Political Quotes

“Thank you, Madam President. I thank the Senator from Alabama for his eloquent remarks as a key member and the ranking Republican member of the Banking Committee, as someone who is very knowledgeable of the impacts these decisions we make here in Washington have on our financial institutions across this country. I think he is someone who has gone through, as many of us have, this experience with TARP, and his comments are particularly on point. So I thank him for being here and for speaking to this issue. As my colleague from Maine also noted earlier today, I think there is pretty broad opposition to this particular amendment, notwithstanding the support many of us have for the underlying bill. As I said before, there are tax incentives in the underlying bill, along with some other changes that are being made in some of the Small Business Administration lending programs, that I think will get widespread support in the Senate. But I believe this particular provision, for many of the reasons I have mentioned and others have mentioned on the floor, is going to find a considerable amount of opposition, and I would expect that to be bipartisan opposition. In the few minutes I have remaining, what I would like to do, if I could, is wrap up with a couple of basic observations. I know the Senator from Louisiana and others have talked about the discussion they have had with lenders in their States and some of the various associations that represent their States.…”