CQ Transcript: Obama Remarks on the Senate Floor

[babylonsister]

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000002968473

CQ Transcript: Obama Remarks on the Senate Floor

CQ Transcriptswire

Oct. 1, 2008

SPEAKER: SEN. BARACK OBAMA, D-ILL.

OBAMA: Thank you very much, Madam President.

And thank you to the distinguished senator from Connecticut not only for yielding time, but also for the extraordinarily hard work that he’s put in over the last several days and, in fact, over a week. And I want to thank his counterparts on the other side, including Senator Gregg, for their hard work.

Now, the fact that we’re even here voting on a plan to rescue our economy from the greed and irresponsibility of Wall Street and some in Washington is an outrage.

It’s an outrage to every American who works hard, pays their taxes, is doing their best every day to make a better life for themselves and their families.

And understandably, people are frustrated and they’re angry that Wall Street’s mistakes have put their tax dollars at risk. And they should be. I’m frustrated and angry, too.

But while there’s plenty of blame to go around -- and many in Washington and Wall Street who deserve it -- all of us -- all of us have a responsibility to solve this crisis, because it affects the financial well-being of every single American.

There will be time to punish those who set this fire, but now is not the time to argue about how it got set, or did the neighbor sleep in his bed, or leave the stove on. Right now we want to put out that fire, and now’s the time for us to come together and do that.

When the House of Representatives failed to act on Monday, we saw the single largest decline in the stock market in two decades.

Over $1 trillion of wealth was lost by the time the markets closed. And it wasn’t just the wealth of a few CEOs or Wall Street executives.

The 401(k)s and retirement accounts of millions became smaller. The state pension funds of teachers and government employees lost billions upon billions of dollars. Hard-working Americans who invested their nest egg to watch it grow saw it diminish and in some cases disappear.

And while that decline was devastating, the consequences of the credit crisis that caused it will be even worse if we do not act now.

We’re in a very dangerous situation, where financial institutions across this country are afraid to lend money. And if all that meant was the failure of a few banks in New York, that would be one thing, but that’s not what it means.

What it means is, if we don’t act, it will be harder for Americans to get a mortgage for their home or loans they need to buy a car or send their children to college.

What it means is that businesses won’t be able to get the loans they need to open a new factory or make payroll for their workers. And if they can’t make payroll on Friday, then workers are laid off on Monday. And if workers are laid off on Monday, then they can’t pay their bills or pay back their loans to somebody else. And it will go on and on and on, rippling through the entire economy. And potentially we could see thousands of businesses close, millions of jobs could be lost, and a long and painful recession could follow.

In other words, this is not just a Wall Street crisis; it’s an American crisis. And it’s the American economy that needs this rescue plan.

I understand completely why people would be skeptical when this president asks for a blank check to solve this problem. I was, too, as was Senator Dodd and a whole bunch of us here.

And that’s why, over a week ago, I demanded that this plan include some specific proposals to protect taxpayers, protections that the administration eventually agreed to, and, thanks to the hard work of Senator Dodd and Republican counterparts like Senator Gregg, we here in the Senate have agreed to, and now hopefully the House will agree to, as well.

Let me just go over those principles.

Number one, I said we needed an independent board to provide oversight and accountability for how and where this money is spent at every step of the way.

Number two, I said that we cannot help banks on Wall Street without helping the millions of innocent homeowners who are struggling to stay in their homes. They deserve a plan, too.

Number three, I said that I would not allow this plan to become a welfare program for Wall Street executives, whose greed and irresponsibility got us into this mess.

And, finally, I said that, if American taxpayers are financing this solution, then they have to be treated like investors. They should get every penny of their tax dollars back once the economy recovers.

Now, this last part is important, because it’s been the most misunderstood and poorly communicated part of this plan. This is not a plan to just hand over $700 billion of taxpayer money to a few banks.

If this is managed correctly -- and that’s an important “if” -- we will hopefully get most or all of our money back and possibly even turn a profit on the government’s intervention, every penny of which will go directly back to the American people.

And if we fall short, we will levy a fee on financial institutions so that they can repay for the losses that they caused.

