Political Quotes

“Well, now that's an interesting question. Clearly, we have institutions that are too big to fail. That's where the TARP legislation that was the last act--one of the last acts of the Bush administration--came into being. The Treasury Secretary, Mr. Paulson, who actually was the CEO of Goldman Sachs, as I recall, came to this House, came to the Senate, and said, Oh, my. Oh my. The world is going to collapse unless you immediately cough up a trillion dollars to the banks to stabilize the banks. Fortunately, this House said, Wait a minute. Let's see what we're doing here. Instead of a 1-page bill giving the Treasury Department a trillion dollars, the TARP program was put in place. And it did stabilize the financial institutions but it was a clear sign that Wall Street banks had become too big. AIG. How much have they taken? Twenty-three billion dollars of our money. Are we going to get it back? We don't know. Mr. Driehaus, if you will carry on here. I know that you were involved in that TARP legislation. Share with us.”