Political Quotes

“the problem we face with Mr. Lew's nomination is that the Senate does not have answers to very basic and factual questions about Mr. Lew. How can we make an informed decision on his nomination if we don't have answers to basic questions? Let me provide several examples, starting with New York University. He worked for this tax-exempt university and he was given a subsidized $1.4 million mortgage. Mr. Lew claims he cannot remember the interest rate he paid on his $1.4 million mortgage the tax-exempt New York University gave him. Does that pass the laugh test? I asked Mr. Lew to provide details on the mortgage to Congress. He refused repeatedly to provide full details and documentation of this taxpayer-subsidized mortgage. The explanations he did provide were needlessly complex, making it almost impossible to understand the structure of his loan. What is he hiding? Why can't Congress get a straight answer out of this nominee to be our next Secretary of Treasury? When Mr. Lew was executive vice president of New York University, the school received kickbacks on student loans from Citigroup. Then Mr. Lew went to work for that same Citigroup. When I asked Mr. Lew if he had any conversations with Citigroup about these kickbacks while he was at New York University, he once again ``could not recall.'' I asked for any documents related to his involvement in the kickbacks and he refused to search for them. Did those conversations occur? We don't know.…”