Reports
Support Grows for Economic Rescue Plan: Protecting Taxpayers & Insulating Main Street from Wall Street
10/02/2008
This Congress has insisted from day one on substantial changes to the original Bush-Paulson plan to ensure American taxpayers are protected and the interests of Main Street are addressed.
- Strong independent oversight, transparency, and accountability requiring Congressional review after the first $350 billion is disbursed
- Limits on excessive compensation for CEOs and executives of participating financial institutions
- Requiring a plan that would ensure taxpayers are repaid in full—or even make a profit
- Property tax relief for up to 30 million homeowners -- extending a new $1,000 per couple property tax deduction for non-itemizers
- Requiring the government to steer mortgages in danger of foreclosure to loan workout programs to keep families from losing their homes
“Our country grows weary and weakened with every hour and every day that Congress refuses to take action toward protecting home values, retirement dreams and younger generation's opportunities.” [10/1/08]
Cynthia Blankenship, Chairman of the Independent Community Bankers of America
“Rapid action by Congress to address the current liquidity and credit crisis will ensure that the flow of funds to Main Street will continue and local credit needs are met.” [10/1/08]
Gov. Joe Manchin (D-WV) – Chairman, Democratic Governors Association
Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas) – Chairman, Republican Governors Association
“This economic crisis is not just impacting Wall Street; it is also making life harder for everyday Americans. Americans across the country and in every demographic are feeling the pinch. If Congress does not act soon, the situation will grow appreciably worse. It's time for leadership. Congress needs to act now.” [Joint Letter to Speaker Pelosi, 10/1/08]
Robert Greenstein, Executive Director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Chad Stone, Chief Economist at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
“The House should quickly approve the financial rescue plan that the Senate approved in strong bipartisan fashion yesterday. Further delay would leave the U.S. economy increasingly vulnerable to a contraction more severe than any since the 1930s — one that could trigger large increases in unemployment and poverty and the loss of a sizeable portion of many families’ retirement savings... The bottom line, however, is that the potential consequences of defeating this legislation are far too grave to ignore. Quick action to enact this legislation is imperative in order to reduce the great risk of a financial market meltdown that would harm millions of low- and moderate-income households.” [10/2/08]
Mayor Manny Diaz, President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors
“On behalf of the American people, the US Conference of Mayors urges and expects Congress to move quickly to adopt a thorough solution to address the national financial crisis for the long term, a solution that benefits both Main Street America and Wall Street.” [10/1/08]
Cynthia McCollum, President of the National League of Cities
“It is imperative that the federal government responds now to the financial crisis for a multitude of reasons, including to avoid impairing the ability of local governments to serve Americans in the places they call home…Now is the time for Congress and the Administration to work together across party lines, chambers, and branches of government. We applaud their constructive efforts to date and urge their continued focus at this important time.” [10/1/08]
Glenn English, CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association
“I am writing to urge Members of Congress to come together in this critical time to approve an economic rescue plan… Consumers will clearly see noticeable rate increases if these issues are not addressed. Local electric cooperatives are not separate from the consumers we serve. Our consumers own us, and would be directly affected by a threat to the availability of credit and increased interest costs.” [Letter to Congress, 10/1/08]
Randall Edwards, Oregon State Treasurer
Edward Alter, Utah State Treasurer
“As State Treasurers and fiduciaries to billions of state assets, we are watching the developing financial crisis on Wall Street with growing alarm. Clearly the seriousness and urgency of the situation demands a timely and effective response from the Congress and the Administration. We urge Congress to reach a bipartisan agreement now to bring liquidity and stability to financial markets.” [Joint Letter to Speaker Pelosi, 9/26/08]
Robert P. Johnston, Chair of the Large Public Power Council
“The recent events in the financial world have caused the credit markets to become unavailable to many businesses that are dependent on them for continued operations… The impacts include the inability to find a sufficient number of lenders for short term borrowings, thereby jeopardizing the ability to have enough cash to meet daily operating expenses…That’s why we are urging you and your colleagues in the Congress to support an immediate ‘rescue’ from this financial crisis that now faces our nation.” [9/30/08]
Tom Buis, President of the National Farmers Union
“Congress must take decisive and responsible action to address the nation’s credit and economic crisis while protecting the interests of American taxpayers by not rewarding those entities that led us to where we are today. Providing incentives for renewable energy production will help alleviate these concerns and keep rural America’s economy strong.” [10/1/08]
Todd Stottlemyer, President and CEO of the National Federation of Independent Businesses
“We must ensure that Wall Street’s problems don’t become Main Street’s problem.” [10/1/08]
Brad Smith, General Counsel of Microsoft, Inc.
