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President Obama Makes Case for Financial Reform

Aired April 22, 2010 - 12:16   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: President Obama making his case for a sweeping overhaul of the way Wall Street does business. The president spoke just a short distance from the financial district in New York. He says reform is essential to prevent another economic meltdown.

Our correspondents are covering this story from every angle. Senior White House Correspondent Ed Henry has reaction from Wall Street. There he is. Christine Romans breaks down what we heard from the president and the tone of the speech. And National Political Correspondent Jessica Yellin explains how the reforms would affect some of the riskier deals.

Plus, Congressman Darrell Issa on why he questions the timing of reform.

Let's get to Ed Henry first at the New York Stock Exchange.

And Ed, the president didn't in the speech beat up on Wall Street. And something tells me, given Main Street's sentiment here, he probably didn't feel as though he needed to.

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, for a number of reasons.

Number one, what White House aide are saying is, look, this was not a speech to the financial titans. There may have been some of them in the audience like Lloyd Blankfien of Goldman Sachs, but this was a speech to all of America, trying to reach out specifically to middle America and say, look, the stakes are high for you. This is not just about cleaning up Wall Street, but we all saw over the last two years that has a dramatic impact on Main Street, people not getting, you know, their homes refinanced, et cetera, that tight credit market. There's been that massive spillover effect.

What I was struck by here at the New York Stock Exchange is, maybe this being my first time, I thought there would be more people kind of really sort of standing with wrapped attention and watching this speak. Down behind me, there were people, very few of them, actually, watching it.

They were going on with their days. I don't mean to suggest that they were disrespectful to the president, or that just because he's speaking they have to stop. He speaks quite frequently, as you know.

But I think the bottom line is the people behind me have heard these arguments before. And, you're right, the tone, though, was not really beating up on the people behind me on Wall Street. Instead, what he was saying was, look, we've got to, you know, agree on some reasonable New rules of the road, and stop standing in my way, he said. Get on board. It's time for reform.

That was his pitch. And they're very confident at the White House that they're pretty close to a deal here -- Tony.

HARRIS: What is the president looking for here politically? Is he looking for a vote out of the Senate? Is he looking for a 61, 62 margin, in that neighborhood, or is he looking for something more than that?

HENRY: They're hopeful that this is going to pass by a wide margin. But let's look at the traffic record over the last 15, 16 months.

You know, From the White House perspective, they believe that every turn, the Republicans have tried to block the health care reform effort, they, in large part, voted against the stimulus at the very beginning, in the first 100 days. But they think in this case that, while Republicans have been putting up this fight by saying this is going to wind up leading to more government bailouts and whatnot, which the president rejected again in his speech, the White House is hopeful that this argument is turning -- and I stress hopeful, that it's turning against the Republicans so much so that the opposition will melt.

I will point you to the fact that yesterday, a Republican, for the first time, really, in this debate, Charles Grassley, at the committee level, got behind some of these changes on derivatives. We have not seen that yet. And the White House believes that may be an early sign that as this debate moves forward over the next week or two, more and more Republicans, maybe not 70 or 80, but more and more are going to see it's not such a good thing to look like you're standing up for Wall Street right now -- Tony.

HARRIS: Hey, you look good in that setting there, Ed.

HENRY: It's not bad. I like it.

HARRIS: That's not bad, huh? The digs aren't bad.

All right. Our Senior White House Correspondent Ed Henry with the president in New York City.

Let's get to Christine Romans from our Money team.

Christine, look, I want to go in a couple of different directions with you here. So let's be economic with our time here.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Sure.

HARRIS: No fiery rhetoric for the titans of Wall Street, right? No fat-cat language.

ROMANS: Get with the program, basically. Don't you feel like that that's what he was saying? HARRIS: Yes, absolutely.

ROMANS: Just get with the program. And we said that earlier, you know, his team had been indicating that, look, they're not going to go there and browbeat them. They're going to talk to these guys, and they did have some meetings before the speech, I want to point out, letting them know this is like a business deal.

OK, this is the deal, you're going to have to accept it. It might not be the terms that you really wanted and, frankly, you were lobbying against, right, the legions of lobbyists he talked about descending on Capitol Hill. But this is the deal, this is the deal that's on the table. We want you to take it.

