Michael Burgess

We all know from--I've got to be careful here, because, of course, I'd be asking you to offer an opinion and I know I must not do that, but we look at previous times where the White House has made a difference in job creation in this…

You told Senator DeMint that it would die as soon as it can.

They are mad as hell. We need to be able to convey that to----

Second, President Obama sold the stimulus on the idea that it would stop unemployment and Members of Congress voted for this stimulus bill to stop the tide of job losses.

First, while I did not vote for this stimulus bill, $787 billion was made available for spending to stimulate the economy, but as of today, only $173.2 billion has been spent.

It's easy for all of us sitting here to talk about any alleged economic growth brought about by the February $787 billion stimulus bill.

The economic outlook is bleak and we are going to go down as the most job-killing Congress in history.

The Obama Administration has been saying this is because they inherited a financial mess and used that excuse to pass a $787 billion stimulus bill.

Why has only 22% of the stimulus money been handed out?

Since the stimulus passed--which I did not vote for--unemployment has skyrocketed from 6% to nearly 10%.

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.

I would think that people in the newspaper business would have gotten the word that bailouts are not really a very popular concept in this country right now.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

People in Texas want answers and they want to see that their government is willing to seek the truth without politics getting in the way.

Trillions of taxpayers' dollars are at risk, but Congressional approval is not needed for the plan to proceed.

I think the use of antitrust to break up the largest banks will be essential.