On the eve of his testimony before Congress, beleaguered Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson used last night's speech to defend the administration's response to the nation's "unprecedented" financial crisis. Paulson said without the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, things would be even worse, ABC News reports. "It's hard to get credit for what didn't happen," he said.
Paulson's top priority is keeping banks and capital markets strong, he said. He's against another stimulus package and federal moves to protect homeowners from foreclosure, and thinks loaning US carmakers a bundle of cash would be a "huge mistake"—the industry needs to reform itself, he said. Paulson made the same arguments in a New York Times op-ed today.
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