Friday, September 26, 2008

No Federal Bailout

US Congressman Mike Pence gave the following speech from the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives today, urging caution when considering the possibility of a federal bailout:

“Our financial markets are in turmoil and the Administration was right to call for decisive action to prevent further harm to our economy.

“But nationalizing every bad mortgage in America is not the answer. This Administration’s request of this Congress amounts to the largest corporate bailout in American history.

“I believe Congress should act, but we should act in a way that protects the integrity of our free market and protects the American taxpayer from more debt and higher taxes.

“The strength of America resides in our faith in God and our faith in freedom, including our economic freedom. To have the freedom to succeed, we must also have the freedom to fail and any solution to the present crisis must preserve that essential economic liberty.

“Next, Congress should consider all available options to put our nation’s economy back on its feet.

“There are no easy answers but there are alternatives that this Congress can consider: indexing capital gains to inflation, passing a real energy bill, even regulating the credit default swap market as the chief of the SEC requested yesterday.

“These and other alternatives to a massive federal bailout must be fully considered and debated before Congress acts.

“We must address this crisis with forethought and creativity, rather than massive federal resources.”

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