[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 2671-2672]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           ECONOMIC STIMULUS

  Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, I do wish to refer briefly to the stimulus 
package that was discussed by our majority leader. I have a great deal 
of respect for him. I was 1 of 16 Senators who voted against the last 
stimulus package, which I thought was absolutely a waste of money, 
causing people around America to think we were possibly doing something 
to help.
  I noticed all the discussion around this crisis, if you will, we are 
having in our country, or a correction, as some people may call it, 
have focused on credit issues. I found it most interesting that as you 
might expect here in Washington, with help on the way, we would do 
something totally unrelated to the problem and instead sprinkle money 
all around America and ask people to spend it as quickly as they could 
when we have a credit problem.
  I will say I had hoped we might focus on the stimulus, on the 
stimulus in an appropriate way, something that would create long-term 
jobs and investment, not spending by individuals, which causes them, in 
some cases, to even go further in debt.
  But I have to say this housing package that is getting ready to be 
before us, in my opinion, is an unmitigated disaster. I cannot imagine 
us getting between judges and people who borrow money in such a manner 
as to alter the relationship that people who borrowed money have with 
those who lend them the money.

[[Page 2672]]

  This is one of those things that, to me, is unbelievable that we 
would even discuss altering that relationship certainly on a voluntary 
basis. This is something that might make some sense. Certainly, 
companies that can loan money excessively in ways that are 
inappropriate need to be dealt with. But to unilaterally decide that 
judges can alter the amount of money people owe, to me, is an 
unmitigated disaster. I hope this bill will never see the light of day. 
I hope others will join in making sure this does not happen.

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