[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 5794-5795]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      FINANCIAL REGULATORY REFORM

  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, for too long the interests of the 
middle class have gone ignored--simply an afterthought in a financial 
system that has enabled a few Americans to help themselves, to 
accumulate immense wealth, while middle-class wages stagnated.
  Wherever I go in Ohio, the story is the same: From Toledo to 
Marietta, from Ashtabula to Middletown, the entrepreneurs and small 
business owners can't get the credit they need to expand operations and 
hire workers. College students are worried about signing away their 
financial future when signing up for college. They are worried a bank's 
exorbitant interest rate will follow them into their career, through 
parenthood, and into retirement. Neighborhoods across Ohio--especially 
in our cities, but it has spread way beyond that--have been shattered 
because of the housing crisis, caused in large part by Wall Street 
gambling with the American dream. Cities and towns face massive budget 
shortfalls, shortchanging vital public services such as education, law 
enforcement, and transportation.
  Today, I brought to Washington--for the third straight year--55 
presidents of colleges and universities, 2-year, 4-year, private and 
public, from Ohio to talk about what we do with public education. All 
of them face significant budget problems because of what Wall Street 
has done to our communities, to our colleges and universities, to our 
cities, towns, and small businesses.
  Workers worry about their pensions--whether they spend their later 
years living off the fruits of their labor or working part-time jobs 
just to get by. The hallmarks of middle-class life--a stable job, a 
secure home, a safe community--in too many places in Ohio, in Colorado, 
and across the country are at risk.
  Let's not forget what got us here in the first place. Some might say 
we don't need to pick winners in our economy, but we don't need to pick 
losers either. Yet look what we have done on Wall Street and in 
Washington. Washington's permissive attitude toward Wall Street has 
thrown our entire economy into turmoil. The financial sector can't be 
allowed to call the shots, as they have, when it comes to our economy.
  Let me cite one quick statistic. In 1980, 35 percent of our Nation's 
GDP was manufacturing. Less than half that amount, less than one-sixth, 
was financial services. Today, those numbers have flipped--at least 
before this recession. Manufacturing accounted for only about 15 
percent of our GDP, financial services was almost twice that. But look 
what that brought us. Look what it brings us in mining towns in 
Colorado or industrial towns in Ohio, where town after town after town 
has been hollowed out because of Wall Street, because of Federal 
policies from the last decade that have chosen financial services over 
manufacturing, that have chosen Wall Street over Main Street.
  Megabanks can't hold such a large stake in our economy that their 
downfall becomes our economy's downfall. Despite the economic meltdown 
and bailout, our Nation remains vulnerable to the next economic crisis. 
Yet what is happening in this institution? People are trying to block 
us from action. The biggest banks grow bigger--the six largest U.S. 
banks have total assets equal to 63 percent of our overall GDP. Let me 
say that again. The six largest banks have total assets equal to 63 
percent of our overall GDP. We must take action to ensure that no bank 
can hold so much of our Nation's wealth that if it fails our Nation 
either bails it out or our financial system crumbles.
  What kind of a Hobson's choice is it for the House and the Senate, 
the President and the Federal Reserve to make when a bank is so big 
that if it is about to fail, we have two choices: Either we bail out 
that bank with taxpayer dollars--as we had to do a couple years ago, at 
the end of the Bush years--or we allow the financial system to implode 
and crumble.
  But size alone is not the problem. We also have to cut back on Wall 
Street's

