Home > 2008 Speeches

Mr. Speaker:

In my 7th Congressional District in Washington State, and in towns and cities across America, people are justifiably outraged and dumb-founded that this President would send his Treasury Secretary up here asking for a blank check, again.

Declaring the sky will immediately fall if he doesn’t get it.  With a straight face, but not straight talk, he demanded unchecked, unlimited power to spend $700 billion taxpayer dollars as he sees fit.

From the moment this President took office eight years ago, his Administration has done everything possible to roll back the clock to the roaring 20’s and now they want to roll the American people to pay for it. 

For the last eight years, this Administration rewarded Wall Street and ignored Main Street.  For eight, long years, this Administration encouraged practices that have taken America back to the bad old days of 1929.

And now this Administration wants the American people to pay $700 billion for Wall Street’s arrogance and greed.

The American people are asked to sacrifice, but what about Wall Street?  What has the President asked of them?

Wall Street lobbyists are here by the bus load, trying to cut deals to sweeten the pot for the people who pay them millions.

When someone suggested that any potential bail out ought to include a provision to refinance some mortgages, the lobbyists declared the sky would fall. 

And when someone declared that there should not be golden parachutes for the senior executives who masterminded this crisis, we were told that this was unacceptable. 

Then, when the White House relented and said they might give a little on golden parachutes, the American people are supposed to be thankful and give a lot.  

In case everyone has forgotten, the golden parachutes originally pegged at about $13 million for the chief executives of Freddie and Fannie were cut.  They ended up with a little over 9 million.  Does that sound like sacrifice to you?

Friends and supporters of this Administration have had eight years of unregulated, unfettered access to the wallets of the American people.  Their complex derivatives and mathematical formulas were used to create financial products that can best be described in a single phrase – a house of cards. 

This Administration permitted, encouraged and now wants to mortgage this house of cards to the American people. 

 They take no responsibility for their role in the crisis.  Instead, they warn that the American people will suffer mightily if we do not act.

Suddenly, the Administration and Republican Party that regularly decry government intervention now clamor for it, but only because they can’t find $700 billion anywhere else. 

Did they propose any way to pay for this? 

Did the President offer to reduce some of the massive tax holiday enjoyed by the rich? 

Did they offer something that would benefit the hard-working Americans they want to pay for this?   

To all the American families where the husband and wife work 2, 3 or 4 jobs to make ends meet, to all the single moms and dads who play by the rules, the Administration has offered you a threat and a share of a $700 billion dollar mortgage on a house of cards.

This Administration has brought America to the brink of national bankruptcy and they are banking on fear again, just as they did in the run-up to the Iraq war, to scare you into giving them everything they want.

There’s a line that aptly describes this situation: Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. 

Don’t be fooled.

Remember, Trust is something that is already bankrupt in this Administration.