On the recordJuly 13, 2010
For the past 2 years, this country has been held in the grip of an unprecedented economic crisis. The housing market collapsed, the bottom dropped out of Wall Street, and for the first time in generations many Americans felt their hard-earned economic security begin to slip away. Here in Washington, Members of the House and Senate were faced with a harsh reality: For decades, regulators and policymakers alike had fallen short of their responsibilities. A divisive political process drove them to duck the tough issues and kick the can down the road time and time again. This failure of regulation and the absence of political will allowed Wall Street fat cats to let their greed get the better of them. They gambled with our economic future. They designed complicated financial products and placed high-stake bets against them. In short, they built a house of cards, and when it finally came crashing down, the American economy lay in ruins. There can be no quick fixes after a disaster of this magnitude. But under President Obama's leadership, our elected leaders finally took the bull by the horns and did what was necessary to stop the bleeding and set our country back on the road to recovery.
