Washington,
Sep 29 -
Congressman John Shadegg (R-AZ) made the following statement regarding the current financial crisis confronting the nation and the manner in which it has been handled by the Bush Administration and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson:
“Today, I am calling on Secretary Paulson to resign. I believe he has failed to do his job and failed to uphold his responsibility to the American people. He did not warn Congress or the nation in advance of the impending crisis.
Congressional leadership received less than four hours notice before the Secretary publicly warned of an immanent collapse of the market and announced his bailout plan. Clearly, it was his duty to provide Congress and its leaders time to evaluate this situation, and he failed. The Secretary went public with dire warnings, scaring the nation minutes after apprising Congressional leaders of this problem. That is simply unacceptable.
Since issuing his dire warnings and releasing his plan, Secretary Paulson has refused to consider reasonable alternatives and stubbornly insisted that it be his plan or no plan at all. He has used fear to force Congress to adopt his proposal, unnecessarily scaring the American people.
Legislation indeed may be necessary, but by handling this crisis in this manner, he has precluded thoughtful consideration and forced Congress to act in haste.
The problems in the market today did not occur over night. In the last six months, Secretary Paulson has insisted that the federal government rescue Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and AIG. Each time, Secretary Paulson assured Congress that it would solve the problem. Obviously, Secretary Paulson has been wrong. The American people can no longer have confidence in him and he should submit his resignation, effective immediately.”
NOTE: For a timeline of financial intervention, contact Congressman John Shadegg’s Washington, DC office at (202) 225-3361.
