2018 -- S 2047

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2018

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S E N A T E   R E S O L U T I O N

RESPECTFULLY REQUESTING THAT THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS ADOPT "AN

AMERICAN ECONOMIC RECOVERY" PROGRAM

     

     Introduced By: Senators DiPalma, Metts, Ciccone, Euer, and Calkin

     Date Introduced: January 18, 2018

     Referred To: Senate Commerce

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     WHEREAS, There is an ongoing banking crisis gripping the United States and other

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nations, typified by the massive fraud committed by Wells Fargo Bank, and the ongoing

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malfeasance at JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, HSBC, Goldman Sachs and other major

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banking entities. Too Big to Fail Banks (TBTF) have paid tens of billions of dollars in fines for

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criminal activities against the American public; the same banks are still holding over $250 trillion

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of derivative contracts on their books, the same derivatives that blew up the economy in 2008;

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and

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     WHEREAS, The financial crisis is being driven by a collapse of industry and

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infrastructure. From 2007 through 2016, Gross Domestic Product grew at the anemic rate of 1-2%

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per year, and productivity rose at an even worse rate of .5% percent or less per year; and

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     WHEREAS, A return to a durable industrial recovery will require adoption of a national

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banking policy as was done by Alexander Hamilton, John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, and

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Franklin D. Roosevelt. This program of federal credit to industry, Cities and States built the

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productive capability of our nation; now, therefore be it

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     RESOLVED, That this Senate of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations

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hereby respectfully urges the Congress of the United States to immediately adopt "An American

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Economic Recovery" program and do the following:

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     1. Restore the provisions of the Glass Steagall Act in the United States, which aimed to

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immediately restore the separation of investment and commercial banking. Two members of the

 

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Rhode Island delegation to the United States Congress are cosponsored legislation, and the Rhode

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Island State Senate was one of more than fifteen state legislatures to file Glass-Steagall

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resolutions in 2016. Glass-Steagall has also been previously adopted on the platforms of both the

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Democratic and Republican Parties;

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     2. Return to a national banking federal credit system, modeled on the principles of

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Alexander Hamilton's First Bank of the United States, which built all the early infrastructure of

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the nation. President Abraham Lincoln was a leading advocate for a new National Bank, and used

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the Greenback policy to build the industrial might of the nation, and that same credit policy was

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embodied in Franklin Roosevelt's Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC), which financed the

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gigantic New Deal infrastructure program. New Deal spending in Rhode Island was responsible

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for schools and Post Offices as well as water projects in Cranston and Warren, and was directly

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funded by offshoots of the RFC. A new National Bank can be immediately capitalized at $1 to 2

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trillion and finance a similar national recovery;

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     3. Use the federal credit system to build a modern network of high-speed rail, power

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generating systems, water projects, and other programs. Rhode Island would benefit by a network

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of high-speed rail lines from Boston to Washington D.C., and storm protection and port

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development projects. The port facilities of the state will be major beneficiaries of National Bank

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credit;

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     4. Rebuild our space program, picking up where the Kennedy space program left off,

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exploring the solar system and thus inspiring future generations. It would also launch massive

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research into key scientific frontiers including nuclear fusion, which is the long-term solution to

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our energy needs; and be it further

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     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to

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transmit duly certified copies of this resolution to all members of the Rhode Island delegation to

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Congress and to the President of the United States.

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