Where was the Congress in looking at OTS? What was the last time Congress did an oversight hearing on the effectiveness of the OTS or the FDIC prior to this downfall?

Yesterday we defeated, by a vote of 51 to 46, actually smart financial management that would have paid for all the costs for the next 60 days for the unemployment insurance. What we were doing was utilizing money that we are already paying…

Well, I would have no doubt that OTS has a system today, especially in light of the hearings that have been held.

I would put forward that we are about to make the same mistakes that we are claiming and accusing those that are coming before us of.

Because now we have become criminally negligent if, in fact, we are using selective tools of enforcement for one thrift organization as to another.

Was it common practice at OTS to issue recommendations to banks and then simply take their word?

OTS relied largely on WaMu management to track progress in correcting examiner-identified weaknesses

But the data that we showed showed that the people on the ground, the ones that are actually doing the auditing, actually were following guidelines, were they not?

The lesson of OTS is not that we necessarily need more regulators, because clearly regulators can suffer the same flaws as banks--selfishness, shortsightedness, ineffectiveness.

We see over and over again that OTS dedicated a great number of hours and personnel to the supervision of WaMu, yet problems never got truly addressed.

So there was no secondary follow-up by OTS to changes that were requested by OTS.

Here is a fairly painless way--just more efficient management of the money we have--of paying for this needed program without charging it to the children. We don't have to go to the bond market to borrow more. We don't have to incur an…

What that says is, we are once again back to the point where we refuse to make the hard choices to pay for things we need to do today by eliminating things that are not as important. We have $12.8 trillion worth of debt as of today. We are…

How important was the relationship with Freddie Mac in the bank's decision to Option ARMs?

The real question, however, is what will we do to make sure that effort is an effort that has some real meaning behind it and that these are not hollow words. The debate around here becomes partisan and labels get applied, and I admit that…

Would it have been as advantageous as the relationship with Freddie Mac?

There is no question in what Senator Levin had laid out that there, in several of the offices of WaMu, especially in Downey and Montebello, that there was fraudulent activity going on, correct?

In an organization as large as Washington Mutual, with the incentive system constructed as it was, that rewarded growth rather than quality, it was inevitable that certain people would coach borrowers to meet the minimums.

so what are we going to do? We have before us a need. It is a good need. It is something we ought to do. We are going to borrow 43 cents out of every dollar we spend this year. We are going to put the Madelines of this world in a position…

Well, your company is gone, and for us to get to the bottom of this, we need to know every detail.

Does it strike you as strange that the performance goals for the head of risk management is small risk management but sales volume and profit?

Make the loans, package the loans, sell the loans, collect the money, with a small residual for WaMu in terms of risk.

In other words, there would be a geographical difference?

Because of reckless Federal policies, too many families found themselves locked into mortgages they did not understand.

I thought he could stand out as the leading mortgage executive if he could blow a whistle and say, enough is enough.