April 3, 2008 (LPAC)-- Not a single senator on the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee had the courage to bring up the issue of the illegality of the March 16 Federal Reserve bailout of Bear Stearns during a hearing to investigate the bailout held on Thursday April 3. The committee hearing was chaired by fascist Felix Rohatyn controlled Senator Christopher Dodd. Members of the Senate Banking Committee could not have claimed that they were unaware of the illegality of the Bear Stearns deal since in the past two weeks the LaRouche Youth Movement had distributed Lyndon LaRouche's statement on the illegality of the deal to every office in the Congress and the Senate. This is yet another graphic example of what LaRouche has said about the need to mass organize the lower 80 percent to provide the leadership to the Congress. Congress is asleep at the switch.

During the hearing, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke endorsed Senator Dodd's impotent bill, which is not a solution to the housing crisis or general economic breakdown. When told of this endorsement, Lyndon LaRouche commented, that Bernanke's endorsement of Dodd's bill proves that "Dodd is getting feeble-minded. Dodd is shifting his seat from Connecticut to New York's Orchard Street where he is putting himself up for auction."

Treasury Secretary Paulson was not present at the hearing but his testimony defending the Bear Stearns bailout was read by Under Secretary of Treasury for Domestic Finance Robert Steele. Lyndon Larouche commented on Paulson saying, "Paulson is stupid, and has been working for certain interests for so long, he doesn't know how to do anything else. He is a whore. That is his problem. They are destroying the country."