Many banks try to isolate the risk managers from sales pressures. But at WaMu, the first performance goal for the Home Loans Risk Manager... is growth.

Make no mistake, the collapse of this institution is a very big deal.

Would you think that would be important to Board members, to understand that 73 percent or 53 percent of the loans didn't qualify even under the loose standards?

We here in Congress are certainly not without blame.

Were you ever concerned that heavy emphasis on sales with no oversight risk management was problematic?

But you did see it happening?

the mistakes didn't have to be made had Congress done its job, and we failed miserably.

If I were a shareholder in a bank that I became aware had big problems of fraud in its origination process, I would not want to own the shares of that bank.

I would ask unanimous consent for Senator Collins' opening statement to be placed in the record.

So no proof of income, just a statement of income?

When Nancy Gonseth came forward with some pretty credible material. Prior to that, it had been largely rumor.

In hindsight, it looks like this was systemic activity.

Florida, as well--where I did believe there was a significant risk because my belief was that a regional meltdown was possible.

What did you intend be bold?

I think it is going to be beneficial as we go through the process of all of these hearings in looking at what happened, and why it happened.

let me set the record straight. Yesterday in this body we offered the same bill in a way that would not increase the debt. It was immediately tabled, with all Republicans voting not to table it and the majority voting to table it. So there…

Many have heard us use the word ``pay-for'' sometimes. When we say that, what we are actually saying is, we don't want the debt increased. So we don't want to get that confused. I also want to make one comment in relation to what Senator…

I want to set a little bit of a tone. First, I thank the Senator from Michigan. Yesterday, it was through her work and Senator Levin's work that we were able to come to an agreement on a compromise in the Senate. I think that shows when we…

I comment on the Senator's point, there is not anybody in this body, Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, who does not want a great future for our kids. Everybody does. The Senator from Oregon has a set of twins, beautiful…

When the Oklahoma City bombing happened and we sent emergency funds to Oklahoma City, we paid for them. We decreased spending somewhere else to pay for that spending. His point falls on a flat wall because when we had an urgency such as…

140,000 of our troops have lost their second amendment rights as they go through the VA hospital system. They are not a danger to themselves or anyone else. This amendment is something that has passed this body unanimously, has come out of…

I wish to spend a few minutes talking about where we are as a nation and what the future is for our children. We have at this point in time $12.6 trillion worth of debt. We now have equivalent debt for every man, woman, and child in this…

The fact is, about 47 cents out of every dollar that we spend this year we are going to borrow. From whom are we borrowing it? Half we are borrowing from the American taxpayer, but the other half we are floating to the same people who hold…

The emergency that is in front of us is, we are a boat upside down fiscally, and there has to be a set of competing priorities for how we right that boat. But the No. 1 way we do not right the boat is to continue to add to the debt when we…

I do not care how we pay for it as long as it is legitimate, as long as we do not add to our kids' debt. I am hoping and willing to negotiate on any area of waste in the Federal Government that we can eliminate to pay for it. We cannot pay…