“This legislation is vitally important to the health and preservation of jobs in all sectors of the economy of Washington State and the nation, and we urge Congress to act swiftly…In the over 35-year history of Microsoft, we've never taken a position on a piece of banking legislation, but unusual times call for unusual steps.” [9/29/08]
Cal Dooley, President of the American Chemistry Council
“Without reliable access to credit, the ability of ACC member companies to pay their bills, purchase inventory, meet payroll and make critical investments in new technologies would be severely compromised, with potential 'ripple effects' throughout the economy.” [10/1/08]
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-Calif.)
“I am writing to urge you to vote in favor of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act…It goes without saying that, when people and companies can’t get the money to buy cars, inventory goods, plant crops, expand business and go to school, economic activity slows down, leading to job losses, wage reductions, savings declines and pension failures all along Main Street, California.” [Letter to California’s Congressional Delegation, 10/1/08]
James Greenwood, President and CEO of the Biotechnology Industry Organization
“In order to support and foster creation of the high-wage jobs associated with R&D in the biotechnology industry, as well as other sectors of our economy, BIO strongly supports House passage of a strengthened R&D credit as part of the “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.” [10/2/08]
Financial Services Roundtable
“America needs legislation that will instill stability in the U.S. economy, restore confidence and bring liquidity to the markets. This bill will help and Americans and businesses of all sizes to gain necessary access to credit and help at-risk homeowners to stay in their homes and avoid foreclosures.” [10/2/08]
Letter to Congress signed by 75 Economists
“As economists, we write to support the plan before Congress dealing with the financial crisis…Our country has weathered significant financial crises over the years. It will weather this one as well. The main lesson learned from prior crises is that timely and aggressive government intervention can restore confidence and galvanize the private sector to take mutually reinforcing and economically beneficial actions. This ability of the government to set the economy on a healthy path makes the proposed intervention much less risky than would otherwise seem to be the case. We call upon all members of Congress to support this important legislation knowing full well that doing so is neither easy nor guaranteed of success.” [9/30/08]
Richard Arnould, University of Illinois
Henry Aaron, The Brookings Institution
Bahram Adrangi, University of Portland
Lanny Arvan, University of Illiniois Roger Koenker, University of Illinois
Laurence J. Kotlikoff, Boston University
Howard Kunreuther, University of Pennsylvania
Arvind Krishnamurthy, Northwestern University
Alan Auerbach, University of California
Lawrence Ausubel, University of Maryland
Kathy Baylis, University of Illinois
Valerie Bencivenga, University of Texas Kevin Lang, Boston University
Barton Lipman, Boston University
Michael Manove, Boston University
Preston Mcafee, Caltech Robert Margo, Boston University
Douglas Bernheim, Stanford University
Dan Bernhardt, University of Illinois
John Bigelow, The Princeton Economics Group
Douglas Blair, Rutgers University Walter W. McMahon, University of Illinois
David G. Mathiasen, U.S. Senior Executive Service
Joe Minarik, Committee for Economic Development
Len M. Nichols, New American Foundation
Alan Blinder, Princeton University
Emily J. Blanchard, University of Virginia
Michael Boskin, Stanford University
Ricardo Caballero, MIT Van Doorn Ooms, Committee for Economic Development
Jon Orsag, University of Southern California
Christina Paxson, Princeton University
Thomas J. Prusa, Rutgers University
Domingo Cavallo, Fundación Mediterránea, Argentina Salim Rashid, University of Illinois
Christophe Chamley, Boston University
Joaquin Cottani, LECG, LLC.
