Political Quotes

“Madam President, 8 years ago reckless bankers on Wall Street sparked a financial meltdown. Their too-big-to-fail banks gambled with our economy, encouraging reckless mortgage lending by funding the slimy subprime lenders who peddled their miserable products to millions of American families. Those same banks then gobbled up those dangerous mortgages, repackaged them, and spread huge risks throughout the financial system. The consequences were disastrous. Wall Street greed destroyed $7 trillion in housing wealth and resulted in millions of Americans losing their homes. It killed 8.7 million American jobs. It gutted hundreds of pension funds, leaving millions of retirees hung out to dry. Thanks to Washington bailouts, Wall Street is once again flying high. Corporate profits are up, and the stock market is soaring. But the real people who were hurt by the financial collapse--the millions of workers who lost their jobs, lost their homes, and lost their retirement savings because of Wall Street's reckless greed--many of them haven't bounced back. The evidence of this is everywhere, but consider just one recent example. Earlier this month, 400,000 participants in the Central States Pension Fund narrowly escaped having their hard-earned pension benefits slashed by as much as 70 percent. Their benefits were on the chopping block because that fund is in terrible trouble. There are a lot of reasons why, but one reason is beyond dispute: Wall Street greed. The story is ugly.…”