Political Quotes

“make no mistake of it, H.R. 1058 will encourage securities fraud. It is a bad bill. Milken, Boesky, people like that would have been delighted to have functioned under the provisions of this legislation. The rule is a bad rule; it is unfair, and it does not give sufficient time for the matters involved in this legislation to be properly addressed. Both should be rejected by the House. Now, I am no water or spear carrier for trial lawyers. I began pushing product liability over 10 years ago. Two weeks ago I voted for legislation to reform product liability laws. I have long felt there was a real need for reforming medical malpractice and for dealing with securities litigation, which does happen to constitute a problem. But this legislation goes well beyond meeting needs. It does what the old Chinese story tells about: It burns down the barn to cook the pig. H.R. 1058, in its zeal to eliminate abuses, goes too far. It creates shelters, it creates loopholes, and it creates incentives for securities fraud. It will impair the transparency, the fairness of our marketplace, and it will make it more difficult for the SEC to deal with problems of securities fraud, and it will raise real questions about whether Americans can continue to trust and to believe that their securities markets are the best and fairest and most open in the world. This legislation is opposed by a large number of people and agencies that should be listened to carefully.”