Peter Cramton, University of Maryland
Robert H. Dugger, Tudor Investment Corporation Bruce Reynolds, University of Virginia
Hugh Rockoff, Rutgers University
Alice M. Rivlin, The Brookings Institution
Isabel Sawhill, Brookings Institution
Todd Easton, University of Portland
Everett Ehrlich, ESC Company
Niall Ferguson, Harvard University
Jeffrey Frankel Harvard University Elliot Schwartz, Committee for Economic Development
Neil Sheflin, Rutgers University
George P. Shultz, Stanford University
Hal Sider, Compass Lexecon
Daniel Friedman, University of California
Donald Fullerton, University of Illinois
K.C. Fung, University of California
Eric Furstenberg, University of Virginia Alan Spearot, University of California, Santa Cruz
Eric Toder, The Urban Institute
Eric Van Wincoop, University of Virginia
Luis M. Viceira, Harvard University
Robert Hall, Stanford University and the Hoover Institution
Daniel Hamermesh, University of Texas at Austin
James Harrigan, University of Virginia
James Henry, Sag Harbor Group, Inc. Ingo Vogelsang, Boston University
Eugene N. White, Rutgers University
Roberton C. Williams III, University of Texas at Austin
Robert Willig, Princeton University
Firouz Gahvari, University of Illinois
Richard Gilbert, Compass Lexecon
John Goodman, National Center for Policy Analysis
Lawrence H. Goulder, Stanford University Sidney G. Winter, University of Pennsylvania
Seung-Hyun Hong, University of Illinois
William Johnson, University of Virginia
Joseph Kasputys, Global Insight, Inc.
Justine Kilpatrick, retired
Business Roundtable Letter to Congress signed by 108 Business Leaders
“We urge Congress to act immediately to pass bipartisan legislation to stabilize the U.S. financial system and contain the damage to our broader economy while that opportunity still exists. The American people have always risen to whatever economic challenges they have faced, and with swift congressional action we can meet this crisis and restore our economy to its historic path of strong growth and rising prosperity.” [10/2/08]
Enrique Santacana, Pres. & CEO, ABB, Inc.
Miles White, Chairman & CEO, Abbott
William Green, Chairman & CEO, Accenture
Evan Greenberg, Chairman & CEO, ACE Group
Gary Butler, Pres. & CEO, ADP Marshall Larsen, Chair., Pres., & CEO, Goodrich Corp.
Dinesh Paliwal, Chairman & CEO, Harman International Industries
David Cote, Chairman & CEO, Honeywell International Inc.
Brendan McDonagh, CEO, HSBC North America Holdings, Inc.
Mike McCallister, Pres. & CEO, Humana, Inc.
Ronald Williams, Chairman & CEO, Aetna, Inc.
John McGlade, Chair., Pres., & CEO, Air Products & Chem, Inc.
James L. Wainscott, Chair., Pres., & CEO, AK Steel Corp.
Klaus Kleinfeld, Pres. & CEO, Alcoa, Inc.
Thomas Wilson, Chair., Pres., & CEO, Allstate Insurance Co. Steve Roell, Chairman & CEO, Johnson Controls, Inc.
Samuel Palmisano, Chair., Pres., & CEO, IBM Corporation
John Faraci, Chairman & CEO, International Paper
Steven Loranger, Chair, Pres., & CEO, ITT Corporation
Timothy Flynn, Chairman & CEO, KPMG
Lee Styslinger III, Chairman & CEO, Altec, Inc.
Michael Morris, Chair., Pres. & CEO, Amer. Elec. Power Co.
Kenneth Chenault, Chairman & CEO, American Express Co.
James Cracchiolo, Chairman & CEO, Ameriprise Financial
James Hackett, Chair., Pres, & CEO, Anadarko Petro. Corp. Edmund Kelly, Chair., Pres., & CEO, Liberty Mutual Group
Stuart Reese, Chair., Pres., & CEO, MassMutual Financial Group
Harold McGraw III, Chair., Pres., & CEO, McGraw-Hill Co.
John Hammergren, Chairman & CEO, McKesson Corp.
David Snow Jr., Chairman & CEO, Medco Health Solutions, Inc.
Paul Jones, Chairman & CEO, A.O. Smith Corporation
G. Steven Farris, Pres., CEO, & COO, Apache Corp.
Steven Leer, Chairman & CEO, Arch Coal, Inc.
Patricia Woertz, Chair., CEO & Pres., Archer Daniels Midland
Charles McClure, Chair., CEO & Pres., ArvinMeritor, Inc. Gregory Brown, Pres. & Co-CEO, Motorola, Inc.
John Luke Jr., Chairman & CEO, MWV Corporation
Thomas Nelson, Chair., Pres., & CEO, National Gypsum Co.
Jerry Jurgensen, CEO, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.
Dan Ustian, Chair., Pres., & CEO, Navistar
Dean Scarborough, Pres. & CEO, Avery Dennison
Ronald Nelson, Chairman & CEO, Avis Budget Group
Riley Bechtel, Chairman & CEO, Bechtel Group, Inc.