And that's the kind of language that Wall Street and business understands -- Tony.

HARRIS: So, the president is talking about proposing what he calls, let's see here, updated commonsense rules. We're looking at the first major change in regulation for the financial sector since the '30s.

Christine, what sector of American business, what part of American life hasn't changed since the '30s? I mean, it makes a certain level of sense that we're not operating with derivatives and complex this and complex that the way we did in the '30s.

(LAUGHTER)

ROMANS: There's no question, Tony, that the financial regulatory structure has moved along at this creaking pace compared with the way the financial system has exploded. And the economy has exploded, many say, in large part because of financial market innovation. This regulation has not kept up.

In fact, Ali and I were kind of sparring about this earlier today, you know, this idea that there's been no significant regulation since, changes in regulations since the 1930s. Well, some would argue there has been, and in the wrong direction. That in the '90s, there was some loosening of regulations that allowed changing of regulations, that allowed these big companies --

HARRIS: Is that Glass-Steagall you're referring to?

ROMANS: Yes, but there's a lot of debate around all that, and I'm not going to get too technical with it. But what I will say is that we've been going in the wrong direction, some people have been saying. And we have been talking about regulating this derivatives market, this shadowy derivatives market that is much bigger than the global stock market, I will point out, and not regulated. We've been talking about doing that for 15 or more years and haven't done it.

The president here is talking about too big to fail, having a way to take apart these big, complicated companies before they take apart the economy, limits on risk taking. The derivatives, making it more transparent, moving some of this stuff on to maybe even clearinghouse, so we can see what it is and if it has some kind of a knock-on effect on the economy. And consumer protection.

Tony, everything from your credit card to your mortgage to complex derivatives, all of it together being seen and watched for how it will all interact in the economy.

HARRIS: Christine, you're my broker.

ROMANS: It's a big order. It's a tall order.

HARRIS: You're my broker. I want a relationship with you. I want to give you my money because I want you to find the innovation. I want you to find the next hot company that is doing something innovative that will lead to jobs and get me some money back. All right?

I don't need you sort of packaging up and bundling up -- and if you're going to do some of that stuff, at least fill me in, be transparent. Don't sit here and tell me that it's too complicated for me to understand. Come on.

ROMANS: Look, and the president tried to make this point in here, where he tried to draw the line with the dollar that they're trading and the dollar that the American family needs to go to college, to buy a car, to pay the mortgage.

HARRIS: Yes.

ROMANS: And I think that the point here -- and I completely agree with Ed -- that he was less talking to Wall Street. I think that's already been happening. He was telling America how he's talking to Wall Street and drawing that connection between the dollar and the derivatives contract. Right?

HARRIS: Yes.

ROMANS: Some kind of synthetic thing that isn't even a real thing that you can touch, not even attached to anything, to the dollar that you use to feed your family. And I think that was the goal of the speech.

HARRIS: Christine, terrific stuff. Thank you. Great analysis, as always.

Christine Romans, part of our Money team, in New York City.

Let's do this -- let's look at some of the key points of the president's financial reform plan and their intended goals. Just how would they be accomplished?

Our Jessica Yellin is focusing in on the shadowy world of derivatives, one of the key factors in the economic crisis, to see how that might change. There she is.

And we will be joined by Republican Congressman Darrell Issa, who is very troubled by the reform regulations on the table.

Let's take a quick break here. We're back in a moment. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: That's a good sign. For without action, we will continue to see what amounts to highly-leveraged, loosely-monitored gambling in our financial system, putting taxpayers and the economy in jeopardy. And the only people who ought to fear the kind of oversight and transparency that we're proposing are those whose conduct will fail this scrutiny.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: President Obama making his case for financial reform. The president spoke moments ago at Cooper Union in New York, not far from Wall Street.

You know, one of the goals of financial reform is to regulate those complicated, often risky deals known as derivatives. Derivatives -- I can't even spell that word.

National political correspondent Jessica Yellin has done a terrific job explaining derivatives.

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Thank you.

HARRIS: She is joining us now for a look at how they would be affected by the reforms.

