This afternoon, the House of Representative passed the most expansive financial regulation bill since the Great Depression. But before the bill went to a final vote, its sponsor, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), took to the House floor to address what he dubbed the “wildly excessive hyperbole” of Republican lawmakers.
The Democrat did not mince words. He began his nearly eight-minute address noting, “the antithetical feeling that the Republicans have to regulation leads them to talk crazy.” Frank referred to an earlier claim about the regulation by Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-TX) as “an inaccuracy built on an exaggeration.”
In an attempt to debunk GOP claims about the bill, Frank read from the legislation directly. But he did expound a bit — leveling a harsh critique at his colleagues with his trademark wit. Frank called Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs “the objects of Republican sympathy” and went on, with heavy sarcasm:
The poor dears won’t have enough money to speculate and they won’t have anybody to come play football, because they’ve been told not to speculate…
Some Democrats had hoped the bill would attract bipartisan support — it passed without a single Republican vote.
