Ed Perlmutter

Mr. PERLMUTTER

Mr. PERLMUTTER. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. PERLMUTTER. Madam Speaker, I would remind my friend from North Carolina, this is about four suspension matters: Abraham Lincoln, the Pittsburgh Steelers, Ms. Ephraim and National Heart Month. And so I appreciate her comments, but they're not on point. This is about four suspension bills, as well as conducting our business earlier on Fridays and Saturdays. And I will continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. PERLMUTTER. Madam Speaker, for purposes of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Foxx). All time yielded during consideration of this rule is for debate only, and I yield myself such time as I may consume. General Leave

Mr. PERLMUTTER. Madam Speaker, just by way of closing, I want to remind everyone, we're here on House Resolution 157, which is to allow us to hear certain bills under suspension today and tomorrow. Among those are bills concerning American Heart Month; Abraham Lincoln, his 200th birthday; Ms. Ephraim, who was a leading citizen in Sparta, Georgia; and then, of course, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Also, we're asking that on Fridays and Saturdays for the rest of the year that we begin business at 9 o'clock in the morning as opposed to 10 o'clock. That's the resolution that's before the body today. We've had a lot of discussion about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which has been debated really as part of the election, through the end of the year, through this last month, and it will be debated hotly, I'm sure, today and tomorrow concerning how to get this Nation back on track. I just want to read something from Mark Zandi, again, an adviser to Senator John McCain, but somebody who, as many economists across the country, is concerned about this Nation and its economy in terrific terms. This is what he says on page 17: ``The financial system is in disarray, and the economy's struggles are intensifying. Policy-makers are working hard to quell the panic and shore up the economy; but considering the magnitude of the crisis and the continuing risks, policy-makers must be aggressive. Whether from a natural disaster, a terrorist attack, or a financial calamity, crises end only with overwhelming government action.'' That's what we will see in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It's about jobs, maintaining and creating 3.5 million jobs. It isn't the end. There will be a series of measures taken, and it will take time to get this Nation back on track. It took time to get into this ditch. It's going to take time to get out. But we're acting about it. It's going to be done. With that, Madam Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote on the previous question. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution. The previous question was ordered.

Mr. PERLMUTTER

Mr. PERLMUTTER. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the manager's amendment and the bill. We're in a position where $350 billion, without any conditions, is likely to be passed, or it's been requested and likely will go out the door. These conditions are important, and the conditions that are added through the manager's amendment are particularly important. One of the things we talked about with the original TARP bill was that money would, 1, buy mortgage portfolios, 2, recapitalize banks and 3, pass through various agencies to small businesses through the Federal home loan banks and through the farm credit administration. This manager's amendment assures that money passes directly to people on Main Street, including the home builders that Mr. Burton was just talking about, commercial realtors, commercial real estate, farmers, municipal bond dealers, so that credit all across the board is available to people and gets this economy back on track and loosens up credit across the United States. And I support the manager's amendment and ask for an ``aye'' vote.

Mr. PERLMUTTER

Mr. PERLMUTTER. Mr. Speaker, I offer a privileged resolution and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. PERLMUTTER

Mr. PERLMUTTER. Our Nation is facing some of the worst economic conditions in decades. By the end of next year, our economy could fall $1 trillion short of its full capacity. That is a loss of $12,000 of income for every family in America. We cannot continue on this same economic course. Congress must take bipartisan action in the coming weeks to improve our economy both in the near term and down the line. Economists tell us that we must act in bold terms--that we must invest in new technologies and, most importantly, that we must invest in the American people. Congress should work with President-elect Obama to craft a targeted and fiscally responsible economic recovery package that invests in the middle class families by providing them with tax relief during these uncertain times. Madam Speaker, it's going to take time to turn this economy around, but we should start the process immediately so that all Americans can once again live the American dream.