Walk us through this, Jess.

YELLIN: OK. It's not as complicated as it would at first seem. I promise. This is just one of the many different tools in the bill to change the way the financial world works, but it's a biggie. So in a nutshell, derivatives, Tony, they're high-risk bets where some finance guys bet on whether you and I will pay our mortgages, or if crop prices will go up or down.

Now, most of these bets right now are placed in private, sort of between the investor and the bank. The president was talking about that.

And some companies, most famously AIG, they made tons of these bets. And when they went south, they didn't have the money to cover their debt. So, because of all this was done in private, the government and investors were totally in the dark, and they didn't know, for example, that AIG was in trouble until crisis hit. Then they need a bailout.

So, the proposed changes that now these bets will be placed in public, over an exchange, kind of the way stocks are traded, then investors and the government will know -- well, they'll know how much risk each company is taking and how much money -- how much of our economy is invested in these bets. And what they can do is if a major company like AIG is taking too much risk, the government can step in and say, hey, guys, if you want to place all those bets, you need more cash in the bank to back that up. It's just what they do with the big banks now. It's no different from -- conceptually from the way we regulate banks. They're saying bring that out into the open.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, that's it. Yes.

YELLIN: Does that makes sense?

HARRIS: Yes. Give me some collateral on this. If you're going to take that much

YELLIN: Exactly.

HARRIS: Give me some collateral, OK?

YELLIN: Exactly.

HARRIS: Here's the thing. It also feels like something of a cultural mindset shift that needs to change here as well. If you're AIG, you've got a department that's working in this. It's not -- it's not all of AIG, but maybe this room where all of this is going on. And there needs to be a cultural shift that says, just because we can, it seems to me, doesn't mean that we necessarily should to this extent and without the money to protect investors, right?

YELLIN: Yes.

HARRIS: And the larger company.

YELLIN: It's sort of like walking into a casino and heading straight for the high rollers room every single time.

HARRIS: Yes. Yes.

YELLIN: Sometimes you've got to say, you know what, we're a smaller bank. We have to stay out here with the regular folk. Let's take it easy. Let's limit risk. Let's let mom and pop keep their nest egg in a safe spot.

HARRIS: There you go.

YELLIN: And that's part of what this regulation would do, in other ways, is break up where your nest egg is kept from where the big guys are placing big, big gambles.

HARRIS: That is terrific. Thank you, Jessica. That's good stuff. That breaks it down.

All right, still to come, you know, we're going to have reaction from Wall Street traders to the president's plan to clean up the street in a little bit.

And also, look at these dramatic pictures here. A frantic search is still on for missing workers after this fiery explosion. You will hear from family members waiting to hear about their loved ones. That's next in the NEWSROOM. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Very quickly now, let's get you to our senior White House correspondent. That is Ed Henry. He is now on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, out of the booth, and he is talking to traders, getting reaction to the president's comments about the new rules for the road for Wall Street.

And, Ed, if you would, introduce us to that handsome man to your right.

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony, they let me out on the loose here on the floor.

HARRIS: Yes.

HENRY: I've never been down here.

I've got Alan Valdes here from DME (ph) Securities.

Before this speech, we were talking about how White House aides were telling us the president wanted to strike the right tone on Wall Street. Was that received well here?

ALAN VALDES, NYSE TRADER: No question about it. I mean we thought it was a great speech. I mean the president's an eloquent speaker anyway. But this was a great speech. It really hit home. And all of Wall Street liked it, at least on the floor. I think most guys really liked the speech. It wasn't like that chastising speech that some people said he was going to say. It was more condol (ph). It was great.

HENRY: If Wall Street likes some of these reforms and likes the speech, why, as the president pointed out, are there armies of lobbyists on Capitol Hill for the Wall Street giants trying to block it?

VALDES: Well, you know, I mean some of the speech we loved. That's for sure. But any time they talk about fat (ph) tax or $50 billion tax

HENRY: He didn't mention that today, but

VALDES: No. But, you know, I think that's what the lobbyists are there --

HENRY: But on the reforms, what specifically in the reforms do you not like?

