Twenty-five Financial Bailout Quotes

Twenty-five Quotes about the
Financial Bailout




Twenty-five quotes about the proposed financial bailout by those involved: politicians, watchdogs, candidates and the media.



This meeting ended bad - real bad.”
--Fox News source
On the financial bailout meeting at the White House September 25, 2008



"There are disagreements over aspects of the rescue plan," he said, "but there is no disagreement that something substantial must be done. We are going to get a package passed."
--President George W. Bush
'We are going to get a package passed': Bush, September 26 2008


"I don't think a president has been repudiated so strongly by the congressional wing of his own party in a very long time now. Maybe this isn't the last word, but that's where we are now."
--Rep. Barney Frank
'We are going to get a package passed': Bush September 26 2008


"I do not regard Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as problems. I regard them as great assets."
--Barney Frank
In response to efforts to reform Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae 2002

ALSO at DBKP: DBKP Library of Quotes OVER 30 collections of Quotes by Sarah Palin, W.F. Buckley, John Edwards Scandal, Don King, Liberals, and more.

“All of us around the table take this issue very seriously and we know we’ve got to get something done as quickly as possible."
--President Bush
Deal for Financial Bailout Disintegrates as Obama, McCain Look On



“We must protect taxpayers and limit the Treasury’s powers. We must prevent those who contributed the most to this crisis from further profiting. We must establish strong oversight with a permanent in-house watchdog and a robust external congressional monitor."
--Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-PA)
Kanjorski asks bailout that protects taxpayers, September 25, 2008


"The top five [Sen. Christopher Dodd, Sen. John Kerry, Sen. Barack Obama, Sen. Hillary Clinton, Rep. Paul Kanjorski] received nearly one-half million dollars from the FMx2 [Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae]."
--"Contributions: Obama, Dodd and the Freddie Fannie Five"
DBKP, September 26, 2008


"CBS News found 21 former staffers from the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs and House Financial Services Committees are now lobbyists for financial firms. Their job? To lobby those in Congress who will shape the financial bailout. The former staffers now represent hedge funds, private equity firms, investment banks and the failed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac."
--Who’s Lobbying Congress On The Bailout?
CBS News, September 26 2008



“There should be a three year cooling off period so former staffers do not have these intimate relationships that they exploit for large paychecks.”
--Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen
On former Senate staffers lobbying for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae,
Public Citizen has actively pushed for more lobbying transparency and accountability



"He [John McCain] hasn't been involved. He doesn't know anything about it. This is a stunt. I hope people will be able to ignore it."
--Rep. Barney Frank
US Rep Frank: House, Senate Dems agree on bailout


"I think Wall Street will get over it."
--Barney Frank
On the possible collapse of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae April 2004


"We do not support government bailouts of private institutions."
--2008 Republican Party platform

"One of the major government privileges granted to GSEs is a line of credit with the United States Treasury. According to some estimates, the line of credit may be worth over $2 billion. This explicit promise by the Treasury to bail out GSEs in times of economic difficulty helps the GSEs attract investors who are willing to settle for lower yields than they would demand in the absence of the subsidy. Thus, the line of credit distorts the allocation of capital. More importantly, the line of credit is a promise on behalf of the government to engage in a huge unconstitutional and immoral income transfer from working Americans to holders of GSE debt."
--Rep. Ron Paul
To the House Financial Services Committee, September 10, 2003

"I don't think a single call to my office on this proposal has been positive."
--Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) at the Senate hearing, September 23 2008



"Mr. President, this week Fannie Mae's regulator reported that the company's quarterly reports of profit growth over the past few years were "illusions deliberately and systematically created" by the company's senior management, which resulted in a $10.6 billion accounting scandal.

If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole."
--John McCain on the Regulatory Reform Act of 2005
US Senate, May 25 2006


"It [REGULATORY REFORM ACT OF 2005] never made it out of committee. Chris Dodd, then the ranking member of the Banking Committee and now its chair, was in the middle of receiving preferential loan treatment from Countrywide Mortgage, one of the companies gaming the system in the credit crisis."
--Democrats.org September 25 2008



“It was a photo op for John McCain. … It was a rescue plan for John McCain.”
--Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT)
Deal for Financial Bailout Disintegrates as Obama, McCain Look On, September 25 2008

Though Sen. Chris Dodd implied that Sen. McCain sandbagged the rest of the negotiators by bringing up alternative proposals, McCain himself did not bring up those proposals, according to four independent sources briefed by four different principals inside the meeting, including two Republicans and two Democrats.

"McCain has not attacked the Paulson deal," said a third Republican who was briefed by McCain direclty. "Unlike the [Democrats] in the [White House] meeting, he didn't raise his voice or cause a ruckus. He is urging all sides to come together."
--Marc Armbinder, The Atlantic
"What Happened In The Cabinet Room...

"People who want to be president need to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time."
--Obama Sr. Advisor Brad Woodhouse
On MSNBC, September 26 2008


"[Chistopher]Dodd,[and Barack] Obama got nearly a quarter-million dollars from Freddie, Fannie"
--Contributions: Obama, Dodd and the Freddie Fannie Five
DBKP, September 26 2008


"A week ago, Senator Obama laid out his principles."
--Obama Sr. Advisor Brad Woodhouse
On MSNBC, September 26 2008


"Barack Obama was able to appear in Washington, while his principles were in Florida."
--E.K. Clark
DBKP, September 26, 2008


"Meanwhile, Barack Obama took hundreds of thousands of dollars from the lobbyists McCain mentions in this speech, making him the #2 recipient of Fannie/Freddie money."
----Democrats.org September 25 2008

"Instead of furthering the inevitable liquidation of the maladjustments brought about by the boom during the last three years, all conceivable means have been used to prevent that readjustment from taking place; and one of these means, which has been repeatedly tried though without success, from the earliest to the most recent stages of depression, has been this deliberate policy of credit expansion. ... To combat the depression by a forced credit expansion is to attempt to cure the evil by the very means which brought it about; because we are suffering from a misdirection of production, we want to create further misdirection--a procedure that can only lead to a much more severe crisis as soon as the credit expansion comes to an end. ...It is probably to this experiment, together with the attempts to prevent liquidation once the crisis had come, that we owe the exceptional severity and duration of the depression.We must not forget that, for the last six or eight years, monetary policy all over the world has followed the advice of the stabilizers. It is high time that their influence, which has already done harm enough, should be overthrown."
--F.A. Hayek, Nobel prize winner
June 1932

"As it became clear to Paulson that Republicans weren't backing his plan, he called Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) urging him to bring McCain back to Washington in order to broker a deal the GOP could get behind. As a new plan was put forth Thursday, Democrats saw this as an opportunity to undermine McCain by creating the illusion he was to blame for the negotiations breaking down.

Democrat after Democrat was sent before cameras, microphones, and tape recorders to belittle the Senator from Arizona and create the appearance that the financial bailout took a wrong turn due to his appearance at the negotiating table.

Now, with the deal seemingly dead, the Democrats are saying they're behind the Paulson plan. If it succeeds, they can take all the credit; if it dies, they can blame it completely on McCain and the Republican party."
--Noel Sheppard, NewsBusters
"AP Publishes McCain-Bashing Bailout Piece Olbermann Should Love"


compiled by Mondo