Elizabeth Warren

Some say if we all just calm down, the Republicans will come to their senses. But our country is in a time of crisis. The time for small ideas is over.

There really is an important distinction of tribal citizenship. I am not a member of a tribe. And I have apologized for not being more sensitive to that distinction.

I think as a people, when we talk about our values, we talk about the things that we care most about, we can find some common ground and we can build on that ground, and we can make a real commitment.

But we're going to have to build it together. We're going to have to take our government back. We're going to have to take it away from the wealthy and well-connected who have turned it in their direction, and we're going to have to make…

Look, giving away a trillion and a half-dollars to corporations, to billionaires, to the wealthy and well-connected, while young people are struggling with student loan debt, while families can't have prescriptions filled, while…

Well, that's what he's done and we are now sitting here in the longest shutdown in American history.

We have the votes on the congressional side. But so far, Mitch McConnell is saying, no, the only one who has any power in Washington is Donald Trump.

This is manufactured crisis and it's starting to impose real pain -- real pain on families all across this country.

Look, we need to open the government. People are working jobs. I today was with TSA agents who are out doing their jobs trying to keep us safe, and they're not getting paid.

The death count in Puerto Rico has been proven to be now in the thousands.

It's just a prime example of government that works for the rich and the powerful and doesn't work for the people.

Right here in Puerto Rico, an island that's been devastated both by a financial crisis and by twin hurricanes, right now has a government that is taking money off the island in order to send it to Wall Street.

So I've been talking about a government in Washington that works great for the wealthy and to the well-connected but not so much for everyone else.

The priorities of these corporations are clear--buying back shares can boost a company's stock price, which can mean even bigger bonuses for corporate executives.

But, we also know that a decade ago, Bernie Madoff was far from the biggest threat to most families.

We need a clear, uniform fiduciary standard for advisers and brokers.

Let me suggest, Mr. Chairman, if it is the same, just use the same words.

When your own study shows that disclosures do not work to help regular investors make informed decisions, will you move away from a disclosure-based approach in your final rule and just adopt a uniform fiduciary standard for both advisers…

For the proposal to help customers make good decisions, they need first to understand the difference between a broker and an investment adviser.

So one option would simply be to make brokers subject to the same fiduciary standard that investment advisers are subject to, but you did not do that.

As you know, right now investment advisers are subject to what is called a fiduciary standard.

A decade ago, the regulators in the Bush administration failed the country, and the price was enormous.

It is your job to worry when the public seems to think there is nothing to worry about.

It is time to question whether it is too easy for companies to buy back their shares.

But, there's a reason that the Constitution puts the hard calls on the civilian part of government.