Stephen Schwarzman, Chairman & CEO, Blackstone Group
W. James McNerney Jr., Chair, Pres., & CEO, Boeing Ted Mathas, Pres. & CEO, New York Life Insurance
C.W. Moorman, Chair., Pres., & CEO, Norfolk Southern Corp.
Daniel DiMicco, Chairman & CEO, NUCOR Corp.
Steve Odland, Chairman & CEO, Office Depot, Inc.
Michael Thaman, Chairman & CEO, Owens Corning
Robert Malone, Chairman & Pres., BP America, Inc.
Michael Dan, Chair., Pres., & CEO, Brink’s Company
John Swainson, CEO, CA, Inc.
Harold Boyanovsky, Pres. & CEO, Case New Holland, Inc.
James Owens, Chairman & CEO, Caterpillar, Inc. Richard Wambold, Chairman & CEO, Pactiv Corp.
Jeffrey Kindler, Chairman & CEO, Pfizer Inc.
Steve Angel, Chairman & CEO, Praxair, Inc.
Dennis Nally, Chairman & Sr. Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers
Larry Zimpleman, Pres. & CEO, Principal Financial Group
Kathryn Marinello, Chairman & CEO, Ceridian Corp.
Dave O’Reilly, Chairman & CEO, Chevron Corp.
H. Edward Hanway, Chairman & CEO, CIGNA Corp.
Mayo Shattuck III, Chair., Pres., & CEO, Constellation Energy
David Dougherty, Pres. & CEO, Convergys Corp. A.G. Lafley, Chairman & CEO, Procter & Gamble Company
Ralph Izzo, Chair, Pres., & CEO, Public Service Enterprise Group
Henry Silverman, Chairman, Realogy Corporation
Keith Nosbusch, Chairman & CEO, Rockwell Automation
Brenda Barnes, Chairman & CEO, Sara Lee Corporation
Douglas Stotlar, Pres. & CEO, Con-way, Inc.
Wendell Weeks, Chairman & CEO, Corning, Inc.
Eric Fast, Pres. & CEO, Crane Co.
Michael Ward, Chair., Pres., & CEO, CSX Corp.
Tim Solso, Chairman & CEO, Cummins Inc. James Goodnight, CEO & Founder, SAS
Fred Hassan, Chairman & CEO, Schering-Plough Corp.
J. Patrick Spainhour, CEO, ServiceMaster Global Holdings
George Nolan, CEO, Siemens Corporation
Edward Rust Jr., Chairman & CEO, State Farm Insurance
Robert Lane, Chairman & CEO, Deere & Co.
James Quigley, CEO, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
Robert Miller, Exec. Chairman, Delphi Corp.
J.T. Battenberg III, Chair. & CEO (Ret), Delphi Corp.
Andrew Liveris, Chairman & CEO, Dow Chemical Co. Richard Templeton, Chair., Pres., & CEO, Texas Instruments
Lewis Campbell, Chair., Pres., & CEO, Textron, Inc.
Marijn Dekkers, Pres. & CEO, Thermo Fisher Scientific
Tom Lynch, CEO, Tyco Electronics
Edward Breen, Chairman & CEO, Tyco International
Chad Holliday, Chairman & CEO, DuPont
J. Brian Ferguson, Chair. & CEO, Eastman Chemical Co.
Antonio Perez, Chairman & CEO, Eastman Kodak Co.
Alexander Cutler, Chairman & CEO, Eaton Corp.
John Lechleiter, Pres. & CEO, Eli Lilly Corp. Jim Young, Chairman, Union Pacific
Louis Chenevert, Pres. & CEO, United Technologies Corp.
Ivan Seidenberg, Chairman & CEO, Verizon
Dan Fulton, Pres. & CEO, Weyerhaeuser Company
Jeff Fettig, Chairman & CEO, Whirlpool Corp.
James Turley, Chairman & CEO, Ernst & Young, LLP
William Walter, Pres. & CEO, FMC Corp.
Lewis Hay III, Chairman & CEO, FPL Group, Inc.
Jeffrey Immelt, Chairman & CEO, GE
G.R. Wagoner Jr. Chairman & CEO, General Motors Corp. Steven Malcolm, Chair., Pres. & CEO, Williams Companies, Inc.
Ann Mulcahy, Chairman & CEO, Xerox Corporation
William Zollars, Chair., Pres., & CEO, YRC Worldwide