0:22:09 to 0:22:19( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: there's nothing on the tableo help them. and that, to me, is unconscionable and unacceptable. take this economic crisis seriously at the top but don't forget at the bottom of the pyramid are the people of

0:22:46 to 0:22:56( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: he needs to get back running for president. he needs to show up in mississippi tonight for this critical presidential debate. and we need to roll up our sleeves on a bipartisan basis and find a

0:23:07 to 0:23:20( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: i just want to thank senator durbin for what he just said, because i've come to the floor here to talk about that bottom of the pyramid, to talk about a vote that we're going to be having here, i think

0:23:33 to 0:23:45( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: they need food stamps. they need unemployment benefits extended. they need infrastructure jobs to rebuild our economy. and we're not talking about them. so i want to thank senator durbin. i want

0:23:56 to 0:24:08( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: to speak for up to 30 minutes. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. harkin: mr. president, following on what senator durbin was talking about, you know, we've been -- all the news,

0:24:17 to 0:24:26( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: in freddie mac and fannie mae, you're into $1 trillion there. and they're all talking about this. well, what about honest, hard-working, play-by-the-rules citizens at the bottom of this pyramid left in

0:24:39 to 0:24:52( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: economic recovery package i think that we're going to be voting on here very shortly, otherwise called the stimulus package, that meets the urgent needs of working families all across america. the

0:25:03 to 0:25:22( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: that was sort of the white house package. it was to send checks out to everybody. so we sent checks out to everybody. well, i got to admit, i voted for it. i kind of wish now i hadn't. i voted for

0:25:33 to 0:25:47( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: have been used -- some of it phaeufrb used -- may have been used to buy a flat-screen tv made in china. you don't know if it was a stimulus or not. what you need now is a real stimulus, something

0:26:02 to 0:26:13( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: home prices continue to plummet. millions of americans face the prospect of foreclosure, losing their homes. prices are rising sharply for staples like food, gasoline, electricity, home heating oil.

0:26:27 to 0:26:40( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: it injects money into infrastructure projects to create jobs directly and generate new economic activities. the bottom line is we need a package that actually stimulates, provides maximum stimulus for

0:26:49 to 0:26:58( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: best, extending unemployment benefits. third, immediately pumping money into infrastructure projects that will employee people and create jobs. let me just discuss a few of the things that comes

0:27:09 to 0:27:20( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: it temporarily increases food stamp benefits by 10%, includes an additional $450 million for the women, infants and children's program and goes to the lowest-income people in america to get our kids

0:27:32 to 0:27:44( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: continuing resolution for low-income home energy assistance. now, get this. in the continuing resolution we have $5.1 billion -- billion with a "b" -- for low-income home energy assistance program for

0:27:57 to 0:28:12( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: i'mot saying it's not needed. of course people need it. but we ought to be putting a lot more emphasis on weatherization so they don't have to be spending so much money to heat homes. we know that works

0:28:24 to 0:28:40( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: million for weatherization. for weatherization p programs. for every dollar spent on -- we create $1.73 in new economic activity. that's the most of any of these. so you have to think about this. when

0:28:52 to 0:29:05( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: food that is pro produced, -- produced and transported here in america and that gets more effect in our own economy. it frees up more money for them to spend on housing, transportation, day care, other things

0:29:18 to 0:29:28( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: unemployed individuals need the additional income. but on the second level it has a tremendous multiplier effect. according to moodies, every dollar we spend on increasing unemployment benefits, we add

0:29:41 to 0:29:54( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: no question that americans, especially those of modest incomes, low income, elder, need assistance in paying their energy bills. they also need assistance in weatherizing their homes. a lot of

0:30:04 to 0:30:16( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: will provide that assistance. we also create hundreds of thousands of new jobs by investing in infrastructure projects including $10.8 billion for building and repairing highways, bridges, mass transports,

0:30:27 to 0:30:38( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: environmental restoration. let me tell you about the experience that we had in iowa. in the last 10 years we've been able to get about -- i think about $127 million into iowa for rebuilding, modernizing

0:30:55 to 0:31:10( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: that $127 million is translated into over $1 billion of construction. what a great multiplier effect that has. and we know that schools need to be renovated all over america. that is in this stimulus

0:31:21 to 0:31:33( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: effect is about the same, that $2 billion could translate somewhere close to -- conservatively speaking between $10 billion and $20 billion in construction in this country to rebuild and modernize

0:31:43 to 0:31:58( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: in small towns of less than 20,000. in small towns with less than 20,000. it will provide $500 million for loans an grants for rural water and wastewater grants and we have a huge backlog of that right

0:32:12 to 0:32:23( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: for single-family homes in rural areas. there's a huge backlog of projects. many of them are already on the books ready to go. now, again, a lot of what i'm talking about will probably be funded and

0:32:37 to 0:33:01( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: because of increased energy price, fuel prices, food prices? when a lot of housing values are going down, isn't this the time to do the kind of jobs that need to be done in america? i also might add

