Joe Crowley: “I rise to lament the wrecking of a solid, bipartisan bill that, at one time, both established a tough new regulator for…”

“I rise to lament the wrecking of a solid, bipartisan bill that, at one time, both established a tough new regulator for our Nation's secondary mortgage market and created a new national housing trust to build affordable housing. Our Nation's economic security and the housing opportunity of millions of Americans is being played with on the floor today. But more than this particular bill, I also lament the fact that this Congress is held hostage to the extreme right wing agenda of the majority. A small cabal of 50 or so Members who, though small in number, loud in voice, threaten this Republican Majority and hold this Congress and our country hostage. They claim they want smaller government but they are saddling our children with trillions in the notorious birth tax--yes, every child born in America today comes into this world with a $30,000 debt to the Government thanks to the skewed economic policies of the so-called fiscally conservative Republican Party. They claim to help people but want to strip away student loans from college kids, Medicaid from the poor, and aid to farmers, for bigger tax cuts for the richest Americans. They claim they support families, but they are robbing the basic tenet of the American Dream--home ownership--right here in this very bill.…”