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Mr. Speaker

The economic and regulatory policies of this President have certainly taken the free out of the free enterprise system. Across America, the dominoes are falling. Bear Stearns fell a few months ago. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a week ago. A distress sale of Merrill Lynch over the weekend. Lehman Brothers heading for bankruptcy on Monday morning. The auto industry looking for a government bailout. And, A-I-G - wants a $40 billion bridge loan from the Federal Reserve. The stock market plummets 500 points yesterday and no one really thinks we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Who’s next?

We can’t answer the question of who is next, other than to say that an awful lot of people in the financial industry are working nights and weekends to assess their exposure and do damage control, if possible. What’s next? This is a question we can begin to answer. What is next is that the American people are going to be on the hook for a generation and in so many ways will have to pay for much of the financial mess.

For the last eight years of this Administration, they did everything they could to eliminate, gut, stymie and ignore responsible regulatory oversight by the federal government. This Administration worshipped at the altar of free enterprise.  The President wanted the gold, but without a standard.

Republicans did everything they could to let the financial industry do anything it wanted, regardless of the consequences. At the same time the Administration made clear in its federal appointments they wanted federal regulatory agencies on the sidelines.

Without government oversight watching out for the interests of the American people, the industry turned free rein into freewheeling, irresponsible practices.  And when the dominoes began falling, the Administration stepped in to charge billions for bailouts to the American people– and it is not over yet.

The current financial crisis is the worst in decades and yet the shell game goes on. 

The Administration wants to hide the extent of the damage, the risk and burden on the American people. I ask unanimous consent to enter into the Record the lead Sunday editorial in the New York Times called Bailout Hide and Seek.

The federal budget deficit has swelled to more than $400 billion, and is heading for $500 billion, but the Administration wants to keep the cost of the bailouts off the federal books.  They want to hide the magnitude of the crisis and their duplicity in making it possible through eight years of economic abandon. Things are so bad that no one can accurately predict what the cost will be, or how much risk the American people have been saddled with. The only thing the Administration keeps saying is charge it to the American people.  Just like the Iraq war, which is adding up to a trillion dollar tab. 

This President mis-spent the public trust, and squandered the full faith and credit of the American people. The bills will keep coming due long after the Administration has left office.

They say in business that there’s no such thing as a free lunch.  What they don’t say is the President has arranged for the American people to pick up the tab.

The American financial crisis is the culmination of Republican economic policies.  They got what they wanted and left the American people holding the bag – and the tab. The next Administration will not only have to rebuild America’s moral leadership in the world. It will also have to rebuild America’s economic system and confidence here at home. The legacy of this President is clear: He took the free out of the free enterprise system and instead billed it to the American people. 

Thank you.