111th Congress
April 21, 2009. Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Granite Bay) today introduced legislation that allows banks to immediately pay back Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds to the U.S. Treasury. Banks which were pressured to accept TARP funding are now facing serious obstacles, uncertainty and continued government control in their efforts to return the funds to taxpayers.
“It is a travesty that banks seeking to repay taxpayer money should be prohibited from doing so after taxpayers were promised that repayment would be made as soon as humanly possible,” McClintock said.
House Chamber, Washington D.C. April 21, 2009. Mr. Speaker: Many Americans have been shocked in recent days to learn that banks seeking to repay TARP money have been told the treasury will not allow them to do so.
Taxpayers were promised that this money was only to be used to buy up toxic assets and that it would be repaid to the treasury as soon as humanly possible.
And yet, when several banks have attempted to do precisely that, they’ve been told that the treasury will not allow them to do so.
Sacramento, California. April 15, 2009. Let the word go forth today from gatherings like this across the nation that the silent majority is no longer silent. We are stirring. We are awakening. We are many. And we are Americans – the latest generation of Americans who have been called upon to defend our liberties and the constitutional principles of limited government that protect our freedom.
Longworth House Office Building. March 31, 2009. M. Chairman: On behalf of my constituents I want to thank the committee for holding a hearing today on California's water crisis.
I think we need to be very clear that although the drought is a catalyst, the underlying problem is not an act of God but rather acts of government.
It has been estimated that roughly half of California's current water supply is consumed to meet various environmental regulations, most of which began in this very room.
House Chamber, Washington, D.C. April 2, 2009 M. Speaker: Today this house passed HR 1256, which takes tobacco regulation to a whole new level and at the same time imposes onerous new fees that will be passed on to consumers as higher prices.
The entire debate on that bill was over what method government should use to do so. Before we close today’s proceedings, I would like to offer a different perspective.
Many years ago, author and commentator Bruce Herschensohn made this point. He said, for every pleasure in life, there is a corresponding risk.
House Chamber, Washington, D.C. April 2, 2009 Mme. Chairman: I feel one of those rare bi-partisan moments coming on. Throughout these budget debates, my friends on the Left keep saying that our problems are rooted in the fiscal mismanagement of the Bush Administration. The Gentleman from Virginia just presented a chart titled, “Record Deterioration of the Budget Under the Republican Administration.”
I agree. There’s no denying it. George W. Bush increased spending twice as fast as Bill Clinton. He turned a budget surplus into a chronic deficit.
House Chamber, Washington, D.C. April 1, 2009 Mr. Speaker: The American people are awakening to a danger of a budget that spends too much and borrows too much and taxes too much, because they know what that means.
They know that you can’t spend your way rich.
They know that you can’t borrow your way out of debt.
And they know that you can’t tax your way to prosperity.
No nation in the world has ever spent, borrowed and taxed its way to economic health. Many nations have spent, borrowed and taxed their way to economic ruin and bankruptcy.
By Tom McClintock On June 28, 1991, the California Assembly began debate on what was then the biggest tax increase in California’s history: a $7 billion tax hike pushed by Gov. Pete Wilson that included increases in sales, income and car taxes.
March 28, 2009. Remarks at the Folsom Road Bridge Opening Ceremony. This is more than a bridge – it is a monument to those who fought so hard and so long to bring it to fruition.
The new Folsom Road Bridge should be nicknamed “The Bridge to Somewhere,” replacing a vital transportation link in our region for the 18,000 commuters who have struggled daily between El Dorado County and South Placer County since the closure of the Folsom Dam Road.
House Chamber, Washington D.C. March 25, 2009. M. Chairman: I certainly support HR 1404, which would allow some flexibility in managing firefighting costs on our federal lands.