in agreement with some of the 
principles you articulated earlier.
  But let me go on with my speech and see if we can't find that 
sensible center, that common ground we both would like to perceive 
because when I say, What were the Congress and the American people 
promised for this astronomical sum of money we gave, we were promised 
by the Secretary of the Treasury, on behalf of the President of the 
United States, that the investment of the taxpayer would go to 
stabilizing the financial system, get credit flowing again in our 
communities, and get the economy rolling. What did we get? We got bait 
and switched from Paulson. Paulson changed his plan. He originally said 
he would use it to open credit and to also deal with the toxic 
mortgages. Now he is using it for money to buy ownership in banks and 
not asking anything in return. Paulson threw money at the banks with no 
strings attached. We have now spent close to $350 billion, and where 
are we? We are nowhere. The stock market is down and unemployment is 
up. Things have actually gotten worse. People continue to lose their 
homes. Now they are losing their life savings. And with our inaction on 
unemployment, they will lose their jobs.
  So let's talk about them that got. Do you remember their greed? Do 
you remember their incompetence on Wall Street that got us into this 
economic Superfund site?
  What did Wall Street say over the last several years to regulators 
and policymakers? Stay away. Get out of the way. It is our way or the 
highway. Having gotten buckets of bucks from the taxpayer, what does 
Wall Street say? Stay out of the way. Get out of the way. It is our 
way. And by the way, give us more, and let us keep our high pay.
  Well, it is not only what we hear from them, it is what we don't hear 
from them. You know what is so shocking to me. After this money goes to 
the big banks, there is no sense of gratitude. There is no sense of 
gratitude that that waitress, that single mother, that farmer, that 
firefighter is willing to do this--no sense of gratitude. There is also 
no sense of remorse on how they got us into this terrible situation.
  I know the Presiding Officer is a man of faith, as are our colleague 
from Oklahoma and myself. In my faith, when you have sinned, the way 
you get it right is you show remorse, you promise not to sin any more. 
You say: Let's make amends. How can I get it right?
  Have we heard that out of them? I have read every paper, heard every 
conversation. There is not one bit of remorse. They swagger around and 
say: There are three Americas--North America, South America, and 
corporate America. They treat themselves like a free trade zone. Hello. 
Do they promise to sin no more? Do we see a sense in the passion for 
reform coming out of them, saying: Boy, did we screw up; we now want to 
get it right? No. Do they say: Let's make amends? And the way they want 
to say let's make amends would be to work with our economic people to 
get jobs, credit, and our economy rolling. No. So what, instead, do 
those who have gotten bailout money do? They give themselves lavish 
salaries, bonuses, big perks such as spa retreats and golf tournaments 
in the most luxurious places in the world. And we are told that in 
order for them to keep talent, they have to pay big bonuses or people 
will walk away. They say that in order to keep the big talent at the 
big banks, they have to give big bonuses. I want to say, if they want 
to go, it is OK by me. I am an investor. Not as a Senator, but as a 
taxpayer, Why would we want to hold on to them? They got us into this 
mess. So it is OK by me if they go. There are plenty of talented people 
ready to go to work for our country.
  This is what ``Senator Barb'' wants to say to Wall Street: We do not 
want to be passive investors. We want to be active investors, not in a 
socialist form of government, picking winners and losers, but, by God, 
have a sense of reform. Cull out what is the best way to have sensible 
regulation. Come up with the great ideas to get our economy going and 
use the power and muscle of America's financial system. There is talent 
there to do that. If you need a lavish bonus to do this, then leave. 
Leave or get out of the way. There is a new sheriff coming to town, and 
I am part of that posse. There are not only young people but a lot of 
people who want to rebuild our country.
  So I say to those on Wall Street who feel they can't work for less 
than $14 million a year, you now work for the United States of America. 
Once we started making that public investment in you, you now work for 
the United States. Work for the United States. Give us your best 
thinking. Give us your energy. Give us your ideas. What I want to say 
to them is: It is time to restore our economy, restore our national 
honor.
  I say to those who are working in the economic system, pull up your 
pants and your pantsuits and start to go to work. Let's rebuild the 
economy.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Tennessee.

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