I believe before we legislate in this area, I think we should be careful.

Your days of bilking American families at the expense of our economy are over.

I would like to be able to mark up a bill in this area.

These are not mutually exclusive concepts and it is our job--our obligation--to craft a regulatory structure that can accommodate them both.

I respect immensely that Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve moved on the issue of regulation.

This was not a natural disaster. This is one that was avoidable.

In this time of economic turmoil, we need to proceed carefully, but we do need to proceed.

clear, complete, and understandable disclosure, as Senator Dodd has pushed for years, is so critical.

Today is the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birthday and I took my daughter up to Lincoln's cottage.

The need for quick action to end abusive lending practices is more urgent than ever now.

I think these are basic things that one would require.

The need to reform the practices of our nation's credit card companies and to provide some tough new protections for consumers.

We frequently hear from constituents about the burden of abusive credit card practices.

2009 could be one of the worst years on record for credit card consumers.

the notion once again that we could ever start thinking about regulation, reform, and creating new architectures for the 21st century, very much a part of that has to be that that end user, that consumer user of products, be they credit…

I think it is a very important point to take away from a hearing like this, how best we do that.

Senator Dodd's comprehensive Credit Card Act fills in many of these gaps.

I am pleased today to be reintroducing comprehensive credit card legislation that would reform credit card practices and prohibit card issuers from continuing policies that are threatening the financial security of American consumers and…

These practices are wrong and they are unfair.

But doesn't it also basically--in other words, the incentive for the issuer to make sure that the borrower is going to be more creditworthy diminishes when you know you are going to be able to sell that debt off. Isn't that also true?

I am disappointed that you have got to wait until July of 2010 for them to become effective.

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

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

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

I feel as strongly as you do that time is not with us.