Political Quotes

“I stand today to discuss the McCain amendment as well. We have had a lot of debate about the financial regulatory legislation before us. A lot of the debate has focused on the content of the bill, with concerns being raised by some such as myself about whether we truly are ending too big to fail and truly are ending bailouts and whether we are going too far in creating yet again a big government response to an issue that needs to have a more effective response rather than more government, a response that will hammer Main Street, not Wall Street, and create yet again another big expansion of government in this Congress. We have seen way too much of that in way too many parts of our economy so far, and some of us are concerned about that. But what I want to talk about today is what is noticeably absent in the bill; that is, the reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, our government-sponsored entities--actually, our government-managed entities now--and the fact that these entities are at the core of the financial crisis we are dealing with and yet are not even touched by this legislation. Americans remain rightly outraged that their tax dollars were used to bail out irresponsible Wall Street firms and auto companies. I have voted against these bailouts, and I have been working with my colleagues to make sure we do not set the stage for yet more government bailouts.”