Byron Dorgan: “yesterday's paper and today's paper describes some pretty ominous news. And yesterday's action in the Senate was…”

“yesterday's paper and today's paper describes some pretty ominous news. And yesterday's action in the Senate was prompted as a result of the financial crisis that exists in this country. Each day the paper brings us another chapter of this sad saga. ``Bank of America to Get Billions in U.S. Aid.'' That was the Wall Street Journal's headline. ``Bank of America to Get More Bailout Money,'' the New York Times. Yesterday, this Senate voted to proceed with $350 billion in additional funding for what is called TARP, Troubled Asset Relief Program. In fact, TARP is not being used to purchase trouble assets, but that is what the program is called. I did not support that proposal yesterday. I didn't support the proposal of releasing another $350 billion, but that is not surprising perhaps. I didn't support the proposal on the $700 billion last October. I didn't support that, not because I didn't think there was a crisis--I think there is a financial crisis in this country. But I didn't think there was the foggiest notion of how that was going to be used effectively to address this country's financial problems. It turns out, I believe, I was right. Since the $700 billion was authorized last October, we have seen the first $350 billion made available spread around in almost every direction. It is almost as if you turned a ceiling fan on to a stack of money.”