Jeb Hensarling: “Mr. Chair, this House recently passed a financial markets regulatory restructuring bill which in essence, unfortunately…”

“Mr. Chair, this House recently passed a financial markets regulatory restructuring bill which in essence, unfortunately, will create a new Federal insurance program, or bailout authority, for large financial companies that take on too much risk. I wish we would leave, given the state of the national debt, I wish we would leave the safety net where it currently is, under federally insured depository institutions. And instead, ultimately I fear we will one day be looking at taxpayer subsidies to cover the likes of Goldman Sachs, AIG, and Lehman Brothers. I wish we had learned our lesson from the National Flood Insurance Program, which we know was supposed to never require any taxpayer funds, any general revenue. But unfortunately, we know today already $19 billion is owed to the Federal taxpayer. And we look at the other federally administered insurance programs: Social Security, long term deficit of $15 trillion; Federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, debt of $22 billion, projections of $34 billion by 2019; Federal crop insurance, Medicaid--the list goes on and on and on. This bill adds to the tab. And the Congressional Budget Office has projected this bill will increase spending by roughly a half-billion dollars over 10 years. Even by Washington standards, I hope we still consider that to be significant funding. Now, I wish the Federal Government wasn't in this business, but we are in this business.”