Mr. PERLMUTTER

Mr. PERLMUTTER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And to my friends, Mr. Hensarling and Dr. Price from the Financial Services Committee, you raise some legitimate points. But I think three questions have to be asked, and if they're answered in the affirmative, then I think we must go forward and pass this bill. First, do you believe that the domestic auto industry is essential to America, whether it's for jobs or national security? I think the answer is ``yes.'' But that doesn't answer the whole question. The second two questions are, are you throwing good money after bad, or can you restructure these companies so that they can be competitive and succeed going forward? I think the answer is ``yes.'' We've received reorganization/restructuring plans from them that show really an ability to compete and to bring technology that leapfrogs Japanese technologies and other technologies into the future for our companies. So we can restructure these companies. And the third, can we protect the advances, the loans, that are made by the United States to these companies for the next hundred days? And the answer is ``yes.'' And in fact, we've gone about as far as we can go within the bounds of the Constitution and say that such loans shall be senior and prior to all obligations, liabilities, and debts of the automobile manufacturers, and we will take all available security and collateral. So we've done those three things. Is it essential? Yes. Can they be restructured? Yes. Have we secured the taxpayer? Yes. So we are making a loan for 100 days until a reorganization plan is approved by the President's designee. If in fact during that time there is no reorganization plan or one that is not viable, that designee can call the loan. So this is a step for 100 days to protect an industry that is essential to this country. I've thought about this a lot. We have done what we can to limit executive pay, to stop dividends or distributions during the period of the loans. So we are taking steps to protect taxpayers for an industry that is essential to this country, and we will see over the next 100 days whether they can be restructured.

Mr. PERLMUTTER

Mr. PERLMUTTER. Madam Speaker, I would like to enter into a colloquy with the chairman. Mr. Chairman, there has been a lot of discussion about making sure that businesses, homeowners and farmers all over this country have access to credit to buy inventory or finance a new home or purchase seed for next year's crops. We have several agencies within the Federal Government whose mission it is to provide credit directly to Main Street, to small businesses, to homeowners, to farmers and to people all over this country. Those agencies include the Small Business Administration, the Federal Home Loan Banks and the Farm Credit Administration. Mr. Chairman, will those agencies be utilized to make sure that some of the funding or credit provided by this legislation will go directly to Main Street?

Mr. PERLMUTTER

Mr. PERLMUTTER. Madam Speaker, I rise today to enter into the record a ``yes'' vote for rollcall vote 671. I was present in the chamber on September 29,2008, and thought my vote had been cast on the rule but was not counted.

Mr. PERLMUTTER

Mr. PERLMUTTER. Mr. Speaker, third-quarter data released yesterday highlighted the decrease in home values in 24 out of 25 metropolitan areas, and jobless claims rose to a 7-year high. Our economy is struggling, and people across America are having trouble selling their homes and buying inventory for their businesses. While no one likes the situation we are in, we must do what we can to help America and its families. So I support the financial legislation which has been proposed and is coming to us from the Senate. I encourage the Treasury to work through the Small Business Administration, the Farm Credit Administration, and the Federal Home Loan Bank Board so credit flows to people living in Colorado and across the country. This is one of the most important pieces of economic legislation we have had in decades. And, clearly, the fluctuations in the markets over the past few days and the credit crisis we face must demonstrate we cannot give up on a solution. I believe this is a plan that will help stabilize the market and protects taxpayers, and I support it.

Mr. PERLMUTTER

Mr. PERLMUTTER. Mr. Speaker, the Bush administration with its neocon philosophy either cut back, opposed, ignored or choked off restraints on the markets, especially those of Wall Street, while borrowing billions of dollars from China and Saudi Arabia to finance tax cuts for the wealthiest of Americans and while prosecuting the war in Iraq. The borrow-and-spend approach and the party atmosphere cannot go on forever, and the bailouts, takeovers and bankruptcies of the recent weeks demonstrate that the party is over. Bush's Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson, is asking Congress for hundreds of billions of dollars to compensate for market excesses and wants the money within a week or two to restore confidence to the financial markets. I will listen to Mr. Paulson and his plea on behalf of the Bush administration about this immediate infusion of cash and the purchase of billions and billions of dollars in bad loans to take the burden of this bad debt out of the markets, but I must say I have my doubts about the foxes guarding the hen house or giving the Bush administration any more authority over anything. Thank goodness we did not privatize Social Security.