0:33:11 to 0:33:25( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: cuts that were made last year as a result of president bush's vetoes and veto threats. i've been leading the effort to restore this funding. it's absolutely critical for law enforcement and especially for

0:33:38 to 0:33:52( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: 85% of iowa's drug cases originate from the task forces. also it is not just on the enforcement side. it is on the rehabilitation side that we use burn justice grants. over 2,065 drug addicted use

0:34:03 to 0:34:13( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: stimulus would allow them to pick up and redouble their efforts against crime and drugs. the two last things, mr. president, i wanted to mention, and that is the area of biomedical research, public

0:34:26 to 0:34:38( Edit History Discussion )

of health have declined in real terms by over 10% in the last five years. so what's happened is we're losing cutting-edge biomedical research. we're losing a generation of talented scientists who can

0:34:51 to 0:35:03( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: an -- and alzheimer's and heart disease. senator specter and i worked very hard, along with others here, to double the funding of n.i.h. between 1998 and 2003. we did it. we gt it up. and we -- got it

0:35:17 to 0:35:26( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: million for public health to enhance the nation's preparedness against bioterrorism and prepare in the event of an influenza pandemic. it will help more than 79,000 people receive services including

0:35:36 to 0:35:44( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: it isn't going to help these people. what help these people are job search, career counseling, job retraining to give them the skills they need to work. the bill includes $300 million for youth employment

0:36:00 to 0:36:14( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: for teenagers since world war ii. the worst employment environment for teenagers since world war ii. more than 80,000 teenagers would receive services under the stimulus package. so, mr. president,

0:36:26 to 0:36:37( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: kind of hitting at the same time threatening to plunge our economy into a recession -- deep recession. well, certainly we do have to shore -- to -- we have to shore up our financial system. but we

0:36:47 to 0:37:00( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: helping hand to wall street? pr everything that i'm read -- from everything that i'm reading it looks like the congress is about to do that. but the purpose of the reid-byrd economic recovery

0:37:16 to 0:37:27( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: by an agreement it takes 60 votes. 60 votes. we'll probably get over 50 votes. but i'm told because of the opposition to the republican side, we won't get 60 votes. we won't get 60 votes. what a shame.

0:37:41 to 0:37:52( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: upon to bail out wall street and the financial services and we're not even going to put a limit on how much income they can make, we can't help these peoe that are at the bottom of that pyramid?

0:38:03 to 0:38:16( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: will get wider and wider in our country. the cynicism of people toward their government will grow. and it will be well-founded cynicism. that somehow we're here only to help those at the top. that only

0:38:27 to 0:38:37( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: it trickles down. now, later on we're going to be discussing more about the bailout. but i couldn't help but read the paper this morning about this so-called bailout and i thought this was interesting.

0:38:45 to 0:38:54( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: down to borrowers. a second group thinks that the government should buy individual mortgages, help americans more directly and let the benefits trickle up to the bankers. count me in the second group.

0:39:11 to 0:39:28( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: up. it helps our whole economy. that's why food stamps has the biggest multiplier effect. because you're getting the people really at the bottom. but you put things up at the top and it trickles down. by

0:39:46 to 0:40:03( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: main street." said allen s. blinder a professor at princeton university. -- quote -- "but if you reduce the flood of foreclosures an defaults -- and defaults, which he would have the government do by buying

0:40:17 to 0:40:28( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: administer. i don't think so. i don't think so. it might be a little bit more difficult than just giving a bushel basket of money to wall street. yeah, that's easy. but if something is a little more

0:40:42 to 0:41:02( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: if only we provided enough money to financial markets, this problem will disappear." said joseph stiglas. -- quote -- "that does nothing to address the fundamental problems of the bleeding foreclosures

0:41:18 to 0:41:27( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: ago this wasn't a big problem. quite frankly, it wasn't a problem until mr. paulson, with mr. bernanke, but mr. paulson said the sky's falling. and thus, putting out there a self-fulfilling prophecy,

0:41:37 to 0:41:48( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: of mr. paulson's statements scaring everybody that the sky is falling. and yet, it was mr. paulson who has been there for two years and three months and has been saying that things are fine. as late as

0:42:04 to 0:42:23( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: nowr was he right for two years and wrong now? but nonetheless, his posture of last week of raising the stakes, of scaring everyone has put everybody in kind of a panic mode. as i said, ten days ago,

0:42:42 to 0:43:07( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: the government has to come in right now, put in $700 billion with no strings attached, all of a sudden people said i'm going to slow down. i'm going to kind of hold my money back. i'm not going to

0:43:32 to 0:43:49( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: to respond to that by panicking? i don't think so. when people like ph paulson and others -- and i bear him no ill will at all. but when people like that who have been telling us all along that things

0:44:01 to 0:44:10( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: mr. president, that the most important thing we can do is not rush to judgment on this bailout, but to do is right, to do it in a way that will provide f long-term economic benefits in this country,

