[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 16]
[Senate]
[Pages 21463-21464]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   NOT LETTING HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, just a year ago today, our economy came 
precariously close to its breaking point--as close to the brink as it 
had in generations. One year ago today, Lehman Brothers, part of the 
foundation of Wall Street for more than a century and a half, 
collapsed.
  Much is being made of this anniversary. The media is dedicating 
significant amounts of air time, newsprint, and bandwidth to analyzing 
what it means, to recording how far we have come since that day, and to 
describing the work we still have before us. President Obama went to 
Wall Street today to reiterate the importance of strengthening the 
system that keeps financial firms in check.
  But as significant as this occasion is, it is critical to remember 
that the economic crisis was not created in a day. As dramatic as it 
may sound, the reality is that our economy did not wake up on the 
morning of September 14 and suddenly find itself in the emergency room. 
In fact, this was a long time coming. The Lehman collapse was simply 
the final straw that broke a vulnerable economy's back, the final spark 
that ignited a highly flammable and flawed system.
  The conditions that created this crisis had been brewing for years. A 
lethal combination of government deregulation and industrial 
irresponsibility meant Wall Street could run wild. And run wild it did. 
Greed, excess, and reckless risk ruled the day. Disdain for government 
oversight--even though the singular purpose of oversight is to protect 
the people--was in vogue. Loopholes were exploited. When the rules did 
not offer any loopholes, those rules were broken.
  More than a year and a half before his company's collapse, a Lehman 
executive told his boss how risky the mortgages that had artificially 
inflated their business were. He knew the bubble was bound to burst, 
and he knew that once the housing market fell, it would fall onto the 
nearby dominos in the banking markets and credit markets. He saw it 
coming.
  I repeat, he knew that once the housing market failed, it would fall 
onto the nearby dominos in the banking markets and credit markets. He 
saw it coming.
  Bear Stearns knew as early as 2005 that the complicated loans it 
packaged were too good to be true. The Securities and Exchange 
Commission saw the warning signs and started an investigation but then 
dropped the case. They saw it coming too.
  But the industry did not act alone. For years, the previous 
administration put the interests of Wall Street before those of Main 
Street. The mantra of the last 8 years was deregulation, deregulation, 
and more deregulation. The last White House refused to police lenders 
when they deceived and defrauded Americans looking for loans and 
necessity to protect consumers when they were being abused.
  The previous administration did nothing while Wall Street traders bid 
up the price of oil, took windfall profits, and left the tab for the 
rest of a Republican idea Warren Buffett called financial weapons of 
mass destruction.
  It is interesting to note, I believe the Presiding Officer was in a 
meeting last Thursday when Warren Buffett told us, in an effort to help 
General Electric, he bought their credit division. He looked this over 
and found that some of the swaps were not due for 100 years--100 years. 
He said he knew he couldn't help that and lost hundreds of millions of 
dollars. He said: I want nothing to do with that, even though the 
original investment was to help the economy. What Warren Buffett called 
financial weapons of mass destruction is what they were.
  Instead, the previous administration sat and watched while the 
subprime mortgage market sent millions into foreclosure and nowhere 
worse than in Nevada. It gave tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans 
but gave no thought to how we would make up for the lost revenue.
  It looked the other way while the executives who got us into this 
mess took home bonuses and golden parachutes and continued to look the 
other way while taxpayers, consumers, and investors were taken to the 
cleaners.
  It declared war on fiscal responsibility and accountability. It said 
anything goes, but all Americans saw go

[[Page 21464]]

were their jobs. That is all they saw go. They saw their jobs, their 
homes, and their economic security go down the drain.
  The previous administration simply refused to safeguard the American 
people from an impending crisis clearly visible on the horizon. It was 
a time of blissful ignorance, at best, and willful neglect, at worst.
  The hard-working Americans who lost everything did nothing wrong, but 
their leaders did nothing--period.
  We all know what happened next. Our economy was paralyzed and credit 
was frozen. Families and businesses were forced to make painful cuts--
cuts that were felt in every corner of our country and every industry 
in our economy.
  The stock market lost a third of its value in just a few months in 
2008. Consumer confidence was at an all-time low as the cost of living 
went up and incomes went down. Families and financial institutions 
alike could not pay the bills. People could not get car loans, students 
could not get college loans, and small businesses could not grow their 
companies.
  Economic experts, from Nobel Prize winners to former Cabinet 
Secretaries, to Ivy League professors, said we needed to act fast to 
keep a bad situation from getting worse.
  Despite it all, those in the Bush White House and some Republicans in 
Congress told us the economy was fundamentally sound at a time when it 
was fundamentally flawed.
  The history books will tell the tale of what happened in the weeks 
and months after September 14, 2008: major investment banks that for 
decades simply disappeared; institutions that were once synonymous with 
success became synonymous with distress; and America took unprecedented 
steps to stabilize a bleeding economy.
  But the history books will also tell the tale of what happened before 
September 14, 2008. The singular lesson from that gilded age is that we 
cannot wait until a system collapses before we act to save it.
  Today, the system headed for its breaking point is the health 
insurance system. We have already seen what happens when we do nothing 
about rising health care costs and reckless health insurance policies. 
We have already seen what happens when we let the market take care of 
itself, as some of my colleagues have urged us to do.
  Over the past 8 years of inaction, the price of staying healthy in 
America rose to record levels, and the number of Americans who cannot 
afford insurance did the same.
  For the millions of families who file for foreclosure because they 
cannot afford both their house and their health care, not acting is not 
an option.
  For the millions of Americans who filed for bankruptcy because their 
medical bills grow higher and higher, not acting is not an option.
  For the millions of Americans who skip doctor visits or treatments 
they need to stay healthy or who never fill the prescriptions their 
doctor gives them because health care is simply so expensive, not 
acting is not an option.
  For the 600,000 Americans--including 46,000 from Nevada--who, we 
learned last week, joined the ranks of the uninsured between 2007 and 
2008, not acting is not an option.
  During that time, 600,000 Americans have lost their health insurance. 
In Nevada, 220 families a day lose their health insurance. The number 
is much higher in densely populated States such as Virginia.
  That is a lesson we need to hear extra loud today. We again see the 
storm clouds gathering. This time they hover over the health care 
system. We again can predict the very real and very painful 
consequences of not acting. We again see disaster but again one that is 
avoidable. Again, we have a choice.
  If we learn the lessons of the financial crisis, the choice we will 
make is to put the future of the American people first. We will choose 
to recognize that working people, not greedy executives, are the 
backbone of our economy, and we will choose to give them the security 
and stability they deserve.
  We will choose to act in the short term for the sake of the long 
term.
  We will choose to put the American people first and fulfill our 
fundamental duty to promote their well-being.
  We will choose to keep the insurance companies and government 
bureaucrats out of people's medical decisions.
  We will choose to keep health care companies honest and accountable.
  We will choose to give the American people more choices in their 
health care coverage.
  And we will choose to make quality, affordable care available to 
every single American.
  Those in Congress who think we cannot afford health insurance reform 
sound an awful lot like those who didn't want to risk the windfall 
profits during Wall Street's heyday.
  Those in the health insurance business who let their profits and 
bonuses, rather than their conscience or ethics, guide their decisions 
sound an awful lot like those who got us into this mess in the first 
place--those who saw all the warning signs and stuck their heads in the 
sand.
  This country has no place for those who hope for failure and this 
time has no patience for those who seek more of the same failed 
policies.
  George Santayana famously said:

       Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat 
     it.

  My response to those who want to ignore the lessons of last year is 
simply we cannot afford to let history repeat itself.

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