U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D) had a lot to say about the economy while visiting Lebanon on Thursday.

He addressed the confusion over what happened in the last six months, and presented an idea of where the economy might be going, even if it wasn't all great news.

"The consensus among economists seems to be we are not yet at the bottom," he said, "which means we have not yet started back up."

DeFazio said he did not support the final product of the stimulus package, but liked the highway projects scheduled to start soon.

He said Oregon should see a "pretty good" construction season for roads, bridges and highways.

"That will provide some opportunities," DeFazio said. "So there's a glimmer of hope on the horizon."

He said housing starts - the number of new homes under construction - has fallen dramatically, which is bad news for Oregon.

He said this not only affects the value of housing, but also impacts the employment of suppliers of wood and building products.

On stimulus funds going to banks, DeFazio said he advocates taking a very tough line.

DeFazio said over the next two weeks, the House plans to re-impose some order over the financial services industry.

"We hope to adopt some reforms, put in place some regulation on some of the most exotic and destructive things they've been doing," he said. "Put some restrictions on the credit card industry for some abuses to customers."

DeFazio said a lot of banks are still not lending, which was the whole theory behind the stimulus and bailout.

"They're still issuing credit default swaps, and other risky financial instruments of mass destruction," DeFazio said.

Credit default swaps are when a company buys insurance on a debt obligation.

DeFazio said AIG sold insurance on debt obligation, and then, assuming they'd never have to pay out, turned around and took bets against those investments.

DeFazio said it's costing taxpayers trillions of dollars because those bets are being honored.

"If we didn't honor those bets, we could reduce the price of this whole thing dramatically," he said.

DeFazio said he thinks there needs to be an investigation of the money distributed through the bailout and stimulus plans to uncover who is responsible, who benefited and to what extent are taxpayers paying off bad bets.

He said an investigation like that of the Pecora Commission after the Great Crash of 1929, would be effective now.

"[Ferdinand Pecora] investigated Wall Street," DeFazio said. "He put people in jail, and we had 50 years of financial stability until we started deregulating."

Despite trillions being spent on the economy, Oregon education must still make cuts.

DeFazio said the money in the stimulus is the largest expenditure of federal money on primary and secondary education in history.

"It's up to the legislature to determine where, how and when they're going to spend it," he said.

DeFazio said legislators are in a very tough spot. He said if they chose to spend all the money in the first year, they might be able to avoid some cuts.

"But if they spend it all in the first year, what are they going to do in the second?" DeFazio asked.