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Days of Remembrance

April 23, 2009

‘Evil exists in the world, and it is the responsibility of free and just nations to protect the innocent by speaking up for all those who cannot speak for themselves’

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor Thursday in honor of those victimized by the Holocaust:

“Later this morning, President Obama will speak at a Days of Remembrance ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda — an annual event that was established by Congress as a living memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. Throughout the week, Louisville, Lexington, and other communities across Kentucky and the Nation have held events to commemorate this solemn occasion.

“As we remember the terrible sufferings of the Jewish people and all others who have suffered and who continue to suffer at the hands of hatred and intolerance, we spread one of the most enduring lessons of the Holocaust: that evil exists in the world, and that it is the responsibility of free and just nations to protect the innocent by speaking up for all those who cannot speak for themselves.

“The theme of the 2009 Days of Remembrance is ‘Never Again: What You Do Matters.’ Those words should serve as a reminder to all of us that anti-Semitism and other forms of religious hatred are as real today as they were in the middle of the last century, and that the best way to honor the victims of the Holocaust is for us to work toward building a more hopeful and a more peaceful world.”

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TARP Report ‘a major wake-up call’

April 22, 2009

‘Firms that taxpayers helped out last fall want to pay back their loans. Unfortunately, Treasury doesn’t seem to want to take the money’

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday regarding TARP funds and protecting the taxpayer:

“Last fall, many of us in Congress weren’t all that excited about rescuing financial firms from problems that many of them brought about themselves. But we decided swift action was needed precisely to protect ordinary Americans from the mistakes these firms had made.

“At the time, Republicans insisted on strong taxpayer protections, and none of us had any doubt that once these banks were healthy again, they’d pay the money back to the taxpayers who gave it to them.

“Now we’re hearing a different story. A number of the firms that taxpayers helped out last fall are now on the road to recovery and want to pay back their loans. Unfortunately, Treasury doesn’t seem to want to take the money. This wasn’t the original plan, and it just doesn’t seem right to most people. If a bank wants to pay the taxpayers back, the government shouldn’t block the door.

“Just as troubling is a new report by the Special Inspector General who’s overseeing all the financial rescue programs. It alleges the same kind of fraud that we warned about back in October, including about 20 preliminary and full criminal investigations for everything ranging from securities fraud, to mortgage fraud, to insider trading, to public corruption related to the $700 billion in rescue funds.

“All of this is a major wake-up call. The Treasury needs to root out the fraud now, particularly at a time when the new Administration is vastly expanding the size and scope of these programs. As these programs expand, so will the potential for abuse. The Treasury Department also needs to let these banks extract themselves from government control as soon as they want to. That was the original plan the American people signed on to. And they have a right to expect that the original plan will be carried out — free from fraud and abuse.”

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McConnell: ‘No question as to where the priority should be’

April 21, 2009

‘$100 million in savings is good, but it only amounts to about 33 cents in savings for every single American’

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor Tuesday regarding the President’s announcement on cutting government waste:

“I’d like to say another word about the President’s welcome gesture yesterday on wasteful spending. The Cabinet has been asked to find $100 million in savings over the next few months, and this is clearly a step in the right direction. But it’s just a step. Current levels of government spending and debt are completely out of control, and the threat of a fiscal catastrophe is real.

“The only way to really address these out-of-control spending and debt levels is to get at the heart of the problem, which is entitlement spending. A lot of people don’t realize that nearly 70 percent of the money the federal government spends every year is mandatory spending on programs like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and on the interest we have to pay on the national debt.

“Entitlements are the heart of the problem — as Willie Sutton put it, that’s where the money is — and if we don’t find a way to address this spending then we’ll be in very serious trouble as a nation.

“Fortunately, Senators Gregg and Conrad have a proposal on the table that addresses entitlement spending head-on by forcing Democrats and Republicans to come together and make the kind of tough choices necessary to steer the country out of an otherwise inevitable financial shipwreck.

“It deserves much more attention than it’s received. And it deserves a vote in the Senate.

“Cutting $100 million in waste is good. But let’s put it in context. We’ll spend about that much every single day just on the interest payments for the Stimulus bill that Congress passed earlier this year. $100 million in savings is good, but it only amounts to about 33 cents in savings for every single American. Compare that to entitlement spending, where, in order to meet all of our current and future entitlement promises, we would have to extract $495,000 from every American household. The way I see it, there’s simply no question as to where the priority should be.”

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