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risky speculative activity where taxpayer interests are involved. For 
decades we have had a system that incentivizes reckless behavior 
without accountability and very little consequence to the bankers who 
got us into it, all the while taxpayers and the middle class are left 
footing the bill.
  That is why Wall Street reform is so important. It would make big 
Wall Street banks accountable and impose strict regulations to forbid 
Wall Street from gambling with our financial security. In the last 10 
years, the banks got bigger, the speculation grew more rampant, and the 
risk from very highly paid Wall Street bankers, managers, and 
executives became more rampant. When everything fell apart, the middle 
class and poor people in this country paid the price. They paid it 
through lost jobs, they paid it through lost homes, they paid it 
through more debt, they paid it through losing the American dream.
  In the end, if we do Wall Street reform right, if we are able to 
overcome the opposition to Wall Street reform--the opposition from the 
Republican leader and those who follow him, which is all about 
protecting the banks--if we win this debate and outvote the Republican 
leader and the banks and all who would follow him, it would make Wall 
Street banks accountable, it would impose strict regulations, and 
prevent Wall Street from gambling. It would end taxpayer bailouts for 
good. Financial institutions, not American taxpayers, would then pay 
for their own mistakes.
  If someone starts a small business in O'Leary, OH, and fails, he pays 
for it. If someone has a job and fails at her job, loses her job, she 
pays for it. When Wall Street banks fail at their work, they collect, 
in many cases, millions of dollars and suffer little punishment while 
the rest of us pay for it.
  If we do this right, Wall Street reform will provide the strongest 
consumer protections for people in Ohio, in Colorado, and in every 
State in this country--no more of the tricks and the traps in the 
mortgage market and elsewhere that led to the near collapse of our 
economy. We need to bring new accountability to Wall Street that 
protects the pensions of our retirees, the home values of our families, 
and the jobs of our workers.
  Those opposing financial reform--those who oppose Wall Street 
reform--as they did with health care reform, are protecting special 
interests. The Presiding Officer, the senior Senator from Colorado, and 
myself were on the floor many times during the health care debate, and 
over and over we pointed out how the opponents of the health care 
reform--similar to the opponents of Wall Street reform--were, in too 
many cases, simply representing the interest groups that were opposed 
to this. The Republicans' most important benefactor during health care 
reform was the insurance companies, and those insurance companies were 
major supporters of Republicans for decades. Well, we are seeing the 
same thing with Wall Street. The most important benefactor to 
Republicans and Wall Street reform are the big banks and the big Wall 
Street operators. Again, they are doing the bidding of banks and they 
are doing the bidding of the Wall Street operators.
  They make other arguments. They never say: The reason I am opposed to 
this is because Wall Street and the big banks want me to. No, they come 
up with something else. There is an old saying from a Mississippi civil 
rights leader who said: Don't tell me what you believe. Show me what 
you do, and I will tell you what you believe. Well, watch what my 
friends on the other side of the aisle are doing; listen to what 
Republicans are saying. In the end, they know this choice is between 
Wall Street and Main Street. Behind closed doors they, of course, want 
to make the decision for Wall Street, but when they come out here, 
while they are protecting Wall Street, they want to make it sound as 
though they are protecting Main Street.
  Americans are too smart to be fooled. Wall Street lobbyists have 
enlisted Republicans to kill a bill. They have had meeting after 
meeting behind closed doors with Wall Street lobbyists, bank lobbyists 
talking about how to kill this bill. You know that the Republican 
leader and those who follow him are saying directly to Wall Street 
lobbyists that if they want their help, then elect more Republicans in 
the Senate. That would help immensely. Of course it would, because if 
there are more Republicans in the Senate, there will be more people to 
block Wall Street reform.
  So while cutting backroom deals to prevent reform, they are hoping 
the American people forget that it was Wall Street greed and excess; 
that it was deregulation of Wall Street--so they had no real rules to 
live under over the last 10 years--that put our economy on the brink of 
collapse. Well, the American people, this time, will not forget. No 
more meltdowns, no more bailouts.
  We need rules that ensure Wall Street investors can't bet the farm in 
Chillicothe, can't bet the home in Cleveland Heights, can't bet the job 
in Wilmington on a financial bubble that is bound to burst. We need 
rules that support the entrepreneurs and small business owners on Main 
Street across the Nation, not rules that protect Wall Street in New 
York.
  That is what reform will do. It is about protecting small business 
owners such as Teresa from Powell, OH, in central Ohio, who writes:

       My husband and I are small business owners in Ohio. Our 
     business is successful and we want to grow and hire more 
     employees. But the banks still aren't lending. We have a new 
     product we would like to launch, but we need a loan. We have 
     put everything in the business to make it a success. How is a 
     business to grow when it cannot get financing even if it has 
     a proven track record of success?

  It is about JoAnn from Cincinnati, who writes:

       I am one of those small business owners who can't get money 
     from the banks. If the situation continues, I and my family 
     and my employees and their families will be out of luck and 
     out of an income, and [into] unemployment. The banks are 
     sitting on cash, cleaning up their balance sheets and killing 
     us with fees.

  Some Republicans claim banks are more important than protecting the 
American public. It is a false choice. The real choice comes this week 
and next week when this Wall Street reform comes to the Senate floor. 
The real choice is: Are you going to side with Wall Street or are you 
going to side with Main Street? That is the choice. If we in this body 
follow the Republican leader and side with Wall Street, we will be in 
another financial collapse sometime in the next decade or so. If we, 
however, in this body follow the Presiding Officer and me and others 
who think that Main Street is what represents the real values of this 
country, then we will see a financial system that will serve the 
American people and doesn't just serve the interests of Wall Street.

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