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Congressional Record United States Th of America PROCEEDINGS and DEBATES of the 110 CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION

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Congressional Record United States Th of America PROCEEDINGS and DEBATES of the 110 CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 110 CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION Vol. 154 WASHINGTON, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2008 No. 147 House of Representatives The House met at 9 a.m. and was a distress sale of Merrill Lynch over wants to hide the extent of the dam- called to order by the Speaker pro tem- the weekend; Lehman Brothers is look- age, the risk, and the burden on the pore (Ms. SOLIS). ing for bankruptcy on Monday morn- American people. f ing; and the auto industry is looking I would like to enter into the RECORD for another $25 million in bailout; and the lead Sunday editorial in the New DESIGNATION OF SPEAKER PRO AIG wants a $40 billion bridge loan York Times, called: Bailout Hide and TEMPORE from the Federal Reserve. The stock Seek. The SPEAKER pro tempore laid be- market, as I say, went down 500 points The Federal budget deficit has fore the House the following commu- yesterday. No one really thinks we can swelled to more than $400 billion, and nication from the Speaker: see the light at the end of the tunnel. is headed for $500 billion, but the ad- WASHINGTON, DC, Who’s next? We can’t answer that ministration wants to keep the cost of September 16, 2008. question of who is next, other than to the bailouts off the Federal books. I hereby appoint the Honorable HILDA L. say an awful lot of people in the finan- They want to hide the magnitude of SOLIS to act as Speaker pro tempore on this cial industry are working nights and the crisis and their duplicity in making day. weekends to assess their exposure, and it possible for the last 8 years of eco- NANCY PELOSI, do damage control, if possible. nomic abandonment. Speaker of the House of Representatives. What’s next? This is a question we Things are so bad that no one can ac- f can begin to answer. What’s next is curately predict what the cost will be that the American people are going to MORNING-HOUR DEBATE or how much the American people have be on the hook for the Bush problem been saddled with. The only thing the The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursu- for the next generation, and in so many administration keeps saying is, Charge ant to the order of the House of Janu- ways will have to pay much of the fi- it to the American people. Just like ary 4, 2007, the Chair will now recog- nancial mess. the Iraq war, which is adding up to a nize Members from lists submitted by The last 8 years of this administra- trillion-dollar tab. the majority and minority leaders for tion, they did everything they could to morning-hour debate. eliminate, gut, stymie, and ignore re- This President misspent the public The Chair will alternate recognition sponsibility for regulatory oversight by trust and squandered the full faith and between the parties, with each party the Federal Government. This adminis- credit of the American people. The limited to 25 minutes and each Mem- tration worshipped at the altar of the bills just keep coming due after the ad- ber, other than the majority and mi- free enterprise system and the market. ministration leaves office. They say in nority leaders and the minority whip, The President wanted the gold, but business: There’s no such thing as a limited to 5 minutes, but in no event without a standard. free lunch. What they don’t say is that shall debate continue beyond 9:50 a.m. Republicans did everything they the President has arranged for the American people to pick up the tab. f could to let the financial industry do anything it wanted, regardless of con- The American financial crisis is the TAKING THE ‘‘FREE’’ OUT OF THE sequence. At the same time, the admin- culmination of Republican economic FREE ENTERPRISE SYSTEM istration made clear in its Federal ap- policies. Spend freely, lower taxes, and The SPEAKER pro tempore. The pointments they wanted Federal regu- don’t ask anybody to make any kind of Chair recognizes the gentleman from latory agencies on the sidelines. sacrifice for a war. Just spend. They Washington (Mr. MCDERMOTT) for 5 Without government oversight got what they wanted, and left the minutes. watching out for the interests of the American people holding the bag, and Mr. MCDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, American people, the industry turned the tab. this is a propitious day. The market free rein into freewheeling, irrespon- The next administration will not dropped 500 points yesterday, the larg- sible policies. When the dominoes only have to rebuild America’s moral est drop since 2001. The economic and began to fall, the administration leadership in the world, we will have to regulatory policies of this President stepped in to charge billions for bail- rebuild America’s economic system has certainly taken the ‘‘free’’ out of outs to the American people. And it’s and the confidence here at home. The the free enterprise system. Across not over yet. legacy of this President is clear. He America, the dominoes are falling. The current financial crisis is the took the ‘‘free’’ out of the free enter- Bear Stearns fell a few months ago; worst in decades, and yet the shell prise system, and instead billed it to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, a week ago; game goes on. The administration the American people. b This symbol represents the time of day during the House proceedings, e.g., b 1407 is 2:07 p.m. Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor. H8131 . VerDate Aug 31 2005 05:48 Sep 17, 2008 Jkt 069060 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 4634 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\A16SE7.000 H16SEPT1 jbell on PROD1PC69 with HOUSE H8132 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE September 16, 2008 Madam Speaker, we can’t wait to be considering this year in the next earmarks that were requested by that have the change that BARACK OBAMA week or so. There’s a rumor going appropriator, as well as a few other will bring for this country. around that the defense bill might even Members. [From the New York Times, Sept. 14, 2008] be brought to the floor without going I would remind my colleagues that BAILOUT HIDE AND SEEK through a full Appropriations Com- appropriators make up 15 percent of the Members in this body. Yet, in this On Friday, less than a week after the gov- mittee markup. ernment took control of Fannie Mae and Now that is troubling in itself, but bill, appropriators alone are taking 44 Freddie Mac, the White House announced what is more troubling is that there percent of the earmarks. Again, just 15 that there is no reason at this time to ac- are some 1,200 earmarks in this defense percent of the Members of the body, count for the companies in the federal budg- appropriation bill that very few Mem- and 44 percent of the earmarks. et. That is great news for officials who prefer bers of this body have actually even When you translate that into actual to hide the cost of the bailout since it is due, seen. That list has been passed around dollar amounts, appropriators are tak- in large part, to their failure to adequately to Appropriations Committee mem- ing $1.6 billion taxpayer dollars back to regulate the financial markets and steward bers. A few members of the press have their district. This represents 48 per- the economy. But it is an insult to tax- cent of the total dollars earmarked in payers, whose money is at risk, and it is a seen it. Our office managed to see a copy of the report. But virtually no- this massive appropriations bill. reckless gambit. So what we have here, Madam Speak- The Congressional Budget Office reported body else has seen it. That is 1,200 ear- on Tuesday that the government’s finances marks. For all the talk about trans- er, is a spoils system. It’s not any high- are deteriorating rapidly: the budget deficit parency and a new process and where minded, I know my district better than for this year is expected to reach $407 billion, these earmarks will be vetted, we see some faceless bureaucrat. It’s, If I am more than double last year’s shortfall, and very little of that here. an appropriator, or I am in a leadership to exceed $500 billion in 2009. The takeover of I have been troubled for a long time position, I’m in a good position to get Fannie and Freddie, necessary though it is, these earmarks. will add to the deterioration. Airbrushing at the number of earmarks that go through this body. A lot of people have Let me just run through a couple of that away will only open the door to unin- the earmarks in the bill. This is a de- been troubled. The whole country is formed—or negligent—decisions on spending fense bill. The purpose of this appro- and tax cuts. troubled by the number of earmarks priation bill is to fund our troops and The White House says that the extent of that go through this body without real- to fund our defense. Yet, we have, for the government’s control of Fannie and ly even being seen and without any- example, something called the Presidio Freddie does not warrant including the com- body knowing what they are about.
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