Jackie Speier: “Americans' thirst for real change did not end with the election in 2008. Across this country, people are mad, mad that…”

“Americans' thirst for real change did not end with the election in 2008. Across this country, people are mad, mad that the rampant speculation in our financial markets which led to the current economic meltdown and the double-digit unemployment have not yet been addressed. I want to thank President Obama for his announcement this morning acknowledging what former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker has been saying for months: It's time to reinstate the institutional protections that safeguarded our country for more than half a century, the Glass-Steagall Act, ironically repealed in 1999 at the behest of the financial services industry. The only thing in America that can ever be deemed too big to fail is America itself. It is time for those of us in Congress to grow a backbone, to have the courage of our convictions and stand up to the big banks. No longer can we allow the greed of a few to put the entire Nation at risk. Just as we are united in our effort to combat threats from abroad, we must be vigilant to those very real threats from within. We were sent here by the voters to take care of them, the taxpayers and the consumers. The banks can take care of themselves.”