Political Quotes

“Mr. President, there were two amendments I supported during debate on the financial reform bill that would take steps to improve our Nation's housing policy. Unfortunately, only one of these amendments was adopted by the Senate. Senator McCain offered an amendment, that I supported, that would have required the Federal Government to end its conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac 2 years after the financial reform bill was signed into law. While the amendment was not perfect, I supported it because neither the current structure of Fannie and Freddie nor the billions of taxpayer dollars that the Federal Government is using to prop up Fannie and Freddie are sustainable. Federal taxpayer support of Fannie and Freddie needs to end, and the McCain amendment would have provided a timetable for bringing that Federal support to an end. I was pleased that the Senate did adopt an amendment I supported, offered by Senator Merkley, to curb predatory lending practices throughout the Nation. These unconscionable predatory lending practices contributed to the subprime housing mess, and the Merkley amendment included commonsense provisions to address some of these practices. Too often, loan originators received higher compensation if they steered borrowers into subprime loans than if they had placed those borrowers into qualifying prime loans.…”