Rep. Spencer Bachus's blog

Last week, House Republicans released our proposal for reforming the financial regulatory system, and now the administration has put forward its plan.

The Republican and Democratic plans for reforming our financial regulatory system are a study in sharp contrasts. While the Democrats' plan keeps in place a system in which large financial institutions look to Washington and the U.S. taxpayer for relief when they become big enough or inter-connected enough to bring down the financial system if they fail, Republicans' response is "never again."

The questions by the members at the hearing were very substantive. I think the questions and the answers to the questions clarify quite a few misconceptions.  I think, as much as anything, instability in the financial system was undermining the economy. It wasn’t as evident to Main Street that the economy would have weakened substantially if there had not been an intervention. I thought Secretary Paulson did a good job of saying that. Stability has returned to the financial system and that should begin to stabilize the economy, which is very good news. Obviously there is a lot of concern about the foreclosures and the various programs.