Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to this legislation, which I know does not surprise the chairman. I have been here for some time. I was here in the 1990s. I was here in the 2000s. Frankly, we took the referee off the field in the 2000s, and we didn't put the referee as toughly on the field in the late 1990s as we should have. Brooksley Born warned us about that, and we kept our eyes shut, and keeping our eyes shut cost millions and millions and millions of people their jobs, their homes, and their security. Let us not return to the time of taking the referee off the field. This bill does that. It is a dangerous piece of legislation. The bill which my Republican colleagues have put forward would put the American people at risk once again of having to bail out institutions if they lose money on risky investments. Let me say to my Republican friends: I share their view that community banks should not be treated as too-big-to-fail banks. However, having said that, this bill takes the referee off the field one more time. It would effectively eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that is now the American people's watchdog. We have spent a lot of time this year in the last 5 months passing bills under the Congressional Review Act that have reduced consumer protections, civil rights protections, teacher protections, environmental protections. All we are doing is spending our time taking away protections for the American people and their futures.…”