Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, tonight I want to devote extra time to talking about the proposed financial reform bill and the conference committee report that is being worked on this moment that is likely to come before the House later this week. And I wanted to put the discussion tonight into a broader context in hopes that my colleagues will listen and consider the bill to be brought before us. Let me begin with this statement: bankers hold a very privileged position in our society because in fact they hold the awesome power to create money. Their use of that power can advance our society, or their use of that power can harm us greatly. We are living through a period of great harm. And so we have to ask, When bankers are given power, how much power do we give them and what do we give them power to do? As we are discussing this this evening, the Financial Services Committee is meeting to take out a proposal that had been a part of the bill that would tax the banks that have done so much harm to us as a society. It is another example of too much power to too few, especially the few institutions that have hurt our entire Nation. So I rise tonight to offer comments on the so-called regulatory reform conference report, and I want to outline some principles that I hope Members and the American people will consider as this bill is debated later in the week.…”