House Proceeding 03-19-09 on Mar 19th, 2009 :: 1:30:10 to 1:37:55
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1:30:06 to 1:30:27( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: we have a lot more that we're going to talk about and now it's mpleasure to yield to mr. cole of oklahoma for how much time do you want? mr. cole: four, five minutes the most. mr. latourette: five minutes. mr. cole: i thank the gentleman for yielding and i thank him in the way which he framed the debate and did it in a way where we can all understand. but this has been a troubling

1:30:10 to 1:37:55( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Tom Cole

1:30:28 to 1:30:48( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: episode as well. you know, i think -- well, i guess what i would call bonusgate, begins, i like to think of three words. we've heard a lot of three words. we've hearthe word inherit. we've heard the word transparency. and we've heard the word accountability.

1:30:49 to 1:31:10( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: well, this is not a situation that was inherited by this administration or by this majority. this was a situation that came into being on their watch. this is a situation where they've not been transparent. quite the opposite. they've done everything they can to obscure what happened, when it happened, who's responsible. and finally, it's certainly an incident, at least to this

1:31:11 to 1:31:31( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: point, nobody has been held accountable for anything. it's just something that somehow is unfortunate but we're going to move collectively to try and correct before we've even identified who created the problem for in the first place. what do we know? well, we do know a lot. we do know that secretary geithner has been involved in

1:31:32 to 1:31:53( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: designing legislation around both the bailout and the stimulus literally since november -- really, since september, involved in his capacity as director of federal reserve, chairman of the federal reserve in new york. we do know that frankly heas aware at some point late last

1:31:54 to 1:32:15( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: this year at the minimum that there were going to be large bonuses paid, certainly e fed had been inford that and we would expect in his position there and as secretary treasurer he would have been informed. we do know tt he had the means to stop this. he literally released $30 billion at the beginning of

1:32:16 to 1:32:36( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: this month to a.i.g. at that point he could have literally said, look, you do this, no money. you're bankrupt. i suspect something could have happened where these bonuses wouldn't have been pai out. we also know that he didn't bother to tell the president of the united states for whom he works and to whom he is responsible anything about this

1:32:37 to 1:32:57( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: until the day before it happened. that's what the secretary said. that's what the president has said. you know, so we know that mr. geithner has been around this problem a lot, and we know that he did not -- it appears he did not inform the president of its dimension. now, the second thing we know

1:32:58 to 1:33:18( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: relates to the smulus bill. and my friend, mr. latourette, went through that pretty well. we had a bill that was ram through, that literally was put together in a hurry, where this body guaranteed its members by unanimous bipartisan vote we would have time to read it. we weren't given the time in this body we said we would give

1:33:19 to 1:33:39( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: members. we know that the bill eventually ended up in a conference committee. we have a pretty good idea who the six people were that were there. one of whom we now presume had nothing to do with this. i'm sure i would certainly take the chairman at his word. and we know that that language was inserted in that conference.

1:33:40 to 1:34:00( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: it was not something that was inherited from the last administration. it was not something to be fair that was even in the first version of the stimulus bill. it was something that was ecifically put there. and so while we know that the majority didn't read the bill and we know that the minority didn't read the bill and i doubt the president read the

1:34:01 to 1:34:22( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: bill, somebody read the bill. somebody read the bill well enough to know, hey, there's language in here to prevent the payment of bonuses and we need to get that out and put something in. so somebody did indeed finally read the bill. we also know that today, you know, rather than confront those questions we decided we'd

1:34:23 to 1:34:43( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: do everything we cld on the floor of this body to look like we were doing something. as a matter of fact, i would argue we made a lot of the same mistakes. you know, we presented a bill that hadn't gone through committee, that people hadn't seen, that people hadn't discussed because we were trying to show that we were

1:34:44 to 1:35:04( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: trying to act. we presented a legislation, which didn't go through, which would exonerated the administration. now, those are all things that we know. what should we do is now the real question, it seems me. the first thing we should do is do what the president did in the very first week of this administration and say, i made a mistake.

1:35:05 to 1:35:26( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: i think the classic word was, i screw up. i think the president, the administration, certainly the majority, screwed up. i think admitting it would be helpful. the second thing i would do if i were president of the united states is firehe secretary of the treasury. you know, i wouldn't wait for him to resign. i would make the point. if there's something this explosive and this important

1:35:27 to 1:35:47( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: and this damaging and you know about it for months and you don't bothero tell me about it until the day before it happens when i'm in almost no position to do anything about it, i'm sorry, i don't think you're who i need to be secretary of the treasury. goodbye. i think the president would score enormous points within his whole body.

1:35:48 to 1:36:09( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: we heard a democratic member of congress calling on this floor to do something like that. finally, we need the people in that room to just simply fess up. one out of six of them did it. and if they did it at somebody else's instructions at the white house, then they ought to tell us who that was. who sent that language down?

1:36:10 to 1:36:30( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: or i drafted it or whatever. but there's not that many people involved. you know, i still retain faith that the truth is going to come out here and that people will step up and do the right thing. .

1:36:31 to 1:36:53( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: winston churchill useed to like to say, you can always count on the american people to do the right thing after they have exhausted every other possibility. i would suggest that's what the administration has been doing, exhausting possibilities. but in the end, they need to do the right thing. fire the secretary, in my opinion, who certainly has not served his president well.

1:36:54 to 1:37:14( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: admit who ever put this language in there, tell us who instructed or asked them or requested that they do it. and level with the american people, instead of pass smoke screen, whitewash legislation, which, by the way, is dangerous in and of itself.

1:37:15 to 1:37:35( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: you don't use the tax code as a punitive weapon to direct it at people. it's extraordinarily bad and blunt. and to do it only to provide cover, you know, is i think a ngerous thing. i don't think my colleagues who voted for this expect this to

1:37:36 to 1:37:55( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: become law. this was a political exercise put together at the last minute to give people cover before they went home. let's show mr. churchill he is mistaken, perhaps we could do the right thing and i ask the administration to step forward