The Economy

THE ECONOMY -- (House of Representatives - September 29, 2008)

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, today would have been the end of the 110th Congress. It appears it won't be for we will be returning to work on the bill that failed to pass today. I am a first-year Member, Madam Speaker, as you well know. And this was probably the most important and most difficult vote that any of us had to cast.

I came in today not knowing how I was going to vote. I listened to my constituents. I listened to economists. I listened to members of my party and members of the other party and tried to study on the issue. I ended up voting for the bill because I think it was the right thing to do for our country which I do believe, after reading Thomas Friedman and listening to others, is on the brink of an economic disaster.

The fact is, we need action. This Congress should have acted in a bipartisan fashion to take action. It was difficult to vote for the bill, just like it's difficult sometimes to take medicine that doesn't taste good or to have the doctor give you a shot or to go through a medical procedure. Sometimes you need it when you're sick. You want to avoid it because you don't want the bad taste or the pain of the surgery or the shot, but you know it's going to do you good. To do things that would allow people who have caused us this problem, people on Wall Street and investment bankers who are living all too well, to have some of their bad debts taken from them and to give them some relief was difficult.

But the bottom line is it affects everybody in America. It affects everybody's pension. It affects everybody's savings. It affects people's jobs. It affects the basic economic structure of our country. And to have capitalism and an economic system that works, you have got to have a financial system, an economic system which bankers are part of. And it has to be one that works.

We're interrelated. We had banks in Europe close. Two British banks and a German bank closed yesterday. And Wachovia was taken over today. Other banks in America are in trouble. A banker whom I have confidence in and respect for called me and suggested that if this Congress didn't take action, that there would be runs on banks and bank failures. There would be conduct that would be reminiscent of the 1920s.

On Saturday I had some time and I went out and visited the Franklin Roosevelt Memorial. And I looked at the sculptures of the people in lines, the people that were affected by the Depression and the quote from Franklin Roosevelt that is inscribed on those walls that said ``The test of our progress is not whether we add to the abundance of those who have much. It is whether we provide enough to those who have little.

And I thought about that and the failure of the Senate to pass the economic stimulus bill that we had passed here in this House to help people with food stamps, with Medicaid and with unemployment compensation that have already been affected, that while the bill we had today would have helped everybody, it would have most directly affected people who have much in abundance. And yet the Senate wasn't willing to help those who had too little. And I thought it ran counter to what Franklin Roosevelt spoke about.

There was lots in the bill I didn't like. There were things that could have been better considering the judicial standards and courts having more authority and more oversight. There were things in the bill that could have helped people who are in their homes now with bankruptcy options for judges to allow people to remain in their homes. And those things weren't there.

But on balance, I think we have to avert a disaster which I think we can be coming very close to experiencing. And I think the failure of this House to act in a bipartisan fashion, which it should have, is unfortunate for America.

It was a difficult vote, but I'm proud to have cast it. I hope that when we come back, and we will on Thursday, that the Republicans will come with more votes. They didn't deliver the votes they were supposed to. I was proud of their leadership as well as I was with mine in trying to do something right for America on the last day of this 110th Congress.

Madam Speaker, like you I'm very proud to be a Member of this Congress and to represent my country. I cast a vote that I know some people in my district might question because of the failures of the bill. But not to act would have been wrong. And on balance I felt like the right thing to do for our country to avert economic disaster was to vote for the bill. I hope we come back and have a better bill. Whether it is FDIC insurance going up to $200,000 or more, which I have recommended, whether it is part of the economic stimulus package being added to the bill, or options for bankruptcy judges to keep people in their homes, those are all ways that we can improve the bill. Hopefully we will improve it. And hopefully we will save our economy, the savings of our constituents and jobs of our constituents and keep America a strong and great country which I know it will be.

Madam Speaker, God bless America.

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