Political Quotes

“I urge my colleagues to waive the point of order. We came up with an alternative offset in the conference committee, much at the insistence--and I thanked him for that--of Senator Brown of Massachusetts, looking for a better offset than the ones which were originally in the conference report. The offset here ends TARP, which I presume most people would welcome with open arms, saving us $11 billion by terminating it early, as well as then complying with the request by the chairperson of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Sheila Bair, to provide for additional assessments to meet the obligations of the FDIC and the insurance fund. Both of those items provide the necessary offsets to the cost of this bill. The long-term deficit point of order is caused by the orderly liquidation authority for systemically significant financial institutions. Let me note that this critically important aspect of the legislation was developed in very close cooperation with Senator Shelby in the Shelby-Dodd amendment. It also reflects the bipartisan cooperation of Senators Corker and Warner. The Shelby-Dodd amendment passed this body overwhelmingly with over 90 votes. Even though the liquidation authority is the source of long-term budget costs, it is still 100 percent paid for.”