"It's Just Right for the American People"

Press Release

Senator Warner appeared on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" this morning to discuss Wall Street reform legislation as well as just-released news on an unexpected uptick in new unemployment claims.

On financial reform, Senator Warner said he's confident the Senate will finish work soon on a bipartisan bill:

It was a little bit like the Goldilocks example yesterday: we had some guys who said this bill's too soft on the banks, we had other folks saying this bill is too hard on the banks. So maybe it's just right for the American people because it makes both ends upset.

Joe And Mika also discussed this morning's announcement of an increase in jobless claims. Senator Warner said a more relevant economic indicator is the number of new jobs created each month:

One of the things I hope, once financial reform is past us, is to get back to small business lending. Sixty-five percent of the jobs coming out of a recession come from small businesses. ... The administration finally announced a capital access program that would be targeted at smaller and community-based banks that would actually help these small businesses get a little credit through this downturn.

UPDATE 3:53 p.m.: Later in the day, Senator Warner made another appearance on MSNBC, after the Senate voted in favor of a procedural motion to end debate on the Wall Street reform proposal. He explained what financial reform will mean for Americans:

It means that we're going to finally put an end to the whole notion of "too big to fail"; that you're never going to have to hear about taxpayers bailing out Wall Street; that there's going to be more clarity and transparency about financial instruments like derivatives that brought us to the brink of financial ruin; and there's going to be a level playing field for consumer protection, particularly around financial products like mortgages so we're not putting folks into homes they can never pay back their mortgage on. I think we've struck a good balance.

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