Mr. President, I rise today to talk about the challenge of putting our economy back on track and the type of leadership we need to take us forward. Much of this last year we have been absorbed in addressing the challenge of major financial institutions failing and the importance of preventing them from failing in order to not have the second Great Depression. So that has put a lot of attention on Wall Street. But to go forward as a nation, we need to turn our attention to Main Street. We need to rebuild the financial foundations for our families. That is why I am rising today to oppose the nomination of Chair Bernanke for a second term as head of the Federal Reserve. I want to take a moment to explain why, when his nomination was in the Banking Committee, I voted against that nomination. I voted against that nomination because I believe Chair Bernanke is not the right person to take us forward. I will acknowledge he has been quite handy with the fire hose; that is, he has been quite handy in addressing and putting out the fire that has affected our economy over this last year. We are not in a great depression, but we are in a severe recession. But do you hand the job of rebuilding a house that has been burnt down by a fire to the person who helped set the fire to begin with? And Ben Bernanke helped set the fire. Ben Bernanke was on the Board of Governors of the Fed from 2002 to 2005.…
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