[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 14]
[House]
[Pages 18500-18501]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    WASHINGTON-KNOWS-BEST MENTALITY

  (Mr. KINGSTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, last October, President Bush and Hank 
Paulson said to the Congress we need to bail out the financial services 
industry. We have to do it bold and we have to do it quick or the 
financial markets will tumble. Well, we passed the $700 billion TARP 
program, and still stock portfolios, savings of Americans all through 
the country dropped by 30 or 40 percent.
  In January, Nancy Pelosi and President Obama told us that we had to 
act bold and fast to pass the stimulus program because the unemployment 
rate was 8 percent, and now 2.5 million jobs have been lost since that 
and unemployment is up to 10 percent.
  And now the same Washington-knows-best mentality is telling us to 
rush through a government takeover of health care by August 1. This 
will result in a bureaucrat taking the place of your doctor telling you 
what procedures you will have. It will result in a $1 trillion Federal 
program. It will result in rationing and a huge tax increase on farmers 
and small businesses.
  Ladies and gentlemen, we have to slow down. Let's learn from the 
stimulus program. Let's learn from TARP. Let's slow down the process.

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