NO BAILOUT FOR EXECUTIVES
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, Congress is being pushed to pass aBush administration plan to write a blank check to white collarcriminals of the highest order. Instead of prosecuting those who stolefrom us, Secretary Paulson wants us to reward his former colleagues fortheir bad decisions, abusive and unlawful practices.
While my constituents are struggling to pay their gasbills, we should recall fondly the record annual bonuses SecretaryPaulson's alma mater, Goldman Sachs, gave less than 2 years ago. In2006, that investment house alone paid $16.5 billion in compensation toits employees averaging more than $600,000 per employee. In fact,Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein got $53.4 million that year. And BearStearns chief executive officer, the company that the Fed just bailedout with our money, James E. Cayne, got a stock bonus that year worth$14.8 million. Merrill Lynch chief executive officer Stanley O'Neal, hegot $35.4 million. Think about this America.
Now 2 years later, those houses are demanding that ourtaxpayers bail out their companies, despite the fact that the realmedian household income of a middle class family in our country isabout $50,000 a year. That doesn't matter to the people drafting thisbailout.
In 2006, Forbes Magazine estimated Secretary Paulson earned$16.4 million as CEO of Goldman Sachs, not counting all his otherperks. His net worth is estimated somewhere over half a billiondollars. Indeed, that tidy amount alone would make a real dent in whatis owed to the American people in this proposed bailout.
So why would our middle class taxpayers be asked to bailout billionaires? Some of them should be doing time for insider tradingand fraudulent accounting rather than lobbying down here in Washingtonfor us to bail them out.
American taxpayers were forced to lay out $30 billion to help Bear Stearns.
And then we were asked to shell out the first $200 billion, andthat could rise to $2.44 trillion, for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Andnow, $85 billion to rescue AIG Insurance Company.
Who ever heard of the Federal Government rescuing aninsurance company that was already paying, get this, civil fines in NewYork for its wrongdoing of over $1.6 billion on proven charges ofserious accounting fraud and misconduct.
Why send our hardened paychecks to the very people who caused these problems?
Americans don't need to write checks. We need investigations,and we don't need just investigations, we need prosecutions. Whitecollar crimes of this magnitude cannot go unpunished, nor can they getrewarded.
First, investigation. We need the American people's voicesto be heard, not just the voices of those who perpetrated these crimesagainst us, the taxpayers. We need real congressional investigation andoversight in each of the committees of jurisdiction which seemstrangely silent here, using their subpoena power, the JudiciaryCommittee, the Ways and Means Committee, the Energy and CommerceCommittee, the Budget Committee, the Financial Services Committee,which is having a perfunctory hearing tomorrow, I guess, and GovernmentOversight. The silence is deadening.
The crimes of Wall Street will make Watergate look like penny-ante thieves.
Second, campaign reform. Get the Wall Street money out ofcongressional and presidential races. Wall Street is now the Number 1top source of Federal campaign money to Congress and in thosepresidential races. And guess who's the Number 1 Wall Street giver?Goldman Sachs. And guess where our last two Treasury Secretaries havecome from? Goldman Sachs.
Whether it's a Democratic administration or a Republican,not one lawmaker or candidate should be accepting Wall Street money.Wall Street is so broke as to beg for our help, but somehow they havemillions of dollars to drop into political coffers.
I think the American people are beginning to get the picture. In fact, I'm putting in the Recordtonight an article from the Wall Street Journal called Wall Street TopSource of Campaign Money, and also a list of the biggest donors on WallStreet.
Mr. Speaker, I will continue tomorrow evening to talk aboutjustice and empowering the Department of Justice to institute a majorinvestigation.
And let me also, in closing say, I'm going to be placing in the Record tonight some remarks from Americans who have ideas about what should be done.
I want to compliment the American people. You're doing a lot of thinking on your own. We need to hear from you.
This Congress shouldn't be closing down and going home. We should be
taking care of America's business, not going home to campaign.