The good thing about this big package is how many different ways we attack the climate crisis.

I appreciate that you have conducted this review because credit union customers are counting on NCUA to protect them from unsafe financial practices and products.

I am concerned that NCUA is not doing enough to ensure that credit unions are living up to their responsibilities.

We`re still working on it. You know, I think of it this way. We`ve got 50 Republicans who`ve said no, they don`t want any part of this. But we`ve got 50 Democrats who are all in their own boats trying to row in the same direction.

The elephant in the room is whether you are going to be renominated for a second term as Fed chair. Renominating you means gambling that the next five years with a Republican chair who has regularly voted to deregulate Wall Street won`t…

I appreciate your looking at it as a fighter. But I would also add one more year of propping up a corrupt government and an army that would not fight on its own would not give us a better outcome, and anyone who thinks differently is…

That it was actually an amazing undertaking. It was done under chaotic circumstances because the government had collapsed, because the party had melted away the Afghan army and that even in the midst of all of that, our military was able…

I believe President Biden had it exactly right, withdrawing was long overdue. The withdrawal was conducted in accordance with the advice of his military advisers who planned and executed every step of this withdrawal.

So, let me ask you one more question, Secretary Austin. Knowing what we know now, if we would have stayed for one more year, would it have made a fundamental difference?

Right. Well, literally for months now, Democrats in the Senate, Democrats in the House have been operating with one goal in mind and one understanding, and that is there is going to be a lot that needs to be done in the reconciliation…

Look, you remember what happened in the early 2000s. And that is we had Federal Reserve that was unwilling to rein the giant financial institutions. So a bit at a time they deregulate here, they turn a blind eye there. And those financial…

The debt limit is not about future spending. It is about meeting obligations we have already made.

Given the Archegos collapse, do you regret weakening the Volcker rule?

Chair Powell, do you regret weakening the stress test?

I just do not think that is a risk worth taking.

So today I want to talk about three instances of that and ask you to think about them in hindsight.

When the tests were first set up, bank supervisors could restrict stock buybacks and dividend payments to strengthen the bank's balance sheet.

We can't play politics with the full faith and credit of the United States.

I do not want to argue with you about what capital--

And we now know, from the Fed's own research, that when the economy hit choppy waters last year, those banks needed stimulus from the taxpayers.

We cannot play politics with the full faith and credit of the United States.

Let me ask you the question then. I take it you do not have any regrets about any changes to the stress test?

I will oppose your renomination.

So let me just ask, do you regret slashing liquidity requirements designed to protect markets from crashing like they did in 2008?

We cannot declare the recovery complete until all workers can find a job that pays them fair wages and treats them with dignity.