[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 4357]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   FINANCIAL CRISIS FACING OUR NATION WILL REQUIRE BIPARTISAN EFFORT

  (Mr. WOLF asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I am disappointed in the administration and 
especially Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson for not embracing 
solutions to the economic tsunami that is off our coast. Congressman 
Cooper and I have proposed the SAFE Commission to respond to what the 
outgoing U.S. Comptroller, David Walker, characterizes as a ``tsunami 
of spending and debt levels that could swamp our ship of state.''
  We have $53 trillion in unfunded liabilities and are over $9 trillion 
in debt. What more does Secretary Paulson need?
  The SAFE Commission Act has 74 bipartisan cosponsors. It has been 
endorsed by the Business Roundtable, the National Federation of 
Independent Businesses, and think tanks across the political spectrum. 
If we don't get our financial house in order and begin controlling 
entitlement spending, it will be our children and grandchildren who pay 
the price.
  How will Secretary Paulson feel if he leaves at the end of this term 
and has done nothing, has done nothing to deal with the entitlement 
issue?
  Secretary Paulson, we ask you to support the Cooper-Wolf bipartisan 
commission.

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