House Proceeding 04-29-09 on Apr 29th, 2009 :: 2:59:00 to 3:10:20
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2:58:56 to 2:59:20( Edit History Discussion )

Michael E. Capuano: been of interest to our colleagues and i just ask please to do a little better in the next 100 weeks. the speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2009, the gentleman from massachusetts, mr. capuano, is recognized for 60 minutes as designee of the

2:59:00 to 3:10:20( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Michael E. Capuano

2:59:37 to 2:59:57( Edit History Discussion )

Michael E. Capuano: majority leader. mr. capuano: madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. capuano: thank you, madam speaker. i'm here tonight to talk about some of the fiscal issues that have affected this country and how they were caused and maybe a little bit of who caused them and who didn't cause them.

2:59:58 to 3:00:19( Edit History Discussion )

Michael E. Capuano: over the last several months, obviously there's been a lot of debate thabt and there have been a lot of people who want tooint a lot of fingers at other people that's natural. we all tend to do some of that in our lives. it's particularly natural here in washington, people love to point fingers at somebody else when there's bad things going on and people love to point

3:00:20 to 3:00:40( Edit History Discussion )

Michael E. Capuano: fingers at themselves when something good goes on. in this particular case, with the financial crisis we have, instd of stepping up and understanding, i believe, that every single american, including me, as hamm -- has some degree of blame in the current fiscal situation. evybody tried to get a piece of the american dream. everybody tried to punch up

3:00:41 to 3:01:01( Edit History Discussion )

Michael E. Capuano: whatever retirement plans they had, everybody tried to get better rates on their loans, everybody tried to get better rates on their credit cards. everybody tried to get more mortgages than they could afford. everybody tried to do it. of course, business, some people were in -- in business were there to try to provide those things. i think it's ludicrous to try

3:01:02 to 3:01:23( Edit History Discussion )

Michael E. Capuano: to blame any one in particular or any group of people. i think it is all of us that have some degree of blame. as i hear some of my colleagues a few minutes ago try to blame fannie and freddie, try to blame individual members of this house or the senate, i i actually have more faith in the average americanhan to think they would any any individual or any one group

3:01:24 to 3:01:45( Edit History Discussion )

Michael E. Capuano: could do it. in this particular case, let's go back just a little bit. what was fannie and freddie created for? they were created to help the middle class be able to purchase a home. that's why they were created. because before their creation, home ownership was limited to only about 20% to 30% of americans.

3:01:46 to 3:02:06( Edit History Discussion )

Michael E. Capuano: about 60% to 70% of americans were never able to afford a home because banks simply wouldn't make loans unless they were absolutely guaranteed of always getting their money back, wouldn't take any risks whatsoever. so fannie and freddie were created in order to stabilize home ownership that was on the

3:02:07 to 3:02:27( Edit History Discussion )

Michael E. Capuano: border, they were also created, most importantly to expand the availability of mortgages to working people. and it happened, slowly, other there country fwrent a place where only 30% of americans owned homes to now in today's world, approxitely 70% of americans own their own homes. that's in contrast to most of

3:02:28 to 3:02:48( Edit History Discussion )

Michael E. Capuano: western europe where i 90% of people own their own homes. i personally think, having been raised in a middle class, lower middle class family that home ownership is still the best way to guarantee entry and maintenance of a middle class lifestyle. it's the largest purchase any of us will ever make, it's the

3:02:49 to 3:03:09( Edit History Discussion )

Michael E. Capuano: most important purchase. in the normal course of event, over time you build up equity in a home and most of us have to remortgage to send our kids to college. that's how most of us afforded to be able to send our kids to college. all that being said, fannie and freddie and the con soacht a government-sponsored enterprise

3:03:10 to 3:03:30( Edit History Discussion )

Michael E. Capuano: have created over time an immense number of homeowners. an immense number of people who would not otherwise have had an opportunity to get a mortgage. i have no doubt, i totally agree over the last 10 or so years, like everybody else, they decided to stretch some of the definitions to do some things that maybe were questionable, not necessarily

3:03:31 to 3:03:52( Edit History Discussion )

Michael E. Capuano: for any nefarious reason, but for the same reason banks were doing , for the same reason hedge funds were created to get a little bit better return. now there were many of us at the time, now i'm talking back in 2005 and earlier, who said, you know, maybe they've gone too far. maybe they've expanded it a

3:03:53 to 3:04:14( Edit History Discussion )

Michael E. Capuano: little bit too much. maybe they have ton reine d'back in. back at that time, our friends the republicans on the other side of the aisle were in charge of the house, they were in charge of the senate and they were in charge of the white house. . and we worked with them to try

3:04:15 to 3:04:36( Edit History Discussion )

Michael E. Capuano: to address some of these very issues, and we did. we got a bill out of committee and onto the floor of this h in a bipartisan fashion that would have reined in some of the concerns that these people that have just talked have about fannie and freddie. i don't want to pretend they were the only ones doing this,