Mr. PERLMUTTER

Mr. PERLMUTTER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize two members of one of my Colorado offices, Hannah Warfield and Jenny Barringer. These two are world-class athletes from my alma mater, the University of Colorado. They recently competed in the U.S. Olympic track and field trials in Eugene, Oregon; and in Jenny's case, the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. I want to start off by saying a few words about Hannah, a native of Sydney, Montana, who competed in the women's javelin competition. Her work ethic is extraordinary; and despite the rigors of working a full- time job and recently graduating from the University of Colorado, she maintains a training schedule which begins at 5 a.m. in the morning and would humble even the most dedicated among us. This work ethic propelled her to become the 2007 NCAA Women's Big 12 Champion in the javelin event, a distinction not achieved by a University of Colorado athlete in 20 years. She is one of the most pleasant, organized and courteous individuals I have ever had the opportunity to meet. And although Hannah came just short of making it to Beijing, words cannot express the amount of pride and inspiration she brought to our office and our community with her dedication to the pursuit of her dreams. Hannah's positive attitude and tenacity should serve as an inspiration to all of us. Next, I would like to take to moment to speak about Jenny Barringer from Oviedo, Florida, who competed in the women's 3,000 meter steeplechase event. Jenny is a true pioneer in the sport which made its inaugural appearance at the 2008 games. Prior to the Olympics, she shattered the American record in the women's steeplechase with a time of 9:22:73. If that were not enough, she maintains a 3.7 GPA, serves as a sign language interpreter, volunteers with the Ronald McDonald House, Habitat for Humanity, and the local adopt-a-road program. I can attest that Coloradoans watched her with excitement and anticipation as Jenny made her Olympic debut and competed in the Beijing games where she once again made history by breaking her own American record with a time of 9:22:26. This was a 9th place finish in the world. Jenny made our community and Nation proud. But what impresses me most about Hannah and Jenny is that for as great as their athletic ability, they are even better people. Active in their communities, great students, combined with a desire to go above and beyond what is expected, they serve as a positive example of what can be achieved with hard work and a positive attitude. As a father of three young women myself, all of whom are athletes, I can attest Hannah and Jenny represent the pride and hope every parent feels when they drop their own daughters off at an athletic practice. It is an amazing honor to see two of our own in Colorado rise to this level, especially knowing it could not have happened to two better people. Hannah Warfield and Jenny Barringer embody the best our country could hope for in the next generation of Americans, and I am privileged for the opportunity to have come to know these two remarkable individuals.

Mr. PERLMUTTER

Mr. PERLMUTTER. Mr. Speaker, while years of deregulation policies have caused the biggest financial crisis in decades, Senator McCain is touting himself as the greatest deregulator. The Senator has called government regulations unnecessary and burdensome, and has said they should be eliminated. Now he wants to extend his deregulation agenda to the health insurance industry, writing in an opinion op-ed this month, that, ``Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of State-based regulation.'' For 8 years now, the Bush administration has turned a blind eye to all the trading, lending and borrowing that is now responsible for the Wall Street crisis. Senator McCain now wants to extend that same strategy to the health insurance industry? Our Nation's health care system has enough problems, and we don't need to exacerbate them by implementing Senator McCain's dangerous new deregulation idea.

Mr. PERLMUTTER

Mr. PERLMUTTER. I thank my friend for yielding. It's a pleasure to be here with the 30-somethings, even though I don't fit into that category and haven't for some time. But this subject is so important, what you two are talking about tonight. We have a regime in place, in the personalities of George Bush and Dick Cheney, that can't be described in any other way than radical because we've got to go back to some basic principles of our country, some basic values, the basic values that we were founded on, of thrift and sacrifice, of investment, of opportunity for all. But instead, what we've seen in the last 8 years that this administration has pushed and promoted was a greed and gamble, immediate gratification, the theory that I want it now, and I'm not paying for it; my kids or your kids or somebody else is going to pay for it later. To have these tax cuts and prosecute a war immediately turned this country's budget upside down. So you start with that failure. And we've been running behind ever since. Then you forget about the lessons of the past. Now these guys wanted to reverse everything that's happened for the last 70 years, since the thirties. We came through the roaring twenties. We had our Calvin Coolidges, we had our Herbert Hoovers, and we paid dearly during the thirties because we understood at that point that we're going to give up a little bit of the upside so that we don't have the misery of the downside. But those lessons were lost on our friends in the White House. They said, no. Let's not have any kind of regulatory, any kind of constraint on the system.

Mr. PERLMUTTER. I just think one last comment I'd like to make is that there has been a transfer of wealth the likes of which we've never seen in this country. Whether it's to the big oil companies or to some of the Wall Street firms and to other nations, that has come out of the pockets of middle America. And it is time that we come up with new ways to power this Nation. It is time that we, this country, instead of living on a borrow-and-spend philosophy, which is what has been the Bush administration's approach and is what McCain wants to pursue, that we start remembering the values that made us so strong, of thrift and sacrifice and investment, and opportunity for all, not just a select few at the very top. The focus has been on the top 1 percent. It needs to be on the rest of America. And when it's there, that's when we're strong. That's when we are that shining light at the top of the hill, the beacon at the top of the hill. We are a great Nation, and we have stumbled because of bad leadership over the last 8 years. But come November 4th, things are going to change, and we will have a new direction.

Mr. PERLMUTTER. Would my friend yield for a second?

