Political Quotes

“Madam President, the Wall Street earthquake that sent shock waves around the world has not hit anywhere as hard as it hit Nevada. You can draw a straight line from unchecked greed on Wall Street to the collapse of the housing market on Main Streets throughout my State and around the country. As soon as the big banks went down, foreclosure signs went up. How did this happen? Let's put it this way: When you go to any of the great casinos across Nevada and put your chips on the table, you are gambling with your own money. If you win, you win, and if you lose, you lose. But Wall Street rigged the game. They put our money on the table. When they won, they won big. The jackpots they took home were in the billions. And when they lost--and, boy, did they lose--they came crying to the taxpayers for help. The winnings were theirs to enjoy but the losses were all of ours, to share and to shoulder. That is the way the market worked. It worked for a few fortunate ones in the big firms and worked against everyone else. So when I say that is how the market worked, what I mean is that it didn't work at all. It was badly broken and it nearly bankrupted us. It cost 8 million workers their jobs, millions of retirees their savings, and millions of families their homes. It shattered our faith in our financial system. But there is another problem. We have been talking about this rigged system, this raw deal, in the past tense, but it is not a thing of the past. It is very much in the present.…”