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I think everybody understands at this point that we are experiencing the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
And the financial rescue plan that Senator McCain and I supported is an important first step. And I pushed for some core principles:
making sure that taxpayer can get their money back if they're putting money up. Making sure that CEOs are not enriching themselves
through this process.
And I think that it's going to take some time to work itself out. But what we haven't yet seen is a rescue package for
the middle class. Because the fundamentals of the economy were weak even before this latest crisis. So I've proposed four
specific things that I think can help.
Number one, let's focus on jobs. I want to end the tax breaks for companies that are shipping jobs overseas and provide
a tax credit for every company that's creating a job right here in America.
Number two, let's help families right away by providing them a tax cut -- a middle-class tax cut for people making less
than $200,000, and let's allow them to access their IRA accounts without penalty if they're experiencing a crisis.
Oct. 15th.,2008
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 At stock market tumble or failure
of a major financial institution I would get in touch with the Federal Reserve Chairman, Allen Greenspan, to find out all
the facts and all the circumstances. I would have my Secretary of the Treasury be in touch with the financial centers not
only here, but at home. I would make sure that key members of Congress were called in to discuss the gravity of the situation.
And I would come up with a game plan to deal with it. That's what governors end up doing. We end up being problem solvers.
We come up with practical, common sense solutions for problems that we're confronted with. In this case, in the case of a
financial crisis, I would gather all the facts before I made the decision. The payroll
taxes are your money. You ought to put it in prudent, safe investments so that $1 trillion over the next ten years grows to
be $3 trillion. The money stays within the Social Security system. It's a part of the Social Security system. He claims it will be out of Social Security. It's your
money, it's a part of your retirement benefit. I
think most of the economic growth that has taken place is a result of ingenuity and hard work and entrepreneurship and that's
the role of goverment to encourage that. Oct. 3rd.,2000
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There is a problem in the
sense that there are some problem banks, and on December 19th new regulations will go into effect which will in effect give
the government the responsibility to close some banks that are not technically insolvent but that are plainly in trouble.
On the other hand, I don't think that we have any reason to believe that the dimensions
of this crisis are anywhere near as great as the savings and loan crisis. The mistake that both parties made in Washington
with the S&L business was deregulating them without proper capital requirements, proper oversight and regulation, proper
training of the executives. Many people predicted what happened, and it was a disaster.
The banking system in this country is fundamentally sound with some weak banks. I think
that our goal ought to be first of all not to politicize it, not to frighten people; secondly to say that we have to enforce
the law in 2 ways.
We don't want to overreact, as the federal regulators have in my judgment, on good banks
so that they've created credit crunches, that is, they have made our recession worse in the last couple of years -- but we
do want to act prudently with the banks that are in trouble. Oct. 19th.,1992
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I don't believe it would be
appropriate for a president to suggest that the banking system is not sound. It is sound. There are some problem banks out
there. But what we need is financial reform; we need some real financial reform, banking reform, legislation. And I have proposed
that. And when I am re-elected, I believe one of the first things ought to be to press a new Congress not beholden to the
old ways to pass financial reform legislation that modernizes the banking system, doesn't put a lot of inhibitions on it,
and protects the depositors through keeping the FDIC sound.
But I think that -- I just was watching some of the
proceedings of the American Bankers Assn, and I think the general feeling is most of the banks are sound, certainly there's
no comparison here between what happened to the S&Ls and where
the banks stand right now, in my view.
I believe my program for stimulating investment, encouraging
small business, brand-new approach to education, strengthening the American family, and, yes, creating more exports is the
way to go. I don't believe in trickle-down government, I don't believe in larger taxes and larger government spending.
Oct. 19th.,1992
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