0:44:20 to 0:44:31( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: done this week. it's more important to get it right," blinder said. i agree with the professor. it's more important to get it right. now i see the plan that they're talking about. i was told yesterday

0:44:45 to 0:44:57( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: or $350 billion, they would come to congress and we would have to then authorize it and appropriate it. oh, no. now what i read, much different than that, we're going to give him $250 billion, another

0:45:09 to 0:45:24( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: they can't use it. well, you know what that's like. that's never going to happen. that's never going to happen. and if mr. paulson says that they're not going to spend $700 billion right away. they're

0:45:36 to 0:45:44( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: going to let the economic system go under. so what we do is we should jut put out, you know, $200 billion, $250 billion, make sure we cap executive pay -- by the way, that's another thing. we're going

0:45:52 to 0:46:03( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: from the industry. what a sweetheart deal that's going to be. i have ho to say that if people are coming to the government and asking the taxpayers of this country to bail them out, that's like

0:46:15 to 0:46:23( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: paid as much as the president, but they shouldn't get paid any more than the president of the united states. period. but that's not what we're facing. if they want to have a package and say, okay,

0:46:37 to 0:46:48( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: the compensation things have been working right, see if we're getting equity in these companies and then let us have a more deliberate debate and consideration of what we might want to do in january

0:47:02 to 0:47:17( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: that will give the confidence to the market that we have enough money to buy up all this worthless paper. but what about the congress giving some assurance to the american public that we're going to

0:47:30 to 0:47:43( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: here in february. and if we need to do more, we can do more then, but in a more deliberative manner than what we're being asked to rush to do now before an election. lastly, mr. president, there's

0:47:53 to 0:48:05( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: give them money? oh, you need money. what is it you want, we'll give it to you. the bank is going to which the to see their -- stkpw-g to want to see their -- the bank is going to want to see their books.

0:48:17 to 0:48:31( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: we should do that to every one of these investment firms who come in. if they come in and they're bidding and putting their bids up, as i understand it, in a reverse auction kind of system, and they

0:48:39 to 0:48:50( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: used in deciding how they invested their money. what got them to this point? i have a sneaking suspicion that a lot of them don't want to let us know that, because i think there was a, quite frankly,

0:48:55 to 0:49:04( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: that just doesn't really work, folks, but it seems to me a lot of that was going on. but we need to know. and yet, i see nothing in this bailout plan that will mandate that we have independent auditors

0:49:15 to 0:49:24( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: point where they are now? what were their internal models, their proprietary models that they used in conducting their business? we need to know that. quite frankly, i don't see that in this bailout

0:49:38 to 0:49:52( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: in january, february, and march and we keep filling the slot with worthless paper. i don't see anything in this plan that will stop that either. so, again, mr. president, i didn't mean to get off

0:50:08 to 0:50:20( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: the economic pyramid, to help them get through the winter, build jobs, build schools, get infrastructure projects going. $56 billion, okay, that is about out of $1 trillion that we're being asked on

0:50:33 to 0:50:46( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: can do. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator's time has expired. mr. grassley: mr. president? a senator: mr. president? mr. harkin: would my friend yield to me for one minute? i would

0:50:54 to 0:51:06( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: plan on the continuing resolution. i can tell you, mr. president, nothing would be worse. nothing could be worse than to try to put the stimulus on the continuing resolution to keep our government

0:51:15 to 0:51:23( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: plan. i have some problems but we'll see how it develops. the one thing i have made up my mind is if it's on the c.r., it's dead. i thank my friend from iowa. the presiding officer: the senator

0:51:31 to 0:51:47( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: resolution is it could jeopardize all the relief we have for the flood victims in iowa. i would supplement also -- i didn't come here to speak on the same thing senator harkin did, but let me supplement

0:52:00 to 0:52:15( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: two or three days ago there was an announcement by the f.b.i. that they were investigating four of these institutions. so if the f.b.i. thinks that something's wrong, you might not be too far off that

0:52:27 to 0:52:42( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: summer break, and now in september on two previous occasions, maybe four or five previous occasions throughout this summer i have come to the floor to speak about the difference of tax policies of the

0:52:56 to 0:53:11( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: two presidential candidates and consider those tax policies in light of some of the history that i brought to their attention of history from a couple standpoints, what's been said in previous elections

0:53:23 to 0:53:34( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: and the other one, to point out the history of different tax policy when you have a president of one party, a congress of another. or when you have a congress and a president of the same political parties.

0:53:44 to 0:53:52( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Harkin: a very important part of overall economic policy. will we have a tax policy, hence an economic policy that grows the economy and creates jobs? what this generation of policy-makers ought to be

0:53:59 to 0:54:12( Edit History Discussion )

Chuck Grassley: living better than the generation of mom and dad. so starting in the third week of july, i've come to the floor to compare the tax plans of senator mccain and senator obama. they are, as everybody