Mr. PERLMUTTER. Debt does matter. And my friend from Pennsylvania was talking about how each of us has to live with the debt that we develop, or our borrowing affects us. It affects this Nation. This Nation has been on a drunken stumble through Wall Street down Main Street. Instead of doing the sacrifice and the thrift, we've been borrowing and spending. And I say we. George Bush, Dick Cheney and the Republican Congress established this kind of an approach, and it has set our country back so that we are a Third World Nation, borrowing from China, borrowing from the Middle East, borrowing from our friends in Europe. And we really are behind the eight-ball because when they don't loan we have trouble, a la, we've had AIG which we've had to bail out; Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and on down the line. Bear Stearns. We've had a radical regime. We can't have this radical kind of an approach anymore. But John McCain wants to subscribe to what George Bush and Dick Cheney have been pushing on this country for the last 8 years. This country can't handle that anymore. We have to have a change. And we have to have a future that really looks at new ways to develop our economy and understand that there have to be some constraints. The free market isn't perfect. It works well, but it isn't perfect because we all have some tendencies that go against those basic principles of sacrifice and thrift and investment and opportunity for all. So what I look forward to, and Barack Obama intends to develop, is a new energy economy. That will put a lot of people back to work, and it'll help us so we aren't hooked on one product and subject to ransom when we go to the gas pumps. We've got a lot of work to do ahead of us because these guys, in 8 years, have turned this country upside down. We can't allow it anymore. We need a change and we need a new direction, and we need it right now. Luckily, we've got an election coming in 40 days or 48 days. And this country can renew itself, can rejuvenate itself. That's the promise of America, thank God. That's the promise for America.

Mr. PERLMUTTER. Yes.

Mr. PERLMUTTER. And they couldn't do it. In fact, they did just the opposite.

Mr. PERLMUTTER. What I was going to say is we are in a predicament, and there is a crisis of confidence, both domestically as well as around the world, because of so many steps that this administration has taken, whether it's to go into Iraq, whether it's, you know, how we dealt with Katrina, all of this mismanagement and unregulation or nonregulation or anti-regulation of the financial markets. The good news, the good news about our country, the good news about America and Americans is that, with good leadership, we can do anything. Times of crisis are also times of opportunity. With good leadership, we can have this new energy economy, we can innovate, and we can be ingenious, and we can imagine things that will really transform this country and this world. That's the kind of vision that is necessary, and we're not going to see that with the other side. Those are old policies. Those are old answers. That's the old way.

Mr. PERLMUTTER. And the best firefighters you can have.

Mr. PERLMUTTER. I'd just like to make two points. And it is the administration that is choosing who lives and who dies. I mean, this really is about winners and losers, and this administration is choosing Bear Stearns, does not choose Lehman Brothers, chooses Fannie Mae, doesn't choose Merrill Lynch, chooses AIG. It is not a congressional action. These are happening within the administration. They're making these choices. Now, maybe we would agree, but we're not given that chance. They're doing these things overnight. Now, there's a Latin saying, ``Res ipsa loquitur.'' Now, many might say, what the heck does that mean? It means, the thing speaks for itself. What's happened in this Nation with these two guys, these two oilmen in the White House leading the charge, this country has turned upside down. And they may want to spread the blame to whoever. You know, Harry Truman had the old saying, ``The buck stops here.'' Those guys would like to spread the blame. They're the leaders, and they've led us down this path. John McCain wants to follow that Bush path. He's trying to run away from it now, but his votes were with the Bush administration over 90 percent of the time. We have to have a change.

Mr. PERLMUTTER. But that goes to another basic value that they have that just is wrong. They want to focus on the wealthiest 1 percent. They don't care about the 99 percent of hardworking Americans who are affected by this. It's hardworking America that are going to have to pick up the pieces after this administration. And really it's going to take all of us, in concert, together, pulling together, like only Americans can do, to deal with the shambles that we have, whether it's the way people were treated with Katrina, the fact that we have bridges falling down in Minneapolis, I mean, this is a time when we all have to pull together, and we have to look forward. We can't go with the same old policies, the same old approaches of the Grand Old Party. It just doesn't work. We're in a new century, and it is time for some new ideas because we've got to move forward.

Mr. PERLMUTTER

Mr. PERLMUTTER. Mr. Speaker, this country was really founded upon sacrifice, investment and opportunity for all, but over the last few years, we've seen the focus being on the wealthiest 1 percent in America to the exclusion of the rest of us, and that House of cards has come tumbling down on Wall Street over the last couple of weeks with the failures of the biggest corporations in America. The policies of this administration not to regulate and the policies to only borrow and spend are causing this country turmoil, and the hardworking people in the middle are going to have to pick up the pieces. It is time for renewal. It is time for a change. The policies of the Democrats and of Barack Obama are going to change the direction of this Nation and make it stronger and make it the Nation that it can be.