Political Quotes

“In essence, the amendment has the effect, as so many amendments often do that come to the floor, of basically gutting the entire bill. The core reform made by this bill is to--what?--adopt for all Federal credit programs fair value accounting. Now, this is not a precipitous or rash decision that we're going to make here. The Budget Committee, both with the Republican and Democrat leadership, has, over time, studied and worked on the implications of moving to a fair value accounting for Federal credit programs. The CBO, which we reference all the time, is an independent arbiter of what is right here and has studied these things, and other academics have conducted studies going back as far as the 1990s, if not earlier, on this question as well. In fact, there was a commission, a commission featuring 36 experts, including six former CBO Directors. What did they recommend? They recommended moving to a fair value accounting in 2010. Indeed, it was back in 2009 that this House, under Democrat leadership, voted to require the use of fair value accounting with respect to U.S. commitments made to the IMF, the International Monetary Fund. Additionally, the CBO has conducted analyses of dozens of Federal credit programs on a fair value basis. So this bill is not precipitous. This bill is not rash. This bill is not extreme.…”