Bob Corker

I heard a sigh from the American public and from our witness, and I hope we continue to have meetings in that way.

It was my understanding that all TARP funding was to be used for things the taxpayer would get back. In other words, these were supposed to be investments for which the taxpayers knew they would get 100 percent of their money back and…

I hope that at some point we will have the ability to affect what is getting ready to happen in TARP.

I do think that we can get in trouble sometimes by trying to make a program that we are working on better instead of just facing the facts.

I think the big, the 90 percent issue is that many of these banks know because of GAAP accounting on their accrual loans they haven't taken losses that they know are coming.

I am actually far more concerned about--I don't think we ought to have outside influences.

Thank you for having a very timely hearing. I appreciate it.

Unless we are marking the bills as they go over, and I know they are not, I know the money is--the money is fungible.

I hope that we, in the Senate, will, instead of concocting some Rube Goldberg mechanism that basically disguises what we're doing from the American public, will do exactly the kind of thing that Vice President Gore has advocated, and that…

My goal in this debate is to make sure that, as we move along this road to Copenhagen, that we also focus on things like energy security

I wish we would just talk about a carbon tax, 100 percent of which would be returned to the American people.

There really wasn't the transparency and purity there that I think would be most beneficial

I know that most people around our country look at the banking institutions and they are concerned about whether they have deposit insurance.

I came back to this hearing in large part just to pay respect for those of you who testified and for putting a human face on this tragedy.

I think there is a bully-pulpit side that elected officials and appointed officials have to undertake.

Senator Clinton, when she was here--now Secretary--mentioned that she was willing, during the first 6 months of her time, to really look at foreign assistance, to look at this spaghetti that's been talked about, and really narrow it down…

I thought Senator Lugar's comments about energy were dead-on.

What doesn't really meet the eye, unless they focus on it is, candidly, a lot of our foreign relations efforts are hampered sometimes by various interest groups here in Washington that basically keep us from doing things that make common…

I hope that you will help restore integrity, if you will, so that, look, if we need moneys for microloans...

And I think that may even include some deauthorizing, to really get a little bit more focused.

I do think the things you have said about our foreign assistance representing the values of this country, and the importance of that, all are exactly dead-on.

At the end of the day, you want to have the very best and brightest people in your organization...

I think we do need to look at whether the uptick rule ought to be reinstituted, and that is one of the things that I would be committed to doing very quickly.

A lot of people have said that had that not occurred, then short sellers would not have been able to manipulate the market

There has been a lot of comment, I guess, that the SEC is a revolving door.