Today U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (CO-07), a member of the House Financial Services Committee, issued the following statement following the testimony of Treasury Secretary Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke concerning the financial crisis:
"Today Sec. Paulson and Chairman Bernanke express urgency as they tried to impress upon Congress their need for help for our ailing economy.
I, too am deeply concerned about this situation and understand the urgency. However, Congress must address this matter responsibly.
Today, I didn’t hear enough about taxpayer protection – either limitation on executive pay, or about the upside to the potential for taxpayers to gain an ownership interest in the companies.
Furthermore, I didn’t hear enough about accountability/penalties toward those who gambled away people’s money.
I need more information about how this plan will rebuild our economy by restoring some restraint in the financial markets, rebuild the country’s infrastructure, create a new energy economy, protect taxpayers and reduce foreign borrowing, which I believe are the underlying issues.
While I didn’t hear enough today, I will listen, read and study in the next few days and weeks about how to stabilize our markets by taking bad debt out of the system and placing it with the federal government to be managed and potentially liquidated.
I will do whatever it takes to do this right and develop a responsible plan that will restore some restraint in the financial markets."
