Now, President Obama wants to bail out newspapers and/or turn them into non-profit entities so they are free of politics and partisanship.

But despite all the important contributions of our journalists--without whom we would not have heard about Iran-Contra during President Carter's Administration--journalism as a business should not be given a bailout by the American…

I voted against it, just for the record.

Three weeks ago we heard from Chairman Bernanke who stated that the U.S. economy has contracted sharply since last autumn.

Thank you Madam Chair for holding this hearing. I commend the JEC for taking this opportunity to engage in such a timely subject.

A number of factors have contributed to this situation; however, rising commodities prices are clearly capable of prolonging this current recession, foremost on that list being oil.

Real gross domestic product has dropped at more than six percent in the fourth quarter of 2008--as well as the first quarter of this year--resulting in the loss of some 5 million jobs over the 15 months.

Clearly the United States needs oil to sustain our economic growth, but our supply here in the U.S. is limited and so we have turned our attention to developing countries such as Venezuela, Nigeria and Russia.

The role of oversight and investigation may not be as glamorous as program implementation or funds management but to the people I represent, it is probably more important than any other aspect of the TARP.

Your recommendations to Treasury to require all TARP recipients to report on their actual use of every dollar, and auditing for verification, is an important first step in keeping the TARP out of trouble.

Your work is worth every penny that you recover through your criminal investigations or deter through the presence of your office.