Support For The "Let Wall Street Pay For The Restoration Of Main Street Act'' Introduced By Representative Peter Defazio

Floor Speech

* Ms. HIRONO. Madam Speaker, years of deregulation and exorbitant risk-taking in the financial markets contributed to the financial turmoil we're in today. Last week, the House passed a bill that would bring common sense reforms on Wall Street so that taxpayers would never again be on the hook for bailing out firms and banks for their risky, irresponsible behavior.

* Congress must now pass legislation that puts people back to work. Through TARP, the federal government loaned billions of taxpayer dollars to Wall Street. It's time for Wall Street to help create jobs on Main Street.

* This can happen in two ways: by using some of the available TARP funds and by imposing a modest Wall Street transaction tax on certain securities trades. This latter proposal could raise up to $150 billion a year, part of which could go toward infrastructure investment and partly to debt reduction.

* I ask my colleagues to support these proposals so that we can curb speculation and create jobs that will put Americans back to work again.

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