Political Quotes

“Thank you, Mr. President. The legislation we are considering today has been portrayed as modest, not that big of a deal, that it doesn't matter that much, that it is something narrow to help community banks and credit unions and regional lenders like the three institutions in my State--Huntington, Key, and Fifth Third--all pretty much things I support. Unfortunately, that is really not the only thing this bill does. I tried for months to work with Chairman Crapo, whom I respect and admire--and I mean that. People say those things on the floor, but I actually mean that. I tried for months to work with Chairman Crapo on a commonsense package of reforms aimed at community banks and credit unions and small and midsized financial institutions. We had a lot of agreement on that. Then the creep began. Then the expansion began. Then leaking into this process were all kinds of help for all kinds of bigger banks. These are the local lenders that we want to help to fuel home ownership and small business in our community. I get that. These are the community banks in Lakeview, Cleveland, Milford, Parma, and West Chester, the banks that we lost when the big banks crashed the economy a decade ago. I know people in this institution--especially those who get lots of money from Wall Street--like to blame Dodd-Frank for so many community banks going out of business, but it was really what led up to the crash, including the crash, that caused so many community banks to go out of business.…”