Political Quotes

“this may sound strange coming from a Democrat, but I am here to applaud the Wall Street Journal for its work in uncovering a major corporate scandal. After Enron and WorldCom, we enacted Sarbanes-Oxley to usher in a new era of corporate responsibility. But now a new scandal is brewing, this time involving the backdating of stock options. When a company backdates stock options, it deliberately moves option grants back to dates when the stock price was lower, ensuring the options will make money for executives while hiding its real cost from shareholders and the IRS. It is free and cheap money for the CEO, and securities fraud for everyone else, plain and simple. So far, United Healthcare appears to be the biggest perpetrator, but the problem now is spreading to 15 other public companies that are under investigation at this point. Madam Speaker, the American people don't deserve another Enron or WorldCom. They deserve an era of corporate responsibility that they were promised from this institution. As the SEC and the Justice Department pursue these cases, I hope they will take swift and decisive action to punish those involved and restore investor confidence in our markets. ____________________”