	id AA16091; Thu, 9 Feb 95 19:56:01 CST
Subject: Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 3 Num. 88


              Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 3  Num. 88
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                    ("Quid coniuratio est?")
 
 
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[From The Congressional Record -- House, H1031, Feb. 1, 1995]
 
THE SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE (Mr. Hastings of Washington):
Under a previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from Ohio 
[Ms. Kaptur] is recognized for 5 minutes.
 
MS. KAPTUR:
Mr. Speaker, I want to compliment the previous speaker, the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Hunter], who has been so much a 
part of our efforts to really open up international trade and 
explain the consequences to people in this country and abroad.
 
I rise tonight with a rather heavy heart because of the action of 
the Clinton administration. Our Government is not a monarchy. We 
are a nation of laws and of balance of powers between this 
legislative branch, which is the first branch that the 
Constitution mentions, and the action, in my opinion, by the 
Clinton administration in extending over $47 billion worth of 
credit from the taxpayers of this country is outside the 
Constitutional boundaries of the executive branch.
 
Now, Wall Street today and their irresponsible money men are 
cheering, because they have essentially been bailed out along 
with their 24 billionaire friends in Mexico with this gift 
package from the taxpayers of the United States of America with 
no vote by Members of this Congress. Wall Street investors have 
every reason to be happy. They got their money back from you, the 
taxpayers, but the American people should know that they are at 
risk, because this deal is backed up by worthless paper 
certificates of oil serving as collateral.
 
Now, why do I say this? Does not oil have value? Under normal 
circumstances, it would. But the Mexican Government has long used 
its oil over and over, the same oil again, as collateral for 
debts they already owe.
 
Did you know that Mexico has already pledged its oil in the 
European bond market, the Euro-bond market, for upwards of $10 
billion? The fact is, Mexican oil no longer has any value for use 
as collateral on new debt, because it is pledged to old debt, and 
Mexico owes anywhere between, on the public debt it owes, between 
$160 billion and $200 billion.
 
It would be almost better for Mexico to pledge jumping beans 
rather than to repledge their oil again.
 
In the *Record* tonight, I have taken out of Moody's Manual a 
list of where Mexico's monopoly-owned, state-owned oil company, 
Pemex, has already pledged the assets of their oil company.
 
Suffice it to say, all the administration accomplished by 
conditioning new loans, these $47 billion worth of loans from our 
taxpayers, on Mexican oil, was to put our taxpayers at the end of 
a very long line of creditors to that oil. Even adding up all the 
assets and production of Pemex, Mexico does not have enough oil 
revenue to cover the $47.5 billion worth of new loans.
 
In fact, the *Houston Chronicle* reports that Mexico will become 
a net oil importer by the turn of the century, because it is 
essentially producing half of the oil it produced a decade ago 
because of problems inside that oil company.
 
Now, add to that what Mexico's own officials have said. The 
Mexican Secretary of the Treasury said, "Our oil resources are 
not going to be used for guarantees." Well, if they are not, what 
is backing up the risk to the taxpayers of this country?
 
And Mexico's Energy Minister was quoted recently, and a direct 
quote again, "Our oil will not be mortgaged nor will it form any 
part of any loan guarantee."
 
Now, maybe the United States Ambassador to Mexico cannot read 
Spanish, but it is all there in the Mexican newspapers to be read 
by anyone.
 
Basically, my friends, by dodging Congress, our people have been 
sold a bill of goods that have no value, by the administration in 
collaboration with the Government of Mexico. Now our 
administration is scrambling to make this back-door deal look as 
legitimate as possible. But the fact remains the so-called 
collateral that Mexico is putting up for the $47.5 billion in 
loans is worthless and, in fact, experts have estimated the 
entire worth of Pemex at somewhere perhaps, if we are lucky, 
about $24 billion.
 
So ask yourself when you read the fine print and they say they 
are going to book sales of oil on the Federal Reserve of New 
York's books, who is cooking the books? We are not getting 
barrels of oil. We are getting pledges of collateral that has 
already been overpledged.
 
And if you really want to get cynical, and I will end with this 
statement, is it not interesting that this is not the first time 
this has happened? But in fact it happened right after the 
[Mexican] Presidential election of 1988, during that period when 
they were trying to prop up the value of the Mexican peso. It 
happened in 1982, and now they devalued the peso right after the 
Mexican election in 1994.
 
Let the record speak for itself.
 
 +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +
 
[Copies of The Congressional Record are normally available for 
viewing at your local library.]
 
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Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt.
Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et 
  pauperem.                    -- Liber Proverbiorum  XXXI: 8-9 

 Brian Francis Redman    bigxc@prairienet.org    "The Big C"
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    Coming to you from Illinois -- "The Land of Skolnick"        
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