Political Quotes

“Let us go to middle America, where men and women who work hard all their lives to establish some kind of a financial nest egg put their faith not only in the market, but in this country, and invest in various corporate enterprises. Mr. and Mrs. Middle America are the backbone of this economy. They work, they help produce taxes for this country, and they help produce wealth that can continue to grow and make America the strong country which it is. What happens when they cannot have confidence that the earnings statements of the companies in which they are investing are real? What if there is no credibility for a market that one day goes up and the other day goes down because people are lying about their books? There is something that is at stake here that is much larger than this bill that is before the House for debate. And what is at stake here is the confidence that people need to have in our free market system. And the only way you can rescue that in a climate where the accounting industry has basically stolen a march on regulators is to retrieve the role of the government in assuring that people's investments are going to be protected. That is what this amendment is about. The free market economy again requires accurate information to operate efficiently. And so I ask all of my colleagues, where is your commitment to free markets today?”