On the recordJune 8, 2017
I thank Ranking Member Waters for yielding me time and for her leadership on this. Nine years ago, I was there, in 2008, when our financial system collapsed, as a new Member of Congress, the sole scientist on the Financial Services Committee. And as we surveyed the wreckage of our economy, I wondered how we ever could have gotten into a place like that with our financial system clogged with toxic assets based on trillions of dollars of mortgages that never had any realistic chance of being repaid by their homeowners. We saw giant banks and trading firms leveraged beyond belief, huge financial corporations so complex that they had thousands of business units that even their CEOs were unaware of, and risk management software that was being ignored, if it existed at all. How could we have gotten there? But when I look at the CHOICE Act that Republicans are about to ram through on a party-line vote, I understand perfectly how we got there. I see all the same forces of mindless deregulation and free market ideology, an overriding mania for tax cuts for the rich, while stripping financial protection for ordinary American families; the same refusal to learn the lessons of financial history and to replace them with alternative facts that fit their ideology. Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to stand up for working families and protect our economy by opposing this bill today.
