Political Quotes

“We have been hearing some of the details of the bill, but here is the real message: this is about our small communities and small banks that are the lifeblood of those communities. A little earlier you heard the ranking member talk about this being about Wall Street. Do you know what? She is right. This is about Wall Street. Wall Street was one block away from where I lived on Sanford Street in Zeeland, Michigan. By the way, we were connected by Main Street and Central Avenue. That is what it is about. Whether it is Wall Street in Zeeland, Michigan, or Sanford Street, or my friends in Baldwin, Michigan, this is about our small communities. What does a strong local community bank bring? It brings local investment. And what does that local investment bring? Stability, predictability, trust, trust among the farmers, among those corner pub owners, or among those small hotel owners that may be depending on the stray traveler that is going to be coming through. This has been sort of viewed as a risk to these small banks. It is actually the opposite of that. Either, A, one small community bank is going to merge with another small community bank and they are going to remain small community banks under that $3 billion threshold; or, B, what we have been seeing a lot of--and this is what the chairman was talking about--they are going to get gobbled up by a large bank that doesn't qualify under this legislation. And guess what.…”