Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 111th Congress, First Session Page: 4 of 106
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S9302 COI
warning signs and started an investiga-
tion but then dropped the case. They
saw it coming too.
But the industry did not act alone.
For years, the previous administration
put the interests of Wall Street before
those of Main Street. The mantra of
the last 8 years was deregulation, de-
regulation, and more deregulation. The
last White House refused to police
lenders when they deceived and de-
frauded Americans looking for loans
and necessity to protect consumers
when they were being abused.
The previous administration did
nothing while Wall Street traders bid
up the price of oil, took windfall prof-
its, and left the tab for the rest of a Re-
publican idea Warren Buffett called fi-
nancial weapons of mass destruction.
It is interesting to note, I believe the
Presiding Officer was in a meeting last
Thursday when Warren Buffett told us,
in an effort to help General Electric, he
bought their credit division. He looked
this over and found that some of the
swaps were not due for 100 years-100
years. He said he knew he couldn't help
that and lost hundreds of millions of
dollars. He said: I want nothing to do
with that, even though the original in-
vestment was to help the economy.
What Warren Buffett called financial
weapons of mass destruction is what
they were.
Instead, the previous administration
sat and watched while the subprime
mortgage market sent millions into
foreclosure and nowhere worse than in
Nevada. It gave tax breaks to the
wealthiest Americans but gave no
thought to how we would make up for
the lost revenue.
It looked the other way while the ex-
ecutives who got us into this mess took
home bonuses and golden parachutes
and continued to look the other way
while taxpayers, consumers, and inves-
tors were taken to the cleaners.
It declared war on fiscal responsi-
bility and accountability. It said any-
thing goes, but all Americans saw go
were their jobs. That is all they saw go.
They saw their jobs, their homes, and
their economic security go down the
drain.
The previous administration simply
refused to safeguard the American peo-
ple from an impending crisis clearly
visible on the horizon. It was a time of
blissful ignorance, at best, and willful
neglect, at worst.
The hard-working Americans who
lost everything did nothing wrong, but
their leaders did nothing-period.
We all know what happened next. Our
economy was paralyzed and credit was
frozen. Families and businesses were
forced to make painful cuts-cuts that
were felt in every corner of our country
and every industry in our economy.
The stock market lost a third of its
value in just a few months in 2008. Con-
sumer confidence was at an all-time
low as the cost of living went up and
incomes went down. Families and fi-
nancial institutions alike could not
pay the bills. People could not get carCONGRESSIONAL RECORD - SENA
loans, students could not get college
loans, and small businesses could not
grow their companies.
Economic experts, from Nobel Prize
winners to former Cabinet Secretaries,
to Ivy League professors, said we need-
ed to act fast to keep a bad situation
from getting worse.
Despite it all, those in the Bush
White House and some Republicans in
Congress told us the economy was fun-
damentally sound at a time when it
was fundamentally flawed.
The history books will tell the tale of
what happened in the weeks and
months after September 14, 2008: major
investment banks that for decades sim-
ply disappeared; institutions that were
once synonymous with success became
synonymous with distress; and Amer-
ica took unprecedented steps to sta-
bilize a bleeding economy.
But the history books will also tell
the tale of what happened before Sep-
tember 14, 2008. The singular lesson
from that gilded age is that we cannot
wait until a system collapses before we
act to save it.
Today, the system headed for its
breaking point is the health insurance
system. We have already seen what
happens when we do nothing about ris-
ing health care costs and reckless
health insurance policies. We have al-
ready seen what happens when we let
the market take care of itself, as some
of my colleagues have urged us to do.
Over the past 8 years of inaction, the
price of staying healthy in America
rose to record levels, and the number of
Americans who cannot afford insurance
did the same.
For the millions of families who file
for foreclosure because they cannot af-
ford both their house and their health
care, not acting is not an option.
For the millions of Americans who
filed for bankruptcy because their med-
ical bills grow higher and higher, not
acting is not an option.
For the millions of Americans who
skip doctor visits or treatments they
need to stay healthy or who never fill
the prescriptions their doctor gives
them because health care is simply so
expensive, not acting is not an option.
For the 600,000 Americans-including
46,000 from Nevada-who, we learned
last week, joined the ranks of the unin-
sured between 2007 and 2008, not acting
is not an option.
During that time, 600,000 Americans
have lost their health insurance. In Ne-
vada, 220 families a day lose their
health insurance. The number is much
higher in densely populated States
such as Virginia.
That is a lesson we need to hear
extra loud today. We again see the
storm clouds gathering. This time they
hover over the health care system. We
again can predict the very real and
very painful consequences of not act-
ing. We again see disaster but again
one that is avoidable. Again, we have a
choice.
If we learn the lessons of the finan-
cial crisis, the choice we will make isTE September 14, 2009
to put the future of the American peo-
ple first. We will choose to recognize
that working people, not greedy execu-
tives, are the backbone of our econ-
omy, and we will choose to give them
the security and stability they deserve.
We will choose to act in the short
term for the sake of the long term.
We will choose to put the American
people first and fulfill our fundamental
duty to promote their well-being.
We will choose to keep the insurance
companies and government bureau-
crats out of people's medical decisions.
We will choose to keep health care
companies honest and accountable.
We will choose to give the American
people more choices in their health
care coverage.
And we will choose to make quality,
affordable care available to every sin-
gle American.
Those in Congress who think we can-
not afford health insurance reform
sound an awful lot like those who
didn't want to risk the windfall profits
during Wall Street's heyday.
Those in the health insurance busi-
ness who let their profits and bonuses,
rather than their conscience or ethics,
guide their decisions sound an awful
lot like those who got us into this mess
in the first place-those who saw all
the warning signs and stuck their
heads in the sand.
This country has no place for those
who hope for failure and this time has
no patience for those who seek more of
the same failed policies.
George Santayana famously said:
Those who cannot remember the past are
condemned to repeat it.
My response to those who want to ig-
nore the lessons of last year is simply
we cannot afford to let history repeat
itself.
RECOGNITION OF THE MINORITY
LEADER
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem-
pore. The Republican leader is recog-
nized.
HEALTH CARE REFORM
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President,
over the past months, Americans have
grown increasingly alarmed about the
high levels of spending and debt we
have seen under the new administra-
tion. They have become increasingly
vocal about these concerns out of a
growing sense that the White House
does not seem to be listening to them,
that it is talking over them.
Nowhere is this more apparent than
in the debate over health care and
never more so than in the President's
speech to Congress last week. For
weeks and weeks, Americans had ex-
pressed their concerns about the Demo-
crats' health care proposals at town-
hall meetings across the country. Yet
the President returned from the Au-
gust break with a speech that did not
address any of them.
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United States. Congress. Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 111th Congress, First Session, book, September 14, 2009; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth877468/m1/4/?q=american+indian: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting National WASP WWII Museum.