[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 14355]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      STATUS QUO IS NOT ACCEPTABLE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. Stearns) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STEARNS. Good morning, Madam Speaker. I rise today to ask a 
simple question that is on every American's mind; what has been done by 
this administration and this Congress to fix the troubled economic 
system we have today?
  While this administration continues to pour trillions of dollars into 
a flawed financial system, continues to have Washington bureaucrats 
take control over failed businesses, and continues to appoint czar 
after czar to exercise government control over our free market system, 
the question still remains, Madam Speaker, what has this administration 
done to fix this broken system, and is it working?
  Government control is not the answer, as our European neighbors have 
figured out recently and spoken through their elections to change their 
left-leaning programs and political regimes.
  This economic crisis was created by a flawed system, a system that is 
in need of structural reform. However, the administration's answer to 
this glaring problem is to continue to throw more money, taxpayers' 
money, at the problem, which essentially increases this country's 
unsustainable debt and increases Federal bureaucratic control over all 
of our private institutions.
  This country must stop the taxpayer-paid-for corporate welfare from 
being handed out and simply return this economy to what has worked for 
over 200 years, a system that rewards people who take prudent risks and 
punishes those who take irresponsible risks.
  We must return to being a frugal Nation, one where the Federal 
Government balances its budget, encourages savings, and reins in the 
$12 trillion worth of debt. This Nation can no longer afford one more 
loan from China as our credit rating teeters on the brink of failure.
  This structural reform begins with the executives that are tasked 
with running these institutions, banks, and corporations. What this 
economic crisis has taught us is that these CEOs care more about their 
stock options, even at the expense of hiding fraudulent assets and 
taking bogus risks to inflate their P&L statements.
  Government-guaranteed bailouts and guaranteed bonuses allow these 
individuals to escape their poor decisions and sidestep the economic 
hardship that their risky choices have created for the average American 
family.
  I believe this starts by giving investors and shareholders more 
transparency into what occurs in corporate boardrooms. Shareholders and 
investors need greater access to information to allow their confidence 
in company governance determine where their investment capital is best 
allocated. In addition, investors, regulators, and the American people 
need greater transparency into the daily operation of Wall Street. It 
is nearly impossible for one to find information or records of a 
corporation's credit default swaps--who owns them, who backs them, who 
has issued these complex financial tools? Vital information like this 
will help to prevent corporations from concealing this information in 
their books, what they owe and how much debt they really are in? The 
same can be said with regard to the subprime mortgage securities, what 
are they worth now?
  Furthermore, Madam Speaker, there is no such thing as ``too big to 
fail.'' These institutions must realize that every time they make an 
irresponsible decision or a risky bet, the Federal Treasury will not 
come to their financial rescue. Financial bailouts are a slippery slope 
and set a dangerous precedent. When the Federal Government begins to 
arbitrarily pick winners and losers, fairness, equality and the free 
market are tossed out the window, as evidenced by Bear Stearns' 
government bailout and Lehman Brothers allowed failure.
  This administration, the Federal Reserve, and the Federal Treasury 
must release their TARP records and disclose in full how the bailout 
money has been spent, who the money has gone to, and the reason why 
some received help and others were allowed to fail. This money belongs 
to the taxpayers; we have a right to know.
  For these and other reasons, I am calling on this Congress and the 
administration to have a series of comprehensive hearings to determine 
what exactly happened, who was at fault, what is the best way to 
restructure this flawed system, and how are the taxpayers going to get 
their money back from these bailouts?
  Status quo is not acceptable, and neither is bailout after bailout, 
leading to Federal bureaucratic control of our institutions and our 
banks. It is time we find answers to these problems rather than 
continue to throw good money after bad.

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