House Proceeding on Jan 22nd, 2009 :: 2:34:10 to 2:46:50
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2:34:06 to 2:34:26( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: because they're very important ones for us to remember. and, mr. speaker, i have no further speakers and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from north carolina time. the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. frank: how much time do i have remaining? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from massachusetts

2:34:10 to 2:46:50( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Barney Frank

2:34:27 to 2:34:47( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: has 12 minutes remaining. remaing time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. frank: mr. speaker, first i want to address this basic issue again about what the senate is likely to do. technically, there is no likelihood this bill will be

2:34:48 to 2:35:08( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: taken up in the nat because it's the expedited procedures of resolution that's been lled in the senate. the senate could pass the bill rescinding the tarp. having voted by 52-42 not to pass the disapproval resolution it seems to be unlikely that 42

2:35:09 to 2:35:30( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: will become 60 in the near term, but there is that possibility. i will say this to the gentlewoman, both bills, one we passed yesterday and this one will be taken up. in some sense that's true. that makes our point. i didn't say don't do the bill yesterday. when i talked about this bill being already killed in the senate, i wasn't saying don't it. i welcome this debate.

2:35:31 to 2:35:52( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: i was re from my republican colleagues that yesterday was a waste of time. i agree that it is a good thing for us to give our views today and yesterday. i did note in today's "washington post" that they note that the passage of a large majority in the house yesterday, we got a larger majority for this bill than the partisan breakdown. it was largely a partisan vote but not entirely. and more republicans supported

2:35:53 to 2:36:15( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: the bill than republicans opposed it. i think the power of the decision to the desire to help minimize foreclosure and get money to community banks. but my argument is n embraced. the fact that the senate may or may not pass a bill doesn't mean we can't do something. now i want to address an important aspect of this.

2:36:16 to 2:36:38( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: and i'm talking now to people in the obama administration, to the people in the bush administration, to the people in the financial community. we have in this country obviously as you have in any country a certain degree of stratification along various lines. there are people who are at the

2:36:39 to 2:36:59( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: top of the ladder in terms of economic power, in terms of influence. there's an element that would think of themselves as elite opinion. it's not a value term here. but a opinion of a small number of people with a great teal of power. and then there is the opinion of the great majority of americans.

2:37:00 to 2:37:20( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: i want to address now the people at the top of the economic ladder, the people in the community, i'm speaking to some extent to almost every member of this house. there is a dangerous and deeper split between the views of the economic ete on what should

2:37:21 to 2:37:42( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: be done in the current crisis and those of the average american that i have ever seen. we urge some members -- the gentleman from south carolina, mr. barrett, says that the pass helped. the that. i appreciate it. i think it did. my criticism is i don't think

2:37:43 to 2:38:03( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: it helped nearly as much. but i have two criticisms. i think it helped avoid something worse, and of course one of the things we know as elected officials is this. some of the hardest jobs we do are to prevent bad things from happening and we can expect to get no credit for it. disaster averted is nobody's political platform.

2:38:04 to 2:38:24( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: that helps in economic analysis, but you can't go before your voters with what economists call the counterfactual and explain how things would have been worse if you hadn't acted and expect cheers and that's appropriate. the public should have that high demand to make of us.

2:38:25 to 2:38:46( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: but while i and i think most pe level of the economic ladder economists, while most of them think it was a good thing that we passed the bill last year and that 50 billion was deployed, the american people overwhelmingly think it wasn't,

2:38:47 to 2:39:07( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: and that's one of my criticisms of theush administration and of secretary plson, a man whom i admire, with whom i'm proud to have worked, with whom we accomplished a great deal in the areas of financial regulation and housing,est. but here was the mistake. by not listening to public concern about the 50 billion,

2:39:08 to 2:39:28( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: by refusing to follow the congressional mandate to do something about foreclosure, by indulging the arrogance of some of the banks who said, we'll take that money and we won't tell you what we do, they've discredited the notion of intervention of that sort and i think that's a mistake. because i think we are at a

2:39:29 to 2:39:49( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: point where some of that intervention is still needed. now, there are philosophical views that say the other. but there's a division. again, the gentleman from south carolina, mr. barrett, said, we averted a great disaster by passing this. the republican leader is glad he voted for it. i think they're both right and we acknowledge th.

2:39:50 to 2:40:11( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: i have two criticisms to make of the way in which the administration carried it out. one, they didn't do some of the good they could have done and i think they made a fundamental macroeconomic mistake. if you diminish foreclosures, you not only deny people some relief, you don't get people out of the bind its in because the

2:40:12 to 2:40:32( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: continued rapid deterioration in those assets is at the root of the large part of the problem. but what we also had was a degree of alienation on the part of the average american who saw banks getting money, in one case, apparently using them for

2:40:33 to 2:40:54( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: an acquisition of a smaller bank that was important to the community where it existed in ohio. the bank said, whave the money, it's none of your business what we do with it. we saw bonuses given that shouldn't have been given. i am confident that the obama administration has learned from that. but i go beyond that.

