23 July 2008
Mr. BACHUS. Mr. Speaker, at this
time I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman
from Texas (Mr. PAUL).
(Mr. PAUL asked and was given permission
to revise and extend his remarks.)
2008 Ron Paul 47:1
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, if I had had a chance to name this bill, I might
have suggested that we could call it
the mother of all bailouts. But on second
thought I decided that wouldnt be
appropriate because it isnt nearly as
big as the bailout that the Federal Reserve
has been engaged in in this very
industry.
2008 Ron Paul 47:2
The Federal Reserve has already invested hundreds of billions of dollars,
probably close to $300 billion to bail
out this industry. And of course the
Fed has no money. But when we open
the doors in an unlimited amount, and
no restraint on what the Treasury
might do in buying up these securities,
we have to talk about the budget. And,
of course, that is why this bill increases
the national debt by $800 billion,
so I guess they are expecting to
buy a whole lot of mortgage securities.
But that wont solve the problem. We
have to find out why this problem has
existed.
2008 Ron Paul 47:3
In 2001, I introduced legislation that would have removed the line of credit,
which was only $2.5 billion, but the
principle of a line of credit and this
supposed guarantee to Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac, I saw as a great danger.
Of course, $2.5 billion is nothing, and
the prediction it would be much more
when the time came is absolutely correct
because now we are talking about
hundreds of billions of dollars.
2008 Ron Paul 47:4
But today we have a bill before us that does a lot more than just bail out
the mortgage company. I think there
are some impositions in this bill that
we ought to be concerned about. There
is a Federal registry in here to register
anybody in the broker industry. And if
you work in the industry, you will be
fingerprinted. Now, let me guarantee
you one thing: we didnt get into this
crisis because the people who work in
the mortgage industries werent
fingerprinted. We got into this crisis
because of a monetary system and a
system of laws that encourage the very
bubble that we are dealing with today.
If we dont deal with the creation of
bubbles, you cant solve the problem by
more of the same thing. We created
this problem with inflation; you cant
solve it with more inflation.