Political Quotes

“Thank you very much, Mr. President. This amendment includes Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as part of the Federal budget as long as either of these two institutions is under conservatorship or receivership. I wish to thank Senators Gregg, Shelby, McCain, and Vitter, Hutchison, and Corker for cosponsoring this amendment. As I believe my colleagues will recall, several days ago we voted on a broader amendment which would actually have provided some significant coverage of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in this so-called financial regulatory reform legislation we are addressing on the floor of the Senate today. That legislation would have provided a pathway for us to literally stop the bailouts of Fannie and Freddie and move us toward a path of resolving the continued taxpayer exposure to the excesses of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But that amendment was defeated on the floor of the Senate--although I supported that amendment because now, since the amendment has been defeated, there is literally no piece of this legislation before us that addresses the core problem that started the entire collapse in our economy; namely, the securitization of the mortgage industry and the actions of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which ran up so many of these toxic assets and helped to spread them throughout the globe. As we debated then, the taxpayer is already on the hook for about $130 billion-plus for the problems Fannie and Freddie caused.…”