House Proceeding 03-18-09 on Mar 18th, 2009 :: 1:31:45 to 1:35:20
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1:31:42 to 1:32:02( Edit History Discussion )

John Yarmuth: this is a crical component we need to push and with that i'll yield to mr. yarmuth. mr. yarmuth: i thank my colleague and, you know, one of the things that we have to continue to do is to remind the american taxpayer what's happened, what broug this point.

1:31:45 to 1:35:20( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: John Yarmuth

1:32:03 to 1:32:25( Edit History Discussion )

John Yarmuth: and i know that right now our colleagues on the other side are trying to play political games and all of a sudden because of this new revelation about bonuses, they want to make this all a democratic problem. but as all of us will recall and i think the american citizens will recall, we were

1:32:26 to 1:32:46( Edit History Discussion )

John Yarmuth: cruising along last year knowing that we were in a little bit of financial difficulty. we knew that the foreclosures were up, we knew that the signs of the economy were not where we would like them to be. those of white house had been in the trenches politically since 2006 knew a lot of americans had been hurting for a long time, particularly middle class americans and

1:32:47 to 1:33:08( Edit History Discussion )

John Yarmuth: hardworking families out there. but all of a sudden last september, out of the blue, seemingly, secretary paulson, chairman bernanke, call us all in and say, the sky is falling and we're about to go over the cliff and we need $700 billion to bail t these companies

1:33:09 to 1:33:29( Edit History Discussion )

John Yarmuth: that are in severe difficulty. and i think the american people rightly were stunned saying, where did this come from? i think all of us were stunned because we didn't know where it came from. and what we have found out subsequently is that in many of these operations, like a.i.g., sometimes the c.e.o.'s didn't

1:33:30 to 1:33:50( Edit History Discussion )

John Yarmuth: really know the depths of their problems. and i know we had hearings again in the oversight committee last congress where we talked to, for instance, -- for instance, the rating agencies and some of the people who were involved in the measurement of rk and the analysis of risk and even chairman greenspan who said we

1:33:51 to 1:34:13( Edit History Discussion )

John Yarmuth: had no way of assessing risk that involved declining real estate values. and all of the models they had built to assess the risk, whether it was moodie's or any of the rating agencies or in this case the fed, said, our computer models wouldn't accept negative growth in real estate.

1:34:14 to 1:34:34( Edit History Discussion )

John Yarmuth: so all of a sudden the american peopleay, whoa, where did this all come from? i think none of us really knew where it came from and the reason we didn't know is because we had trusted the marketplace to be the salvation of our financial system. and as we've seen, the marketplace, that chairman

1:34:35 to 1:34:55( Edit History Discussion )

John Yarmuth: greenspan worshiped and others, wanot capable of accounting for what happened in the real world. so now we're cleaning up, we're trying to pick up the pieces. the american people are rightly dismayed that their government was not on the job and we have an opportunity now to show the american people that they can

1:34:56 to 1:35:17( Edit History Discussion )

John Yarmuth: have confidence, not just in the economy, but also in their government. and that's a charge that i think all of us willingly accept. so i'm very happy to be here tonight to talk about that and to be a part of a congress that is responding to a crisis that basically we didn't build, we didn't create, but we are more

1:35:18 to 1:35:20( Edit History Discussion )

John Yarmuth: than willing to try to fix. because we owe thato the