Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I think everybody in this body knows the core of this last financial crisis was because there were a lot of loans written in this country that people couldn't pay back. The Dodd bill does a lot, but it doesn't deal with that basic core issue of loan underwriting. This is an opportunity for people on both sides of the aisle to support a commonsense amendment that requires a 5-percent downpayment, with fully documented income, including an employment history and a credit history, which I think all of us would like to see, and a method for determining the borrower's ability to repay and that being part of loan underwriting put in place by bank regulators. This commonsense amendment should be supported by both sides of the aisle. It gives the ability for Habitat, for Enterprise, for those organizations that use sweat equity to be excluded. This is something we all know needs to be common practice. Let's put it in the law and ensure that another financial crisis doesn't come on the backs of homeowners who borrow money, by the way, irresponsibly, and we enable them to do it. Let's vote for something that ensures that common sense is in place in loan underwriting. This is a good amendment, and I hope my colleagues will support it. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Connecticut is recognized.”