10/04/2008 En Español |
Governor Schwarzenegger Discusses Economic Rescue Plan Effects on California in Weekly Radio Address
Hi, this is
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger with another California
Report.
Americans have
been hit with a lot of tough economic news recently but we got a big boost this
week when Congress approved the $700 billion rescue
plan.
A similar plan
was defeated earlier but it was explained to the people as a bailout of Wall
Street, when really it was about helping ordinary
Americans.
Once that message
was understood, the plan made it through both houses of Congress and President
Bush quickly signed it into law.
This plan was
always designed to help people like the restaurant owner that I met who had
trouble getting a loan to meet his payroll
Or the small
business owner who could not borrow funds to replace old equipment or keep up
with inventory.
Or parents who
needed to borrow money for their children's college
education.
This rescue plan
affects ordinary, everyday people on Main Street, not Wall Street and that's why
it was absolutely essential that it got approved.
But as
welcome as this news was, California is still not out of the
woods.
Even in good
years, we always take out short-term loans for routine cash
flow
Other states and
local governments do the same thing but with the credit markets freezing up,
financing has been hard to come by.
In California's case, if
those routine cash flow loans were not available, important state services would
be jeopardized
The legislation
the President signed will unfreeze the credit markets but no one can say how
quickly.
That's why I sent
U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson a letter this week that California might need to
ask the federal government for a short-term loan.
I have also
called for a meeting next week with our state legislative leaders to make sure
we are all on the same page about how we move California forward in these difficult
times.
I want to
congratulate Democrats and Republicans in Congress for working together to do
what's best for America and I look forward to seeing
more of that kind of cooperation in the future
Thank you for
listening.
