House Proceeding on Apr 1st, 2009 :: 1:41:20 to 1:44:30
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1:41:16 to 1:41:36( Edit History Discussion )

Roy Blunt: when we had a republican congress and a repuican president. and with that i yield five minutes to my colleague from missouri, mr. blunt. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from missouri is recognized for five minutes. mr. blunt: thank you, madam speaker. now, i don't blame my good friend from virginia not wanting to talk about the bill today. if i was him i wouldn't want to

1:41:20 to 1:44:30( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Roy Blunt

1:41:37 to 1:41:57( Edit History Discussion )

Roy Blunt: talk about it either. i oppose this bill, i oppose this rule. i was not particularly concerned a few days ago when we were sending a message to a.i.g. and the executives at a.i.g., the high-paid executives there. i think every once in a while the congress can send a message and it's a good thing to send that message.

1:41:58 to 1:42:18( Edit History Discussion )

Roy Blunt: this is a company that 80 -- taxpayers now own 80% of it. if that's not a definition of bankruptcy i don't know what it is, and bankruptcy, it's ok to look at the commitments you made in the past. now, i'm afraid -- and by the way, the a.i.g. executives apparently got the message because many of them have turned that bonus money back to

1:42:19 to 1:42:40( Edit History Discussion )

Roy Blunt: the taxpayers who gave it to the company. i thought that was ok to send that message. we were way, way ahead of any constitutional concern. there was no senate action. the president wasn't about to sign a bill. we were sending a message, they got the message. i think the problem with that message may be that some of our own members go

1:42:41 to 1:43:01( Edit History Discussion )

Roy Blunt: message which is it's somehow ok for the government toecide that they can decide salaries and how to run companies. you know, the government can barely run the government. the government this week has announced we're going to run the car, the auto industry. the auto industry is in trouble. if i was picking a group of folks to run it it wouldn't be the government but t

1:43:02 to 1:43:25( Edit History Discussion )

Roy Blunt: government's there. and now we have this bill on the floor that suggests somehow that the government ca salaries at what i would see is not only the high level that we tried to take care of last fall in a bill and apparently the stimulus package that came through had language in it that reversed some of that language and made these bonuses at the

1:43:26 to 1:43:46( Edit History Discussion )

Roy Blunt: higher level possible to be paid. i regret that. i'm glad i didn't vote for that stimulus bill. i'm glad didn't do anything that enabled that, but i'm not going to vote for this bill today. it is all we can do to run the government. and to try to tell these companies how to pay the people that work for them is not the right thing to do.

1:43:47 to 1:44:07( Edit History Discussion )

Roy Blunt: i mean, as late as last april the chairman of the banking committee in the house that deals with housing, the chairman of the housing committee in the senate were both saying as late as last april that fannie mae and freddie mac didn't need to be reined in. they were saying as late as

1:44:08 to 1:44:28( Edit History Discussion )

Roy Blunt: last april that in fact these agencies needed even more ability to loan more money. if we could be that wrong that close to the press pus that we went off in the summer and fall, imagine how wrong we could be running a company that doesn't even have any relationship to what the government does every day. this is a bad bill, it's a bad

1:44:29 to 1:44:30( Edit History Discussion )

Roy Blunt: rule, we should not move