Senate Proceeding on Apr 28th, 2010 :: 0:27:10 to 0:38:40
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0:26:55 to 0:27:15( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: borrow money. someone said yesterday -- i think it was the senator from north carolina -- that if the number of forms you have to fill out to buy a house is what it aches to stop a recession or to make sure we don't have one, we shouldn't be in this one because anyone who's filled out a mortgage form lately knows that you have to fill out a stack

0:27:10 to 0:38:40( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Lamar Alexander

0:27:16 to 0:27:37( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: that high of consumer protection forms, and so just adding another layer of consumer protection forms to buying a house or borrowing money or buying something on credit -- what's that got to do with wall street? what's that got to do wi this great recession we're in?

0:27:38 to 0:27:58( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: we need to make it possible for community banks to make a loan, to a small business who can hire a person, who can make an investment and who can get the economy moving again. most of us thought this wall street bill was about wall street, but it's turning out, we're being told, to be more

0:27:59 to 0:28:21( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: about main street. and main street, the auto dealer and the community banker and the retailer and the dentist says main street success. the a about whether we can borrow money -- it's about whether we can borrow money, get credit, expand a store, or create a job. we're from washington and we're here to protect you sous hollow to a lot of americans.

0:28:22 to 0:28:42( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: it sounds like a washington takeover, or another washington takeover to meevmen me. we've already made washington the new american auto capital. we've already made washington the new american health care capital. we've already made washington the new american student loan capital. and now we're going to move main

0:28:43 to 0:29:04( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: street to washington, d.c., for every little credit transaction up and down main street? we need to be careful about that. i don't think in chicago and new york city they want to move the great financial centers of this country to washington, d.c. and if we do so with some of the kind of restrictions we're talking about we may move those financial centers and those jobs

0:29:05 to 0:29:29( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: to singapore, to shank hierks to london -- to shanghai, to london, to other places. but moving main street to washington? why is this even in the bill? if the bill is about reining in wall street, that's a good idea. that's a good idea. but why are we going up and down main street reining in main street when main street is

0:29:30 to 0:29:50( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: having ver a very hard time these da? the president is in iowa today talking about main streevment i hope he's explaing why we have a piece of consumer protection legislation that says, we're from washington, we're here to protect you, when most relaters, most -- when most realtors, most community banks, most dentists,

0:29:51 to 0:30:12( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: most traders on ebay say, look, wait a minute. we're not sure we want that kind of protection if what it mean is it makes it harder to borrow money, take more time to borrow money, make it more expensive to borrow money, to fill out more forms to borrow money, have fewer choices to borrow money because if it means all that, we might not be able to create more

0:30:13 to 0:30:34( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: jobs. of course what we're saying on the republican side is we want to exercise the prerogative democrats offer when they are in the minority, which is to provide some checks and balances to the proposals that are made here. and then the majority leader, rather than encouraging that, is arriving -- he's already the world record holder in offering

0:30:35 to 0:30:55( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: no motions. a no motion says no to more amendments, no to more debate, no to more checks and balances. so we'll vote on that again today. we want more debate. we want more amendments. we want more checks and balances. we want to exercise the prerogative we have to make sure that the people up and down main street have a right to see

0:30:56 to 0:31:17( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: what's in this bill. and so that we're well informed about the bill before we pass it. we're writing the rules for the united states of american economy. we produce 25% of all the money in the world. what we do here tpaebgts not just -- affects not just nashville and main street and

0:31:18 to 0:31:39( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: american towns, but it affects the entire world economy. we need to be careful. i suppose our friends on the other side think maybe, well maybe it's politically smart to offer all these "no" motions. we like to be known as the party they may be thinking wants to cut off for a record time the opportunity to debate, the

0:31:40 to 0:32:00( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: opportunity to offer amendments, the opportunity to have checks and balances. i don't think it's so politically wise. i think it's politically tone-deaf. the people in my state don't want to see another big bill run through congress as fast as a freight train without checks and balances. we saw that with the health care bill, and you know what we got.

