What we should be doing is taking the newfound backbone and accelerating and strengthening them.

I would like to thank the distinguished Chairman, Senator Rockefeller, for holding this hearing.

I don't think anybody will uphold that argument because they will never get to it because they will decide the case is valid...

But doesn't that beg the question, then, that it really is not a complete lack of regulation but a lack of enforcement and proper oversight?

I have to say that I am disappointed. I am disappointed that the Commission was really unable to put together a unified report to accurately assess the root cause of the financial crisis.

Let me be the first to say that anything can be improved. If you have ideas about how to improve this law by making care better or more affordable, I am eager to work with you.

I am a little perplexed by the overreaching of Dodd-Frank, because a lot of this could have been avoided simply by enforcing rules we have had on the books for years.

Republicans and Democrats lost their jobs. Republicans and Democrats lost their savings. Republicans and Democrats lost their homes.

I truly believe one of the best actions of this Congress was the 9/11 Commission report that was totally bipartisan.

cutting them even more than what they had then, I feel will make it impossible for them to implement Dodd-Frank and be responsible regulators.

I think if you look in this budget, this is possibly the toughest budget that certainly a Democratic President has ever put forward...

I am concerned. You guys have the veto pen, and I just want to encourage you to not be afraid to take a stand.

I don't know where you are from, but where I come from, most of our jobs come from successful small businesses.

the elephant in the room is the tremendous growth of entitlements.

Why did you duck, why are you not taking this opportunity to lead?

What is so frustrating about this is, you know the drivers of our debt are the entitlement programs. And yet, you are doing nothing to address that.

The President has disappointed us all by declining that opportunity. He punted.

Do you think that the tax increases that you are planning on in 2013 on mostly successful small businesses in the investment community in America, on job creators; you think it is not going to impact the economy?