Political Quotes

“I am disappointed but not surprised that our Republican colleagues have chosen not to go forward in terms of financial reform because we should be very clear that when we do financial Wall Street reform, we are taking on not only the most powerful people in the United States of America but some of the most powerful people in the world--people of endless resources. When Congress deregulated Wall Street, against my vote, Wall Street and their allies, over a 10-year period, spent $5 billion fighting for deregulation so they could be in a position to do anything they wanted, which was, of course, what brought us the terrible recession we are currently in. Last year alone, in 2009, the financial interests spent $300 million in lobbying, campaign contributions, in order to fight finance and Wall Street reform. So I am not surprised that at this point our Republican friends have not chosen to go forward. I hope they change their mind, and I hope they know back home the American people are profoundly disgusted at the behavior of Wall Street, and they want to make sure we never again will be placed in the position of having to bail out people who, through their greed and recklessness, have brought suffering to tens and tens of millions of Americans. As we proceed--and I believe we will proceed--to Wall Street reform, it is also important we not just pass something for the sake of a press release but we do something substantive.”