0:32:01 to 0:32:21( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: we got a health care law that over the weekend the obama administration's chief actuary said it does just what republicans said it would do: increases spending, increases premiums. it will have medicare cuts. we said all that. we argue strongly that it would be better instead of expanding a

0:32:22 to 0:32:42( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: health care delivery system that already is too expsive, that we should instead focus our attention on reducing the cost of health care so more americans could b insurance. that was our effort at checks and balances. i think we won the argument but we lost the vote on the floor of the united states senate by one vote. we would like to win the argument here on fancial

0:32:43 to 0:33:03( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: regulation as well. say let's rein in wall street. but why are we making it harder to borrow money on main street, for heaven's sakes? we should be making it easier to create jobs and to make investments on main street. why are we reining in main street and ignoring the two great housing agencies that were at the root cause of this great

0:33:04 to 0:33:24( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: recession we're in? main street was not the cause of the recession. the great housing agencies were. so we're reining in main street lending and we're ignoring fannie mae and freddie mac, the two great housing agencies? we have some questions that we want to make sure are answered properly.

0:33:25 to 0:33:45( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: does this legislation give big banks an advantage over communityanks? does it make big banks permanently too big to fail? the republican leader said, well, goldman sachs supports the bill. well, they may, but yesterday in my office the dentists didn't, the auto dealer didn't, the

0:33:46 to 0:34:07( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: community banker didn't, the people up and down main street didn't. so what are we to take from that difference of opinion? so, mr. president, we're here today to say let's work together. let's take advantage of this great system of checks and balances that o founders wrote into the constitution that said that in the united states senate

0:34:08 to 0:34:29( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: we come to consensus. let's look carefully at this bureau of consumer financial protection which will have so much independence which will have a partisan appointment which can cruise what financial products can and cannot be offered and could regulate

0:34:30 to 0:34:51( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: hundreds of thousands of nonbank businesses a skpwaourpl row that could -- a consumer bureau that could place new burdens on main street businesses that have nothing to do with the economic cris and very little to do with the financi world. these maintenance and time-consuming requirements, these new forms to fill out and

0:34:52 to 0:35:12( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: delays are not the way to help create new jobs and get the american economy moving again. so, mr. president, what we're saying on the republican side of the aisle is we think we have a great opportunity here. we think, as the president said in his campaign, we can come together, write rules that help to fix t problems that help

0:35:13 to 0:35:35( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: create the great recession. we can't guarantee there will never be another recession, but we can avoid some of the abuses. this all started out in a good way with senator dodd, the chairman of the committee, appointing a republican and then a democrat, dividing it up into teams. and suddenly in the middle of the discussion somebody said, wait a minute, we won the election.

0:35:36 to 0:35:56( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: we'll write the pass and -- we'll write the bill and pass it. shouldn't we have learned with the health care law it's not just a matter of passing the bill, it's gaining confidence in the bill? don't we want the country to look up at washington and say i'm relieved to see that republican and democratic senators are working together on

0:35:57 to 0:36:17( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: these great issues, and 70 or 80 of them vote yes. we've written the rules for the future for the financial system of the united states, which is in some trouble. it's not going to be changed whether we have a republican coress or a democratic congress after november. th is something you can rely on. then small business people up and down main street, business

0:36:18 to 0:36:41( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: people on wall street, commodities markets in chicago, all of the places where people have money that's just sitting, they say we see some certainty because of the stability in washington and we're ready to create new jobs. i believe ts can be a tipping

0:36:42 to 0:37:02( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: point in the economic recovery. so why would we play politics in the united states senate? why would the other side keep offering no motion that is cut off our right to debate, our right to offer debate, our constitutional prerogative to offer checks and balances on a runaway washington government? we think most americans want those checks and balances. and should we have them and should we demonstrate a

0:37:03 to 0:37:23( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: bipartisan bill here, we'll not only get a good bill, we'll not only help create good rules for the future. we can avoid putting handcuffs on main street from auto dealers to community banks. and we can send a signal to our country that there's certainty in the marketplace. go ahead and make your investment.

0:37:24 to 0:37:45( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: go ahead and create your job. the world will respond favorably to that. we can get out of this great recession that we're in. so, mr. president, i'm here to say today that there are a lot of people suspicious about this phrase "we're from washington, and we're here to protect you." they think it's a better idea to say "we wld like to see some

0:37:46 to 0:38:06( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: checks and balances applied to the majority's push for this new consumer regulation bill. and if we do apply those checks and balances and come to a bipartisangreement on the bill, the country will be pleased with the work we're doing here and the economic recovery, hopefully, will have a chance to move along a little

0:38:07 to 0:38:30( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: more rapidly. mr. president, i thank the chair, and i yield the and quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the