You have had this job for 14 days. The President has had his for twenty-one.

This is a very important opportunity and an important moment, maybe the most important those of us ever will serve during our tenure in this Congress.

We cannot restore the credibility of our financial institutions and put our economy back on track until we restore the credibility of the Government's response.

I think we have had some 82 different hearings or meetings----

Let me commend my colleague from Nebraska. We have new members of this committee who are just tremendously valuable and I include my colleague from Nebraska; just very, very good, excellent questions.

the melt-down of the financial system is the direct quote

We are going to look carefully at those.

Americans want the plan to work. My colleagues want it to work. I believe all of us do.

I would have made that my first point, because in a way, I happen to believe... the failure to address the mortgage, the residential mortgage crisis 2 years ago

the actions we take have to be commensurate with the scale of the problems we face

I think it would be tremendously worthwhile.

My hope is we would be looking... at someone who clearly has the background in making things.