DISAPPROVAL OF OBLIGATIONS UNDER THE EMERGENCY ECONOMIC STABILIZATION ACT OF 2008
Ms. KAPTUR. Thank you, Chairman FRANK, very much forthe time and for your generous comments, and effort you have made tofix a tragic economic meltdown in our country. I rise today to urge mycolleagues to vote for no more money for Wall Street.
Today, the House will vote on whether to disagree with the$350 billion in additional funding for Wall Street banks. Those of uswho are here on the floor today say ``no more money.'' I urge mycolleagues to withhold further taxpayer funding to Wall Street.
The housing foreclosure crisis is at the crux of oureconomic meltdown. And until we fix that, more money to Wall Street isbut a massive diversion and a ruse. Treasury took our taxpayers' moneyin the last-minute raid before last November's election as it stampedCongress into hasty, misguided and wrong action. The argument was, webetter do something because we don't want to be blamed for whatevermight go wrong. There was little thought, there was a lot of fear.
Well, plenty continues to go wrong. The Dow has dippedbelow 8,000. Homeowners are losing their homes at an accelerating rate.The latest foreclosure numbers underscore the need. Nationally,foreclosure filings surged to 303,000 last month, 303,000families--that's probably close to a million people, an increase of 17percent over the prior month and 41 percent from the same month theprior year. These are staggering numbers.
All that Wall Street has done with our money is try to cover itstracks, allowing big wrongdoers to benefit by coming under theprotection of the Bank Holding Company Act--they think we don'tnotice--by giving those gambling houses deposit insurance which theynever paid for. Worst of all, our homeowners weren't helped. They'restill being bilked and losing their homes.
How has Wall Street bilked the public? Let me count theways. First, predatory loan practices have squeezed out equity fromhomeowners across our country by over-leveraging the market, earningWall Street hundreds of billions of dollars while the good timeslasted. And then, second, when the bubble burst, they placed thetrillion dollar burden of their schemes and massive losses onto theU.S. taxpayer that our children and grandchildren are being asked topay.
Third, Wall Street banks further enriched themselves byrefusing to do loan workouts, which was the original purpose of TARP.And fourth, instead, banks are using the money to buy banks and furtherconcentrate financial power in the hands of very few who you can trackright back to Wall Street.
Meanwhile, at the Main Street level, the sufferingcontinues. Fifth, as Wall Street contracts with absentee auction housesto auction foreclosed properties at fire sale prices in Toledo andSandusky and Cleveland, indeed all across this country, while bookingany tax losses on those properties due to declining property values ontheir Federal taxes for 2008. Another bonanza to them.
Banks are ensuring they will benefit on the upside too asthe mortgage market recovers as the taxpayer-insured Federal HousingAdministration's capabilities are enlarged to buy up those verymortgages. And they're hoping that as families might fall intobankruptcy, that maybe the courts will take care of this too. All theburden is on the homeowner, nothing to hold accountable those who havedone the real wrong.
Believe it or not, Wall Street is now luring cash-strappedlocal governments into schemes to avoid loan workouts to earn money atthe local level from high fees through quick recovery of tax leans owedwhile Wall Street fails to inform homeowners of taxes owed. And thoseWall Street firms are earning huge profits--are you ready for this?Eighteen percent on this scheme alone.
You know, a bank's power, unlike any other organization inour country, is to create money. They don't print it. Instead, throughloans, they create money through transactions that earn money and thenreloan that.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I yield Ms. Kaptur an additional minute.
Ms. KAPTUR. I thank the gentlelady and I thank the gentleman.
It is an awesome power, the power to create money. None of ushave that power unless one considers fraud or forgery. But the gamblinghouses on Wall Street did exactly that, they created money recklessly,using mortgages way beyond what the underlying asset could return. Theydon't deserve any reward.
Vote ``no'' on the second Wall Street bailout. It's justmore of the same. Treasury and Wall Street broke their promise thefirst time, why reward them again? Let's use the appropriateagencies--the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Securities andExchange Commission and HUD--to do the workouts that are necessary.Stop the suffering that I see every week when I return home to mydistrict and places across this country where the American people havehad the door slammed in their face.
What a difficult time is being experienced by millions andmillions of our families. How can we possibly reward Wall Street againwhen they've turned their backs on the very people they're asking topay the bill?
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But what the gambling houses on Wall Street did was create moneyrecklessly, leveraging mortgages way beyond what the underlying assetcould return. Wall Streets bankers are so powerful--and arrogant--andbreed such special relationships inside our federal government, thatthey are not only spared the disciplined rules of the market we mustlive by, they are spared prosecution, so far.
They are so powerful, they repeatedly abuse theirpower--and then run to our taxpayers about every ten years to bail themout. Wall Street banks have special pull up here in Washington throughthe Treasury and Federal Reserve, their campaign contributions, and therevolving door between Washington and Wall Street.
They consistently enrich themselves by indebting theAmerican people for their excess. They've committed crimes much largerthan the last excesses of the savings and loan crisis of the 1980's and1990's. The cost of those massive excesses too was thrown onto thepublic and became the third largest component of America's long termdebt. Then, Wall Street bankers make plenty of money selling those U.S.debt bonds too. It's a win-win for them.
Some would say they make money coming and going! So we haveanother fraudulent meltdown with another Congress and now anotherPresident. We run the risk of being cowed again by their power, ratherthan holding them accountable for their abusive behavior. They arerewarded again in this bill ..... transferring $350 billion more intaxpayer bailout today to paper over the losses.
Yet nothing has been done to turn a face to the taxpayersand mortgage holders who are bearing the personal cost of Wall Street'schicanery. Who will pay Wall Street's bills?
Without our imposing rigor, before more $ is showered onthem, a culture of excess will flourish and become the norm. Americacannot afford more excess and more greed. The latest group ofvictims--homeowners--got shunted aside in the first $350 billion WallStreet bailout. Nothing, nothing was done to help them, even though itwas promised, promised, promised as the key reason for passage of thebailout last year.
The first objective should be expedited workouts as themortgage foreclosure crisis is driving our economy into ruins. You fixthat by doing those mortgage loan workouts, one by one, using the triedand true FDIC, its bank examiners along with the SEC accountingauthorities. That isn't being done. I'm saying families beingforeclosed not leave their houses--to squat--unless Wall St. bailoutservices can produce a full mortgage audit. Who holds your loan? Letthem disclose they have followed truth in lending and RESPA laws.
Treasury--Wall Street's biggest advocate--has been chargedwith mortgage workouts. It has failed our people miserably. Why? It isnot capable of being the mortgage workout instrumentality of ourgovernment. The appropriate agencies are the FDIC, SEC, and HUD.
Vote ``no'' on the second Wall St. bailout. It's just moreof the same. Treasury and Wall Street broke their promise the firsttime. Why trust them again? Let the new President use the agencies thathave the rigor to solve the home foreclosure crisis, not the one thatis Wall St. biggest advocate to cover up Wall Street's abuses andgreed.
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