Political Quotes

“I am pleased to join Senator Merkley, Senator Nelson, and Senator Reed on the floor today. I thank Senator Merkley for pulling us together. We are here to say no--no to the industry lobbyists, no to their friends in Congress who are threatening a government shutdown if we won't roll back rules that protect consumers and protect the safety of our financial system. It is a pretty neat trick. The lobbyists probably know they can't get a rollback of financial regulations passed out in the open where the American people can actually see what is happening and see which Senators and which Representatives voted to gut the rules that protect working families. So instead they tack rollbacks onto must-pass legislation, such as the upcoming government funding bill, to give their friends in Congress a lot of cover for voting yes. It is cynical. It is cynical and it is corrupt, but it usually works. Just last year, Citigroup lobbyists wrote a provision to blast a hole in Dodd-Frank. The part of the law that was blown up was called--and I am quoting the title--``Prohibition Against Federal Government Bailouts of Swaps Entities.'' The idea behind the rule was pretty simple. If a big bank wanted to engage in certain kinds of risky deals, such as the credit default swaps that had been at the heart of the 2008 crisis, they had to bear all of that risk themselves instead of passing it along to taxpayers.…”