Andrea Joy Campbell: “I have heard a long parade of Members come up here and talk about how somehow the fact that the financial markets did…”

“I have heard a long parade of Members come up here and talk about how somehow the fact that the financial markets did not collapse in October is somehow prima facie evidence that the rescue program was not needed. In fact, precisely the opposite is true. These financial markets would have collapsed in October or November were it not for the rescue program, or the TARP program as we know it today, in conjunction with very aggressive action by the Federal Reserve. I believe we are beyond the collapse scenario now. But the banking sector is far from healthy. In fact, it's considerably less healthy than perhaps we thought it was even a couple of months ago. You've seen the news with Citibank. You've seen the news with Bank of America. Many of my colleagues are criticizing the original TARP that it hasn't resulted in more bank lending. I would like to suggest that in many cases the money from the TARP merely gave banks enough capital to sustain the lending they already had because their capital was in such jeopardy. No matter what side of the aisle you sit on here, everyone wants this economy to recover. Everyone wants us to come back and create jobs and businesses and keep people in their homes. But, Mr. Speaker, we will not do that without a healthy banking sector because until we can have regular lending again to people who want to buy homes and cars, who want to finance their businesses, we will not recover and we will not get healthy.”