2:40:59 to 2:41:20( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: there is in this country today a very sharp divide on a number of issues. not just whether or not you intervene. here's the problem with intervention. when you have a financial system think it is important to try to keep these institutions from collapsing en mass, not that we're at that point, but as an institution's assets deteriorate, its capacity legally to lend, if it's a bank,

2:41:21 to 2:41:41( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: we want to reverse that cycle. it's not overstated but i think we need to intervene in this way. the public says no. because the immediate beneficiary of these interventions are people they don't li. are people who in fact m mistakes. now, it t help the whole economy in some

2:41:42 to 2:42:02( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: cases without some help. we talk about incident victims. these are incident beneficiaries. this is kind of, not casualties, civilian casualties, but civilian beneficiaries. you can't get from here to without helping some of these people. but it ought to be done in way that reassures the average

2:42:03 to 2:42:23( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: american. part of it has to do, i believe, with the wea safety net. people who lose their health care because they lose their jobs will react particularly angryly when a financial institution is benefited. so i make this plea now

2:42:24 to 2:42:44( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: people in the financial institutions, to people at the upper levels of economic decisionmaking and they should understand that this congress representing the people is under enormous pressure to deny them some of the things they thin are necessary. by the way, not just here. in trade, in international trade

2:42:45 to 2:43:06( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: . this is not a congre ready to go forward with that. we had an amendment yesterday offered by the gentlewoman from north rolina, mrs. myrick, recipients of tarp funds can do customer service outsourcing. i believe that most people who are c.e.o.'s of corporations, most economists, or many ecomists, many of the people

2:43:07 to 2:43:27( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: at the top levels of the administrations, bush and obama, and go on back down, probably think that's unwise economic policy. but we didn't have a roll call on it. because that's a totally irresistible im-- impulse here. it may put news trouble with the w.g.o. we'll have to deal with that. people don't like the myrick

2:43:28 to 2:43:48( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: amendment. i supported it. people that don't like the myrick amendment better understand that amendments like that will proliferate until they join us in giving the average american a better sense that he or she will benefit from this prosperity. now that's part of where we are today. let me inquire of the gentlewoman, has the gentlewoman

2:43:49 to 2:44:11( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: yielded ba her time? then i will conclude fairly quickly. but i conclude with a -- look, the senate has already killed this resolution. why are we still voting on it? because there is a degree of anger in the american public at what they think is a very unfair system, that gives benefits

2:44:12 to 2:44:34( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: unduly and disproportionately to some who caused the problem while denying health care and unemployment compens decent higher education for working class people. i mean, mr. speaker, to caution the people who are deeply involved in running this

2:44:35 to 2:44:55( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: financial system in this country. work with us t alleviate this. as long as the average american thinks that a small group is getting help when they're not getting anything, then that small group pretty soon will be getting the help and there may be some cases as when i said,

2:44:56 to 2:45:17( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: benefiting that group is the only way to get broader benefits. that's why we did the bill yesterday. because we think it is a very important way of getting the obama administration -- i believe, by the way, many in the obama administration do agree with that understanding. they will be running pressures from the other side of the people they a the financial committee.

2:45:18 to 2:45:40( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: but it is a broader political point. for those of us who thi there are some who philosophically don't want any government intervention in the market whatsoever, they don't want a minimum wage and they don't want an injection of capital to a failing financial institution. i disyou a degree with that as a matter of -- i disagree with that as a matter of philosophy. what i disagree with is the view that says it's ok to help a.i.g.

2:45:41 to 2:46:01( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: and not worry about their wages but criticize the wages of auto workers. it is the view of too many in the financial community that, yeah, they need some direct help because that's the only way to help the economy and i think that's often the case. you don't have health care. as i said, there is a consistent and honorable philosophical view

2:46:02 to 2:46:22( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: that says no to all of that. what i'm addressing now are those in the sector that would be designated as the elite. who understand the need for an intervention of which they a the direct beneficiaries because that's the only way to help the whole economy. but then resist some of these other things. one of the things that gives me

2:46:23 to 2:46:44( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: optimism about the next two years, mr. speaker, is that i believe we haven't placed a president and majorities in the house and senate who understand that there has got to be some consistency in this approach and that, let me just say in closing, and i hope this resolution is defeated, because i do not think that the obama the right to use tools simply

2:46:45 to 2:46:50( Edit History Discussion )

Barney Frank: because the bush administration misused them and that's the only issue here today, if they were