Barney Frank: “I would take it to say that we often focus on what we disagree on. Let's be clear. We agree on the strongest regulator…”

“I would take it to say that we often focus on what we disagree on. Let's be clear. We agree on the strongest regulator that you could possibly have and still be workable. The gentleman from Louisiana is here, he was one of those who started on it; the gentleman from Ohio who has left, Mr. Oxley. Many of us worked on this. We will be arguing about the housing fund. But let's be clear that what this House will be doing overwhelmingly is create a strong regulator. As to the affordable housing fund, I would just say this, the notion that all of this comes out of the mortgages and not out of the shareholders is bad economics. Fannie and Freddie do not have monopoly power such that they can pass on every cost to the customer and absorb none of it themselves.”