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Paulson meets with Bush
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson outside West Wing after discussions with President Bush in the wake of House rejection of the administration-supported economic bailout package.
Video above.
Text below.
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PAULSON: I’m very disappointed in today’s vote, but leaders on both sides of the aisle have worked very hard. I’ve spoken to them, and I know they share my great disappointment. We’ve experienced significant turmoil in our financial markets in the last few days, including the collapse of Washington Mutual and Wachovia here and the failure of two major financial institutions in Europe.
Markets around the world are under stress, and that reduces the availability of credit that businesses across America depend on to meet payroll and to purchase inventories.
Families, too, feel the credit crunch, as it becomes more difficult to get car loans or a student loan.
I and my colleagues at the Fed and the SEC continue to address the market challenges we are facing on a daily basis. I am committed to continue to work with my fellow regulators to use all the tools available to protect our financial system and our economy.
Our toolkit is substantial, but insufficient. Therefore, I will continue to work with congressional leaders to find a way forward to pass a comprehensive plan to stabilize our financial system and protect the American people by limiting the prospects of further deterioration in our economy.
We’ve got much work to do, and this is much too important to simply let fail.
QUESTION: How long do you estimate it will take, if there is still no congressional action, before the country starts to slip into what the president calls a long and painful recession?
PAULSON: Well, we need to work as quickly as possible. We need to get something done. And I’m going to be continuing to consult with congressional leaders to find the way forward to get something done as soon as possible. We need to get something done.
QUESTION: Do you still think you can put something close to your original plan back together?
PAULSON: We need to put something back together that works. And as you’ve heard me say, we believe that our plan and the plan that we developed with the congressional leaders and worked so hard is a plan that works. And we need a plan that works.
QUESTION: How soon do you need it, sir?
PAULSON: We need it as soon as possible. And we’re just committed to working with congressional leaders to get it done.
QUESTION: What would you like to see?
PAULSON: We had a plan that we’d worked very hard on that did the job, gave us the tools we needed to protect the financial markets, to protect the American people.
So where we go from here is something we’re going to be working on with congressional leaders, because we need to get something done, and we’re going to be working hard on it.
One more question.
QUESTION: Is the banking system able to withstand this stress it’s under right now?
PAULSON: Our banking system has been holding up very well, considering all of the pressures, and there’s been a lot of work that’s been done.
And you’ve seen us now for a period of months and weeks taking strong actions and actions that are essential in order to protect the banking system and the economy.
And as I’ve said to you, we have significant tools in our toolkit, but they’re not sufficient. And so we’re going to continue to work with what we have until we get from Congress what we need.
Thank you very much.
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