Now, let’s acknowledge, even with all these taxpayer protections, this plan is not perfect. Democrats and Republicans in Congress have legitimate concerns about it. Some of my closest colleagues, people I have the greatest respect for, still have problems with it and may choose to vote against this bill, and I think that we can respectfully disagree. I understand their frustrations.

I also know that many Americans share their concerns. But it’s clear that, from my perspective, this is what we need to do right now to prevent the possibility of a crisis turning into a catastrophe.

It is conceivable -- it’s possible that, if we did nothing, everything would turn out OK. It’s -- there’s a possibility that that’s true. And there’s no doubt that there may be other plans out there that, had we had two or three or six months to develop, might be even more refined and might serve our purposes better.

But we don’t have that kind of time. And we can’t afford to take a risk that the economy of the United States of America and, as a consequence, the worldwide economy could be plunged into a very, very deep hole.

OBAMA: So to Democrats and Republicans who’ve opposed this plan, I say: Step up to the plate. Let’s do what’s right for the country at this time, because the time to act is now.

I know many Americans are wondering what happens next. And passing this bill can’t be the end of our work to strengthen our economy; it must be the beginning.

Because one thing I think all of us who may end up supporting this bill understand is that, even if we get this in place, we could still have enormous problems and probably will have big problems in the economy over the next several months and potentially longer, because the fact is, is that we have seen some mismanagement of the fundamentals of the economy for a very long time, and we are not going to dig ourselves out of that hole immediately.

So this is not the end. This is the beginning.

As soon as we pass this rescue plan, we need to move aggressively with the same sense of urgency to rescue families on Main Street who are struggling to pay their bills and keep their jobs. They’ve been in crisis a lot longer than Wall Street has.

I’ve said it before and I say it again: We need to pass an economic stimulus package that will help ordinary Americans cope with rising food and gas prices, that can save 1 million jobs rebuilding our schools, and roads, and our infrastructure, and help states and cities avoid budget cuts and tax increases, a plan that would extend expiring unemployment benefits for those Americans who’ve lost their jobs and cannot find new ones.

That’s the right thing to do at a time when consumer confidence is down and we are in great danger of slipping into a big recession.

We also must do more in this rescue package in order to help homeowners stay in their homes. I will continue to advocate bankruptcy reforms. I know my colleague from Illinois, Dick Durbin, has been a strong champion of this, as have many.

It is the right thing to do to change our bankruptcy laws so that people have a better chance of staying in their homes and we’re not seeing communities devastated all across the country. We should encourage Treasury to study the option of buying individual mortgages, like we did successfully in the 1930s.

And, finally, while we all hope that this rescue package succeeds, we should be prepared to take more vigorous actions in the months ahead to rebuild capital, if it’s necessary.

Now, just as families are planning for their future in tough times, Washington’s going to have to do the same. Runaway spending and record deficits are not how families run their budgets. It can’t be how Washington handles people’s tax dollars.

So we’re going to have to return to the fiscal responsibility we had in the 1990s. And the next White House and the next Congress is going to have to work together to make sure that we go through our budget, we get rid of programs that don’t work, that we make the ones that do work better and cost less.

With less money flowing into the Treasury, some useful programs or policies might need to be delayed. And some might need to be stretched out over a longer period of time.

But there are certain investments in our future that we cannot delay, precisely because our economy is in turmoil.

Mr. President, I’ve exceeded the time a little bit. I would like unanimous consent for a couple more minutes.

(UNKNOWN): (OFF-MIKE) time as he’d like to have.

(LAUGHTER)

(UNKNOWN): Is there objection? Seeing no objection...

OBAMA: Thank you.

There are certain investments in our future that we can’t delay precisely because the economy’s in turmoil. We can’t wait to help Americans keep up with rising costs and shrinking paychecks, and we’re going to do that by making sure that we are giving our workers a middle-class tax cut.

We can’t wait to relieve the burden of crushing health care costs. We can’t wait to create millions of new jobs by rebuilding our roads and our bridges, and investing in broadband lines in rural communities, and fixing our electricity grid so we can get renewable energy to population centers that need them.

And we need to develop an energy policy that prevents us from sending $700 billion a year to tyrants and dictators for their oil.

