Jodey Arrington: “I thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess) for yielding. I am on the Ways and Means Committee. I was at the markup…”

“I thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess) for yielding. I am on the Ways and Means Committee. I was at the markup for this legislation, Mr. Speaker, and I do want to correct the Record from the previous statement that my colleague on the other side of the aisle made that this was a bipartisan legislative initiative. Not one Republican voted for this bill. We offered up several amendments. None of them were taken. One of them, for example, was one that I proposed whereby these employees would take out a guaranty policy that would ensure that taxpayers get paid back for these ``loans.'' They call them loans, and the gentlewoman says that they must be paid back. That is not true. Read the fine print, my fellow Americans. It says that they can be forgiven, that they can be converted into grants. This is a bailout. This is one of the most reckless, fiscally irresponsible pieces of legislation I have ever seen. Yes, we need to help those workers. They were the real victims. The culprits? The unions and the employers making benefit promises that they knew good and well they couldn't deliver on. Who is now going to hold the bag? Our children and grandchildren. Today, we are bailing out $100 billion worth, about 130 plans irresponsibly managed--grossly, irresponsibly managed. It is our children who will pay for this. This is the first $100 billion. There is $650 billion, roughly, underfunded liabilities in multiemployer pensions.…”