Political Quotes

“I join the Senator in opposition to the Brown amendment, but I wish to speak about the Ensign amendment. We talk about rushing things through around here. I have heard that mentioned a lot over the last couple of days. This is going beyond rushing through. The entire 97 percent of all mortgages--97 percent of all mortgages in the country today--are going through the GSEs, Fannie and Freddie. Without them, there is no housing market in the country. So before we decide to do this without any alternative in place--and clearly one is needed. I take a backseat to no one on the idea we need to reform how the GSEs are functioning. As I think my friend Judd Gregg mentioned the other day, this is far too complex an issue to include in this bill. We already have 1,500 pages. We never intended to deal with every financial issue in the United States, and particularly one where the housing market today is completely dependent on this. Adopt this amendment and, believe me, by tomorrow we will have an economic reaction in the country we won't want to believe.”