We can’t wait to educate the next generation of Americans with the skills and knowledge they need to compete with any workers anywhere in the world.

These are the priorities we cannot delay.

Now, let me just close by saying this. I do not think this is going to be easy. It’s not going to come without costs. We are all going to need to sacrifice.

We’re all going to need to pull our weight, because now, more than ever, we are all in this together.

Now, that’s part of what this crisis has taught us, that, in the end of the day, there’s no real separation between Wall Street and Main Street. There’s only the road we’re traveling on as Americans.

And we will rise or fall on that journey as one nation and as one people.

I know that many Americans are feeling anxiety right now about their jobs, about their homes, about their life savings. But I also know this, that we can steer ourselves out of this crisis. We always have.

During the great financial crisis of the last century, in his first fireside chat, FDR told his fellow Americans that, “There is an element in the re-adjustment of our financial system more important than currency, more important than gold, and that is the confidence of the people themselves. Confidence and courage are the essentials of success in carrying out our plan.”

Let us unite in banishing fear. Together we cannot fail. We cannot fail, not now, not tomorrow, not next year. This is a nation that’s faced down war and depression, great challenges and great threats.

And at each and every moment, we have risen to meet up these challenges, not as Democrats, not as Republicans, but as Americans, with resolve and with confidence, with that fundamental belief that, here in America, our destiny is not written for us, it’s written by us.

And that’s who we are. And that’s the country I know we can be right now.

So I want to thank again the extraordinary leadership of Chairman Dodd and the Banking Committee, as well as Chairman Baucus and Majority Leader Reid. They have worked tirelessly.

I want to thank the leadership in the House of Representatives.

I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this important legislation, understanding that this will not solve all our problems. It is a necessary, but not sufficient step to make sure that this economy once again works on behalf of all Americans in their pursuit of the American dream.

Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.

END

Source: CQ Transcriptions, Oct. 1, 2008

[msallied]

1. I can't wait to call him Mr. President.

I also love what he had to say about being in this together.

[islandmkl]

2. unbelievable...

thanks, babylonsister...thanks...

[kid a]

3. Thats our President - a President of which to be PROUD!!!

[LonelyLRLiberal]

4. I assume from earlier posts that McCain did not make a floor speech. I wonder why?

Isn't he the leader of the Republican party by virtue of being their nominee?

[ProgressiveEconomist]

5. K&R. That was fast

[OhioChick]

6. K&R

:kick:

[democrat2thecore]

7. I ** LOVE ** Barack ------ but he's wrong. Here's Senator Bernie Sanders, just moments ago

Newsroom / Archives / Office of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders / Wall Street Bailout -- 10/01/2008 -- 10:00PM EDT

The Senate just approved the $700 billion Wall Street bailout. Senator Bernie Sanders voted against the bill that would put Wall Street’s burden on the backs of the American middle class. “The bailout package is far better than the absurd proposal originally presented to us by the Bush administration, but is still short of where we should be,” Sanders said. “If a bailout is needed, if taxpayer money must be placed at risk, if we are going to bail out Wall Street, it should be those people who have caused the problem, those people who have benefited from President Bush's tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, those people who have taken advantage of deregulation who should pick up the tab, not ordinary working people.”

Sanders proposed a five-year, 10 percent surtax on families with incomes of more than $1 million year and individuals earning over $500,00 to raise $300 billion to help bankroll the bailout. Senators, however, set aside the amendment on a voice vote.

In a Senate floor speech, Sanders elaborated on the bailout bill’s flaws:

"This country faces many serious problems in the financial market, in the stock market, in our economy. We must act, but we must act in a way that improves the situation. We can do better than the legislation now before Congress.

"This bill does not effectively address the issue of what the taxpayers of our country will actually own after they invest hundreds of billions of dollars in toxic assets. This bill does not effectively address the issue of oversight because the oversight board members have all been hand picked by the Bush administration. This bill does not effectively deal with the issue of foreclosures and addressing that very serious issue, which is impacting millions of low- and moderate-income Americans in the aggressive, effective way that we should be. This bill does not effectively deal with the issue of executive compensation and golden parachutes. Under this bill, the CEOs and the Wall Street insiders will still, with a little bit of imagination, continue to make out like bandits.

