Thank you for this testimony this morning.

what is extremely important right now is the two of you and your deliberations in this deficit reduction commission.

So it must not have been CBO who made the estimate that the $30 billion lending facility would produce $300 billion of loans to small business.

For the record, I want you to tell us, how are we going to right our deficit situation without stabilizing the housing market?

And the market would give us some idea of what the market thinks about interest rates.

Could you comment on the fact that we have just passed and sent to the President a major small business lending bill?

Dr. Elmendorf, would you explain the phenomenon of the fact that the U.S. Government is borrowing more and more money, albeit the Federal Reserve is trying to hold down the rates, and why those rates projected well into the future…

Mr. President, if the Senator will further yield--and I will be very brief because the Senator's patience has been extraordinary, and she has been at this going hard, full throttle all day--I would ask the Senator, in light of the…

Mr. President, if the Senator would further yield, why do we have to mess up this bill with message amendments? These are political message amendments. For example, there are some amendments that on their own might be desirable amendments…

Mr. President, I will say this in conclusion, if the Senator will yield further, every one of us has small businesses in our States. The economic engine of Florida is small business. It is those very people who have come forth in this…

First of all, I don't want the Senator to be rushed because I came over here so that I could hear the Senator. The Senator from Louisiana is so articulate and so passionate. She has laid the case out with the bare facts that if there is…