...QUESTION: Mr. Leader -- Mr. Leader, is it fair to say that both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue failed to anticipate the fierce negative public reaction to this plan? And can it now be overcome?
REID: The answer is, can it be overcome? Yes.
I think that there's been some degree of amazement from the White House -- and certainly Secretary Paulson and Chairman Bernanke -- that people who run for elective office have constituencies that they have to take care of.
We don't deal only with Wall Street. We deal with Wall Street, but we also deal with Main Street.
And Secretary Paulson, fine man that he is, has learned a lot about how we serve our constituents.
And so these obstacles can be overcome, but those appointed officials, like Paulson and Bernanke, are going to have to become more realistic.
As Chairman Dodd outlined, we believe there's a financial crisis. We want to direct attention to that. But we have to keep in mind the problems people have.
I mean, where -- where -- where was the White House when we had to go through seven filibusters on the basic problem that everyone says at the root of this, housing? Wouldn't it have been nice if they would have helped us?
We could have stopped 10,000 foreclosures a day, well over 100,000 people. Well over 100,000 people were dumped out of their houses during these seven filibusters and also during the time the president was threatening vetoes.
So, yes, I think the White House has to realize, along with the people that President Bush has appointed, that we have responsibilities to Main Street....
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