Political Quotes

“I come to the Senate floor this morning to talk about the current pending business before this body. This is an issue which obviously raised its ugly head a couple of years ago with the financial meltdown that occurred in this country, and I think all of us in this body agree it is imperative the Senate take action to try to make sure what happened to the financial industry in America never has the opportunity to happen again. I commend Senator Dodd and Senator Shelby for their work on this bill. We have had our disagreements. Yet we have had significant agreement on some areas. We are now trying to take the base bill and make it a bill that all of us in this body, hopefully, will wind up being able to support because we improve the bill to the point where it addresses the real cause of the problem that arose during 2007, 2008, and on into 2009 and 2010. There are some provisions in the bill that I have particular objection to, and there are some things that are not in the bill that I think should be in the bill. For example, one of the major causes of the problem--and I think it goes without saying--is the fact that the GSEs, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, have been authorized over the years to purchase mortgages from individuals who simply could not make their payments, and those mortgages have been bundled together and sold on the market, which has been one of the root causes of the problem.”