On the recordJuly 22, 2010
one of the arguments I have heard against the Senator's amendment--as the Senator from Illinois said, this is a replay of the TARP battle. I want to explore that for one moment with my friend from Louisiana. Before I do, I must say about the Senator from Louisiana, her passion and commitment to small business, reflected in her chairmanship on the Small Business Committee--and I am honored to serve with her on it--has been nothing short of breathtaking. I thank her for that leadership. On the TARP issue, those of us who voted for TARP have been criticized back home because it didn't result in a lot of credit flowing. We would have loved to have had the time so we could have taken some steps so we could have connected credit flow with what we were doing to try to save this economy from totally going under. We did not have the time to do it at that time. We have been criticized, and to some extent I think fairly, for not connecting some kind of requirement on the part of banks that are being helped through TARP with some commitment to lend out that money, to get credit flowing again.
