Wall Street Reform And Consumer Protection Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

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Mr. PAULSEN. I thank my colleague for yielding.

Madam Chair, unfortunately this bill only continues the culture of bailouts and encourages firms to engage in risky behavior. As far I'm concerned, all it will do is remove the element of surprise that we saw last fall with the first amount of selected bailouts we had, and this is not the right way to go.

Just look at what this bill would do to the availability of credit. The bill before us, this 1,300-page bill, has provisions that actually take away capital needed by firms to help expand businesses, increase investments, and ultimately create jobs. Estimates show that the size of the fund could be more than $200 billion as a part of this fund. Now, this money has to come from somewhere, and this will place a significant burden not only on these firms but also on credit that will get dried up.

During these tough economic times with record unemployment, 10 percent unemployment, why do we make it more difficult for getting credit for small businesses and job creation? Why should a company who is not deemed to be systemically risky have to pay for those companies that have been engaging in excessively risky behavior?

Madam Chair, it's also worth mentioning the danger that's posed when we create institutions that are ``too big to fail.'' That's been a problem with Washington, the ``too big to fail'' doctrine. In doing so, we will also define those businesses, unfortunately, that are too small to save, and we're not helping those too-small-to-save businesses.

It's unacceptable, unacceptable to have an economy, a two-tiered economy, economic system where the government is going to be picking winners and losers and it's codified into law. This bill does nothing to shelter companies from being swayed by the political winds like we saw in the previous round of bailouts. We've heard in testimony in committee that this bill will harm consumers from access to credit. It's going to make services even harder to get. In a time when businesses can't access credit, why would we further stunt jobs and hurt economic growth? But as studies have shown, that's exactly what this bill will do.

The bottom line is, between the restrictions on capital, the jobs that would be lost, and the continued bailouts, this legislation is unacceptable.

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