"This bill does not deal at all with how we got into this crisis in the first place and the need to undo the deregulatory fervor which created trillions of dollars in complicated and unregulated financial instruments such as credit default swaps and hedge funds. This bill does not address the issue that has taken us to where we are today, the concept of too big to fail. In fact, within the last several weeks we have sat idly by and watched gigantic financial institutions like the Bank of America swallow up other gigantic financial institutions like Countrywide and Merrill Lynch. Well, who is going to bail out the Bank of America if it begins to fail? There is not one word about the issue of too big to fail in this legislation at a time when that problem is in fact becoming even more serious.

"This bill does not deal with the absurdity of having the fox guarding the hen house. Maybe I'm the only person in America who thinks so, but I have a hard time understanding why we are giving $700 billion to the Secretary of the Treasury, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, who along with other financial institutions, actually got us into this problem. Now, maybe I'm the only person in America who thinks that's a little bit weird, but that is what I think.

"This bill does not address the major economic crisis we face: growing unemployment, low wages, the need to create decent-paying jobs, rebuilding our infrastructure and moving us to energy efficiency and sustainable energy.

"There is one issue that is even more profound and more basic than everything else that I have mentioned, and that is if a bailout is needed, if taxpayer money must be placed at risk, whose money should it be? In other words, who should be paying for this bailout which has been caused by the greed and recklessness of Wall Street operatives who have made billions in recent years?

"The American people are bitter. They are angry, and they are confused. Over the last seven and a half year, since George W. Bush has been President, 6 million Americans have slipped out of the middle class and are in poverty, and today working families are lining up at emergency food shelves in order to get the food they need to feed their families. Since President Bush has been in office, median family income for working-age families has declined by over $2,000. More than seven million Americans have lost their health insurance. Over four million have lost their pensions. Consumer debt has more than doubled. And foreclosures are the highest on record. Meanwhile, the cost of energy, food, health care, college and other basic necessities has soared.

"While the middle class has declined under President Bush's reckless economic policies, the people on top have never had it so good. For the first seven years of Bush's tenure, the wealthiest 400 individuals in our country saw a $670 billion increase in their wealth, and at the end of 2007 owned over $1.5 trillion in wealth. That is just 400 families, a $670 billion increase in wealth since Bush has been in office.

"In our country today, we have the most unequal distribution of income and wealth of any major country on earth, with the top 1 percent earning more income than the bottom 50 percent and the top 1 percent owning more wealth than the bottom 90 percent. We are living at a time when we have seen a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to the very wealthiest people in this country, when, among others, CEOs of Wall Street firms received unbelievable amounts in bonuses, including $39 billion in bonuses in the year 2007 alone for just the five major investment houses. We have seen the incredible greed of the financial services industry manifested in the hundreds of millions of dollars they have spent on campaign contributions and lobbyists in order to deregulate their industry so that hedge funds and other unregulated financial institutions could flourish. We have seen them play with trillions and trillions dollars in esoteric financial instruments, in unregulated industries which no more than a handful of people even understand. We have seen the financial services industry charge 30 percent interest rates on credit card loans and tack on outrageous late fees and other costs to unsuspecting customers. We have seen them engaged in despicable predatory lending practices, taking advantage of the vulnerable and the uneducated. We have seen them send out billions of deceptive solicitations to almost every mailbox in America.

"Most importantly, we have seen the financial services industry lure people into mortgages they could not afford to pay, which is one of the basic reasons why we are here tonight.

"In the midst of all of this, we have a bailout package which says to the middle class that you are being asked to place at risk $700 billion, which is $2,200 for every man, woman, and child in this country. You're being asked to do that in order to undo the damage caused by this excessive Wall Street greed. In other words, the “Masters of the Universe,” those brilliant Wall Street insiders who have made more money than the average American can even dream of, have brought our financial system to the brink of collapse. Now, as the American and world financial systems teeter on the edge of a meltdown, these multimillionaires are demanding that the middle class, which has already suffered under Bush's disastrous economic policies, pick up the pieces that they broke. That is wrong, and that is something that I will not support.