3:04:37 to 3:04:57( Edit History Discussion )

Michael E. Capuano: but they are the ones we were responsible for. and it was done in a responsible and bipartisan way with chairman oxley and ranking member barney frank and the white house, the bush white house, not the obama white house, the clinton white house, but with the bush white house. when the bill t out here, some

3:04:58 to 3:05:20( Edit History Discussion )

Michael E. Capuano: of the extreme members wanted to shut down the whole thing having no clue how their constituents were going to be able to afford a home and they raised their concerns that government should have nothing to do with mortgage rates. well, that's ridiculous. that is ridiculous. and they just decided to kill it.

3:05:21 to 3:05:41( Edit History Discussion )

Michael E. Capuano: this is back in 2003, 2004 and 2005. if you don't believe me, we have quotes here from chairman oxley himself. he was quoted as saying -- this is after the fact. this is dated september, 2008. talking about those times and chairman oxley himself, this is

3:05:42 to 3:06:02( Edit History Discussion )

Michael E. Capuano: a quote from the financial times, not necessarily the bastian of liberal thinking. this is a quote. all the hand ringing and bed wetting is going on without remembering how the house stepped up on this, he says. what did we get from the white house? we got a one-finger salute.

3:06:03 to 3:06:25( Edit History Discussion )

Michael E. Capuano: well, we tried to rein in fannie and freddie. the right-wing members of the republican party decided to say no and decided to let it ride. i understand what they were doing for political purposes. i don't know what they were trying to do for financial or government purposes.

3:06:26 to 3:06:46( Edit History Discussion )

Michael E. Capuano: but idealogs ruined this place never understand that what is doing what's right for people is better than winning an ideological argument. in this case, if we had done that one thing -- again this is the chairman of the financial services committee at the time, a republican chairman, this is a

3:06:47 to 3:07:07( Edit History Discussion )

Michael E. Capuano: direct quote, we missed the golden opportunity that would have avoided a lot of the problems we are facing now. i happen to agree with him we didn't take the opportunity. and what happened? a few years after that, things got worse. democrats took the house back. that was one of the first things we did.

3:07:08 to 3:07:28( Edit History Discussion )

Michael E. Capuano: we passed a bill to reform fannie and freddie. we passed a bill to reduce and restrict subprime loans as quickly as we could. you can't put the genie back in the bottle. this is 2007, after most of the problems had been caused. i won't pretend that myself and

3:07:29 to 3:07:50( Edit History Discussion )

Michael E. Capuano: others don't have some degree of blame. i am happy to accept my degree. what did i do? what did people who agreed with me do? i was happy to push to allow more people to qualify for mortgages. i thought at that time and i still believe that that is a good goal. i will admit, knowing what we know now, maybe we pushed a

3:07:51 to 3:08:11( Edit History Discussion )

Michael E. Capuano: little too hard for some people. i agrewith that. i understand that. that dsn't mean when times get better, people like me won't push again, because i still believe that the best way into the middle class and the best way to stay in the middle class is home ownership. and i don't know anyone who

3:08:12 to 3:08:37( Edit History Discussion )

Michael E. Capuano: disagrees with that, except people who are in the higher income brackets who have theirs and more than happy to pull up the ladder for the next people trying to make it to the middle class. people want to rewrite histo i understand that. it's not new. it an old political game. but facts are facts.

3:08:38 to 3:08:58( Edit History Discussion )

Michael E. Capuano: when the government agencies had overstepped some of their bounda to help them get back within those boundaries. we worked with republicans and got a good bipartisan bill out of committee and then that bill fell into the hands of the newt gingriches and others of the world who legality their ideology control everything they

3:08:59 to 3:09:20( Edit History Discussion )

Michael E. Capuano: do and say. and as soon as we got the votes, we addressed the issues. and we are still addressing them now. yes, we are trying to fix the mess we inherited and we will are also trying to make sure while we're doing that, that these things can't happen again,

3:09:21 to 3:09:41( Edit History Discussion )

Michael E. Capuano: and we have done that already to some degree. we have a few more things to do. we spent a fair amount of time in financial services today that will continue that process. to make sure that future mortgages, number one, are given to people who deserve it.

3:09:42 to 3:10:02( Edit History Discussion )

Michael E. Capuano: number two, can be paid back. and yet, that balance to allow people to continue to access mortgages, to coinue to build themselves up in the middle class and to continue to be able to stay there. with that, mr. speaker, i would like to yield as much time as she might desire to the the

3:10:03 to 3:10:20( Edit History Discussion )

Michael E. Capuano: gentlewoman from illinois. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. ms. bean: thank you, mr. capuano for leading this special order tonight. i want to share with those listening tonight that when i came to congress, i was elected in 2004.