Ed Whitfield, Who Did Not Kiss The Pig With Lipstick, Explains Why. Thank Him, If You See Him.

Read the email below:

WASHINGTON – U.S. Representative Ed Whitfield (KY-01) released the
following statement today after voting against the Financial Markets
Stabilization package.

"Today, I reluctantly decided to oppose the Financial Markets
Stabilization package proposed by President Bush and Secretary of the
Treasury Henry Paulson for the following reasons:

1. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in its most
recent quarterly report indicates that there were 8,451 banks in
America and 98.4% are well capitalized. In other words, only 1.6% of
our nation's banks have a financial problem.

2. The legislation grants unprecedented authority to the
Secretary of the Treasury. For example, he may buy securities at
prices he deems appropriate. Having financial institutions sell the
loans to the government at inflated prices so the government can turn
around and sell the loans to well heeled investors at lower prices
strikes me as good for everyone but U.S. taxpayers.

3. The executive compensation restrictions are too weak. Although
the legislation bars golden parachutes for executives working for
companies whose assets the Treasury purchases, there is not a limit on
overall executive compensation. The only restriction is that a company
may only deduct business taxes up to $500,000 of compensation paid to
the executives.

4. The new bureaucracy created to oversee this buyout will be
overly complex and still will not provide a mechanism to clarify the
real values of the mortgage based securities that have caused the
problem.

5. The cost of the program, $700 billion, would be the most
expensive bailout in the history of our country. The federal debt in
August was $9.6 trillion, 65% of GDP, and the government has committed
to spend $54 trillion more than it would take to keep the budget
deficit at the 2007 levels over the next 25 years. This bailout would
weaken our government's financial status.

"Having listed my reasons for opposing this bill, I do believe, after
lengthy discussions with banking leaders around the country, that
President Bush and Secretary Paulson can take immediate and less
costly steps to solve our current financial crisis.

1. We should approve a "net worth certificate" program
similar to what Congress enacted in the 1980's to solve the savings
and loan crisis. It was a success. The FDIC resolved a $100 billion
insolvency problem for a total cost of less than $2 billion. The
certificates from the FDIC were placed as assets on the balance sheet
of the institutions so that they met federal guidelines.

2. We should temporarily suspend accounting rules that
the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the SEC put into place 15
years ago. Those rules dictate that financial institutions holding
financial instruments available for sale (such as mortgage – backed
securities) must value those assets at market rates. This sounds
unreasonable, but because of the collapse of a market for these
securities, they must be listed at a severely depressed price that
causes the institutions to be placed at risk of failure.

3. There should also be an additional infusion of
funds from the Federal Reserve Board.

"These steps alone would stop the bleeding and give us time to solve
this crisis in a more deliberate time frame. We do not need to make
decisions of this magnitude with incomplete information and under
duress.

"I hope Speaker Pelosi will call Congress back into session this week
or next week to solve this problem. "