Political Quotes

“The financial crisis of 2008 wreaked untold havoc on the U.S. economy. This disaster, which was intensified by the use of derivatives, set back hardworking Americans for generations. At the same time, it bailed out many of the Nation's largest banks. The Dodd-Frank Act sought to put our financial markets back together by, for example, creating comprehensive oversight and reforms for derivatives markets, as well as prohibitions on banks betting with taxpayers' resources. H.R. 992 would undo some of these reforms before our regulators, Wall Street's cops, have a chance to finish them, especially the Volcker Rule. Congress passed the Volcker Rule to stop banks from using customer deposits, backed by the taxpayer, for trades intended to only benefit the bank and not its customers. The rule, when finalized, will define legitimate bank activities like hedging and market making, but prevent other behavior that would leave the taxpayer and the economy hurting. In the same vein, Congress passed the Lincoln amendment, the provision that H.R. 992 would gut, to insulate the taxpayer by ``pushing out'' certain derivatives from the insured bank, while also making broad exceptions for swaps that bank customers overwhelmingly use.…”