Kit Bond

I see the very generous budget request for VA, $115 million for healthcare for homeless veterans.

But you are seeing only the younger ones with PTSD and TBI, the success rates, the bottom line that Mr. Norman referred to is not quite as good as the older, say, more mature veterans of your age and even as high as mine.

We are drowning in debt, and buying our way out is not working.

I cannot understand why the administration chose to eliminate the HUD-VASH program in fiscal year 2011.

That number needs to be publicized because that is the greatest prophylactic to let people know if they are going to do it.

I do not see how, with the problems we have, which are too much like Greece's problems with our debt...

Yes, we would like to know because we need to get a handle on this somewhere.

It seemed to me that that policy was designed to bail out lenders on their risky investments but did little to save a home with a risky loan for the homeowner.

You mentioned that you are still confident in the official $5.8 billion estimate or whatever it was that OMB came up with.

I think that is very important. Senator Murray and I are concerned a whole lot about what happens in Washington State and Missouri.

I think to some degree you have articulated a very important point. When you have multiple regulators, specific ownership of specific risk attributes may become murky.

The problem of shaky subprime mortgages was exacerbated in Wall Street by creating mirror derivatives...

Thank you very much. Your questions and your responses raised a whole bunch of interesting areas.

We are in a real problem, and your efforts with FHA and your guidance on other things may be of help to us in trying to find a way out.

The only thing I would add, I took a very high-level law school course on banking and bankruptcy.

Foreclosure counseling is not good enough. There has got to be pre-purchase counseling before somebody buys a home.

I think one of the most critical values that will come of financial reform, if it gets passed, which I strongly encourage, is that without question, no one is carving out the products that you address.

We are debating a financial regulation bill on the floor...

Have you got a number? How many billions will you experience in loss this year?

To quote an earlier comment by Senator Bond, "skin in the game"

We are interested in getting a handle on this because, as you have indicated, there are so many moving parts in this that we want to try to get a handle on as many as possible.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I asked him to be sure and start the timer, because I've got a lot to say, but I join with you in welcoming Secretary Donley and General Schwartz.

I'm not willing to buy the 14th Street Bridge again.

I am still waiting for real transparency in the current administration grant making process.

We all have the same goal to make sure that the communities in States around this country... are part of and thriving parts of every State in the Union.