Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I would now like to yield 5 minutes to my distinguished colleague from California (Mr. McClintock). Mr. McCLINTOCK. I thank the gentlelady for yielding. Mr. Speaker, the supporters of this bill tell us it's going to increase lending to small businesses. To do so, they're creating a $30 billion slush fund to make loans to smaller banks, therefore encouraging smaller banks to make loans to small businesses, or so they say. I believe it is a splendid example of what I like to call McClintock's Second Law of Political Physics: The more we invest in our mistakes, the less willing we are to correct them. It has apparently escaped the supporters' attention that we are already doing precisely what the proposed new Small Business Lending Fund would do through the existing TARP Capital Purchase Program. Now that's not just my conclusion. That's the conclusion of the Special Inspector General of TARP, Neil Barofsky. He wrote to the Financial Services Committee on May 17, and observed, ``In terms of its basic design, its participants, its application process, and perhaps its funding source, from an oversight perspective, the Small Business Lending Fund would essentially be an extension of TARP's Capital Purchase Program.'' So if this scheme actually worked, we wouldn't need this bill, would we? Banks would already be lending like crazy. The only problem is, it doesn't work.…”