Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I wanted to, in a few minutes, talk about the START treaty. But before I do that, I would like to engage in some discussion with the Senator from Connecticut about financial reform. Even as I do that, and I will do that briefly, I wanted to say that not many Members of the Senate understand how much time and effort the Senator from Connecticut has put into this product of financial reform--Wall Street reform, as it is called. I, for one, very much appreciate the work that has been done. There is a lot in the bill that has been brought to the floor by Senator Dodd that is commendable and that is right on point. There are some areas where I, perhaps, will want to offer suggestions. Maybe the Senator will agree with them, maybe not. I wish to say as a starting point that I am very pleased that we have the bill on the floor now, open for debate, open for amendment next week. I hope we keep it on the floor and improve it in areas where it can be improved, make modifications where necessary, but in the end be able to vote for a piece of legislation that will allow us to tell the American people: We understand what happened, and we have tried to take steps now to make sure it cannot and will not happen again. One of the areas where I will offer an amendment--and I understand it will be a controversial amendment--is on the issue of too big to fail.…”