Emanuel Cleaver: “A little over 2 years ago, our Nation walked to the precipice. Many Americans are perhaps unaware of the fact that we…”

“A little over 2 years ago, our Nation walked to the precipice. Many Americans are perhaps unaware of the fact that we were very, very close not to a major recession but a depression. And for this body to pass financial reform was, I think, one of the better things we have done. For financial reform to remain on the table over in the Senate is just abominable. Many people were out trying to survive during this crisis and still losing money, still losing homes. We saw Wall Street playing around with derivatives that many of them didn't even understand. They hired physicists to actually describe what would happen with the derivatives. So if we don't do financial reform, we're going to leave the American public vulnerable. We have got to do it. We have got to establish a Financial Consumer Protection Agency and we need to do it now.”