"If we are going to bail out Wall Street, it should be those people who have caused the problem, those people who have benefited from Bush's tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, those people who have taken advantage of deregulation, those people are the people who should pick up the tab, and not ordinary working people. I introduced an amendment which gave the Senate a very clear choice. We can pay for this bailout of Wall Street by asking people all across this country, small businesses on Main Street, homeowners on Maple Street, elderly couples on Oak Street, college students on Campus Avenue, working families on Sunrise Lane, we can ask them to pay for this bailout. That is one way we can go. Or, we can ask the people who have gained the most from the spasm of greed, the people whose incomes have been soaring under president bush, to pick up the tab.

"I proposed to raise the tax rate on any individual earning $500,000 a year or more or any family earning $1 million a year or more by 10 percent. That increase in the tax rate, from 35 percent to 45 percent, would raise more than $300 billion in the next five years, almost half the cost of the bailout. If what all the supporters of this legislation say is correct, that the government will get back some of its money when the market calms down and the government sells some of the assets it has purchased, then $300 billion should be sufficient to make sure that 99.7 percent of taxpayers do not have to pay one nickel for this bailout.

"Most of my constituents did not earn a $38 million bonus in 2005 or make over $100 million in total compensation in three years, as did Henry Paulson, the current secretary of the Treasury, and former CEO of Goldman Sachs. Most of my constituents did not make $354 million in total compensation over the past five years as did Richard Fuld of Lehman Brothers. Most of my constituents did not cash out $60 million in stock after a $29 billion bailout for Bear Stearns after that failing company was bought out by J.P. Morgan Chase. Most of my constituents did not get a $161 million severance package as E. Stanley O'Neill, former CEO Merrill Lynch did.

"Last week I placed on my Web site, www.sanders.senate.gov, a letter to Secretary Paulson in support of my amendment. It said that it should be those people best able to pay for this bailout, those people who have made out like bandits in recent years, they should be asked to pay for this bailout. It should not be the middle class. To my amazement, some 48,000 people cosigned this petition, and the names keep coming in. The message is very simple: “We had nothing to do with causing this bailout. We are already under economic duress. Go to those people who have made out like bandits. Go to those people who have caused this crisis and ask them to pay for the bailout.”

"The time has come to assure our constituents in Vermont and all over this country that we are listening and understand their anger and their frustration. The time has come to say that we have the courage to stand up to all of the powerful financial institution lobbyists who are running amok all over the Capitol building, from the Chamber of Commerce to the American Bankers Association, to the Business Roundtable, all of these groups who make huge campaign contributions, spend all kinds of money on lobbyists, they're here loud and clear. They don't want to pay for this bailout, they want middle America to pay for it."


http://www.sanders.senate.gov

[barack the house]

11. I think they're both right but in different ways. This time next year If Obama is president>

that will be proved true and we'll be on the raod back. The regulation part will more kick in in 2009 when there is no resistance to the moving of legislation. Just my view personally, time will tell.

[democrat2thecore]

12. I think you are right. -nt

[Median Democrat]

8. This Is Real Leadership - This Is Real Bi-partisan Leadership

If you compare Obama's approach with McCain, it is no contest. McCain swooped in, tried to hijack the process, so all credit accrued to him even though he did not even read the original three page plan. Worse, he put negotiations on ice so that he could get his little photo-op at the White House. Of course, McCain's grand-standing not only undermined his campaign, but it imperiled the legislation. At the White House meeting, McCain was indecisive, and failed to support the bill. Worse, as the bill was going down in flames, McCain was running ads taking credit, rather than giving credit to those fellow members of Congress.

Obama, on the other hand, was fully engaged and spoke daily with the participants, but did not pat himself on the back for Democrats following his lead. He treated his fellow members with respect. The speech above is classic Obama. It offered Democrats and Republicans alike political cover for supporting the bill, and thanked the leaders of both parties. Obama also explained, and sold the need for the plan, far better than McCain who made it a feature of his campaign to denigrate his fellow members in Congress.

[barack the house]

9. He simply knows how to lead and it's a whole new nation around the corner. (eom)

[barack the house]

10. I mean the bill will eventually turn a profit in the long term that is no bad thing really.