Political Quotes

“I thank the Democratic whip, and I thank him for the leadership he provided during his years as majority leader when we were able to do some things. You know, we're talking about what this Congress didn't do. I suppose in some ways we ought to be happy because some of what they said they wanted to do would have been totally destructive. This is the party that let the financial community run riot for years when they had both the White House and both Houses of Congress, did no regulation, so that we got the worst recession in 80 years, a near depression, because of their irresponsibility. They were threatening to undo it. Unfortunately, they were able to accomplish one thing. One of the things we did was to give the Federal regulatory agencies the power to regulate derivatives, a serious, obscure, powerful instrument that was a major cause of our crisis. While they were not able to repeal the rules, they were able to reduce the funding of the agencies that have to deal with this complex matter to a level where they have not been very effective. So that's one of the things they were able to do--undo by financial stealth what we tried to get done. But I want to come to their defense to some extent, Mr. Whip, because there may be some implication that they're not willing to work hard. No, let's be very clear. The reason we have such a dismal record here is not because they are lazy, our Republican colleagues.…”