Senate Proceeding on Sep 29th, 2008 :: 0:19:54 to 0:27:47
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0:19:40 to 0:19:54( Edit History Discussion )

Harry Reid: under the previous order the leadership time is reserved. under the previous order, there will now be a period for the transaction of morning business until 12:00 noon with senators peopled to speak

0:19:54 to 0:20:07( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: for up to ten minutes each with the time equally divided between the two leaders or their designees. the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: thank you, mr. president. over the weekends bipartisan

0:19:54 to 0:27:47( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Lamar Alexander

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

Lamar Alexander: congressional negotiators worked hard to amend significantly what we have come to call the "paulson" plan. the work -- the whole point of the work over the weekend, since last thursday, in fact, was

0:20:20 to 0:20:33( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: to do everything we could to protect taxpayers. we owe our thanks to senators gregg and dodd and senators mcconnell and reid and members of the house of representatives and the administration and their

0:20:33 to 0:20:50( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: staffs for working hard, sometimes during most of the night, to have this ready for us today. actually, it was ready yesterday. and was posted on the internet so that not only we but people across

0:20:50 to 0:21:08( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: this country and around the world could see what was proposed. under the amended plan the secretary of the treasury will have authority to buy and sell troubled mortgage assets to get the economy moving

0:21:08 to 0:21:24( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: again. taxpayers will have authority to provide oversight, minimize losses and make sure profits go to reduce debt. there will be restrictions on excessive xegive compensation and reasonable efforts to help

0:21:24 to 0:21:37( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: keep people in their homes. people have been calling my office all week about it as they have all senators. they're angry about the need to do this. i'm angry, too. but callers' opinions have been

0:21:37 to 0:21:52( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: changing about whether we should do it. as i believe have the minds of most senators. most realize that the largest reason for this emergency legislation is mortgage loans that people can't pay back

0:21:52 to 0:22:11( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: and securities based upon those mortgages. this has derailed housing and created problems for banks. it has spread uncertainty and caused people with cash to be cautious. most realize now that we are not

0:22:11 to 0:22:25( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: spending $0 billion. the secretary may bay up to $700 -- may buy up to $700 billion in troubled motor -- mortgage assets but he could buy less and overtime he will sell those assets, hopefully at a

0:22:25 to 0:22:39( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: profit. sometimes at a loss. i guess -- and it's just a guess -- net cost to the taxpayer will be $100 billion or less, two-thirds of what congress spent in january on the exphok stimulus package

0:22:39 to 0:22:53( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: of tax cuts and rebates. there might even be a profit which, under the plan, would go to reduce the federal debt. most now realize it is important for the secretary of the treasury to be able to

0:22:53 to 0:23:05( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: buy enough mortgage assets so that institutions are strong again. we'll -- will start lending again and people will stop hoarding their cab. next week, we can fix -- their cash. next week, we can

0:23:05 to 0:23:25( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: fix the blame. today we need to fix the problem. congress should approve the amended plan today without delay. if the house can pass it delay, mr. president, there is no reason why the senate can't

0:23:25 to 0:23:36( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: ps it today and send it on to the president and turn it into law. otherwise, there is a real risk that credit will freeze and americans will not be able to get car, student, auto, mortgage, or farm credit

0:23:36 to 0:23:50( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: loans, or even to cash their paychecks. this has come so fast and taken such an unexpected turn that it's hard for most americans to know what to think about it. as senator domenici and senator

0:23:50 to 0:24:02( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: gregg had suggested, think about it as a wreck on the highway. think about it as someone who should have known better, dumping thousands of bad mortgage loans and other assets in the middle of an eight-lane

0:24:02 to 0:24:17( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: interstate threatening to bring a halt to all economic traffic. stopped in one lane is your home loan; in the next is your auto loan; in the third lane is your student loan; the next is your mortgage

0:24:17 to 0:24:31( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: loan; next, your money market account; next the money for your farm credit loan or even your payroll check. vehicles carrying the essential credits that americans rely on every day have ground to a halt on

0:24:31 to 0:24:45( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: the economic highway blocked by a big pile of bad mortgage loans. think of the federal government as the salvage crew and secretary paulson as the driver of the wrecker. his job is to buy and to salvage,

0:24:45 to 0:24:56( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: get it off the highway as soon as possible so that traffic can start moving again. and we should think of ourselves, the taxpayers, as owners of the salvage company doing everything possible to make

0:24:56 to 0:25:08( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: sure the driver of the wrecker can get the pile of bad loans off the highway and sell them for at least as much as it cost him to pick them up. to he does this, then the lanes will open again and

0:25:08 to 0:25:28( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: the vehicles carrying the auto, the car, the mortgage and the farm credit loans and payroll checks will start moving again and the economic traffic will start up again. but that will not be the end

0:25:28 to 0:25:42( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: of fixing the problem. the federal government's compassion several years ago got out ahead of its commonsense when it made it possible for people to borrow money who could not pay back their mortgage

0:25:42 to 0:25:56( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: loans. clever financiers had exotic instruments to buy the homes, and people who should have known what wasoing on -- both if their own companies and in regulatory agencies -- didn't understand what

0:25:56 to 0:26:09( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: was going on or they turned a blind eye to it, or, worse, they misled people. as the "new york times" described it yesterday in an article "what apparently has happened is that mortgage foreclosures set

0:26:09 to 0:26:25( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: off questions about the quality of debts across the entire credit specific item. these questions set off a spiral of claims against insufficient insurance as in the case of a.i.g. and of insufficient

0:26:25 to 0:26:39( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: capital in the case of banks." so we end up with this massive wreck in the middle of the economic highway. this week, today, mr. president, we need to fix the immediate problem, clean the wreck off the highway.

0:26:39 to 0:26:55( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: but next week we need to begin to take steps to remodel our regulatory agencies, most of which were designed to tell with the calamities of the 1930's. i suspect it will be a matter of a different kind

0:26:55 to 0:27:10( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: of regulation that suits these times rather than one of more regulation. and we need to find out if there was fraud or misleading actions so we can do our best to make sure this doesn't happen again. next

0:27:10 to 0:27:23( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: week, we can fix the blame; today we should unclog the economic highway and fix the immediate problem to make sure that americans can buy homes and buy cars and buy houses and go to college and

0:27:23 to 0:27:35( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: get farm credit loans and cash their payroll checks. i thank the president. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from iinois. mr. durbin: mr. president, at 12:30 today the senate

0:27:35 to 0:27:47( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: will consider procedural motion to go to amtrak reauthorization bill and i urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support it. for a long time, amtrak has been a question mark in washington,

0:27:47 to 0:27:59( Edit History Discussion )

Richard Durbin: d.c.: will it survive? do we need it? well, it will survive if we have the will to support it and the question whether we need it is answering convincingly. all across the united states, not just

0:27:47 to 0:33:48( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Richard Durbin