GARY G. MILLER

The wrong lesson to draw from the financial crisis is that homeownership should not be a goal, a public policy goal.

Our objective, moving forward, should not be to continue arguing over the facts that led us to this point. I sincerely want to begin the next phase, negotiating a plan for the future.

There is no doubt that we would not have much of a mortgage market now without Fannie and Freddie.

But we have to figure out what we are going to do to fix the housing market in this country without destroying it.

A $150 billion loss is outrageous. There is just no excuse for that.

We need to be competitive globally. And for us to do that, we have to stop mandating the private sector.

What can we do to grow the economy?

We cannot continue to take from the government and think we are creating jobs. No. We are hiring government employees.

I think we are in far worse shape than people want to recognize and understand truly.

Business practices have been adjusted, and each market participant can adapt to a more responsible system that avoids coercion of appraisers and reduces the opportunity for fraud.

I would just ask you to please revisit with earnestness what we have done here because I think we are going at the wrong people, trying to resolve a legitimate problem.

While I understand the importance of this program to many families, and it serves millions of families, I remain concerned about the long-term costs associated with new vouchers and the impact the Section 8 funding costs will have on the…

And see, we have to justify what we're doing to the American people who have lost their jobs, due to no fault of their own.

I think it's incumbent on us to demonstrate to the American people that we're trying to do the right thing.

For millions of families, abuse of overdraft fees for debit and checking accounts has become an unconscionable burden.

I am not reflexively antigovernment or promarket. I am a Democrat. I think there are some things that government does well that markets do poorly or don't do at all.

I inadvertently voted ``aye'' on rollcall No. 365, disapproving the extension of the waiver authority contained in section 402(c) of the Trade Act of 1974 with respect to Vietnam.

Had I been here, I would have voted ``aye.''