VALDES: No, we think the reforms are good. I mean we're for a derivative -- we're for that transparency. There's no question about it. I mean Wall Street has a black eye the last few years and one of them is because of the non-transparency.

HENRY: More transparency will be better.

VALDES: No question about it.

HENRY: But what about, would these kinds of reforms, if they were in place, I think the bottom line question a lot of Americans are asking is, would this have prevented the alleged fraud at Goldman, for example, that we saw the SEC bring last week, if these reforms were in place? Do we really know whether it would have prevented that kind of fraud?

VALDES: Of course we don't know for sure, but it probably would have helped. I mean any kind of transparency definitely would have helped. ACA, the people that put that together, that CDO (ph) membership together, I mean, they would have saw maybe a little more exposure to what was going on possibly, but we'd have to go back to 2007. And back then, everything looked good. and the market looked like it was going up back then. All the housing markets looked better.

HENRY: Tell me why -- I was looking around from upstairs and it didn't appear like that many people, though, were watching this speech. People, I realize, have jobs to do and they were moving on with their every day. What -- how do you, after so many months of being beaten up and going through the wringer here, what's the mood on Wall Street?

VALDES: Yes, the mood -- actually today the market's down a little bit. That's all on Grease. It's more down on overseas issues than anything the president had to speak about today. But, you know, we've been beaten up so much this year, we've gotten used to it a little bit.

HENRY: Tony, you heard it right here from Alan Valdes, they are getting used to getting beaten up. And I think it's interesting that he's saying here that they're on board with most of these reforms. Again, the president saying some of the titans, some of the lobbyists are not on board. Get out of the way. If you're not on board with the (INAUDIBLE).

One other quick thing I want to tell you, is behind me there's all kinds of paper on the floor. And I was wondering, since this is my first day here ever, you know, I thought they were all computerized. It turns out it's take your son or daughter to work day. We're seeing a lot of kids here. Traders have brought their kids. And so they're letting the kids throw some paper on here. A little sort of back to the future, the way it used to be done.

HARRIS: Yes, that's good. Oh, that is good stuff.

All right, Ed, appreciate it. Good interview. Good information there. And if you're not on board, maybe get out of the way here.

Dodge City. The name alone brings up images of the wild west. The ranching is still big business there. But these days, it is also building a new image. Our Tom Foreman says it is keeping the economy booming.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Tony. I'm standing here at Boot Hill. That famous old west site. A cross roads for the cattle and beef industry for so, so many years. But this area is also notable now as one of the few places in the country where, for all practical purposes, there has not been a recession. And that's because of a smart plan they came up with more than a decade back.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN (voice-over): Seventy thousand cattle are processed in Dodge City every week. Beef and farming are mainstays of the region, but even the biggest players, like Ken Winter, are behind a big change underway here.

FOREMAN (on camera): You're excited about the fact that your economy here has really diversified?

KEN WINTER, WINTER FEED YARD: I think that's -- I think that's good for the city, good for our school system. It helps encourage new industry, retail, everything.

FOREMAN (voice-over): Thirteen years ago, after decades of economic stagnation, city and civic leaders convinced voters to approve an extra penny of sales tax, dedicating it to an ambitious idea, turning their town into a diverse entertainment mecca. And, they say, it has paid off like a royal flush.

FOREMAN (on camera): It must be very strange to be sitting here while the rest of the nation is in a recession know that you're not.

JEFF HIGHERS, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION: We took a vote in Dodge City and we just decided not to participate. And that's how we did it. That's how we did it. We just decided we wouldn't participate in a recession.

FOREMAN (voice-over): Indeed, they have not. With that extra money, they have built a racetrack, sports arenas and a new convention center is underway. The investments, in turn, have produced revenue for new schools and a successful campaign to win the first ever state-owned casino.

Their unemployment rate, below 4 percent, is among the lowest in the nation. And a billion dollars worth of new private and public construction is in the works. No wonder Joann Knight, with the local development corporation, is pleased.

FOREMAN (on camera): This one penny has transformed this town.

JOANN KNIGHT, LOCAL DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION: It really has. Our biggest problem is finding workers and having houses available for them.

FOREMAN (voice-over): And everyone seems to give everyone else credit.

JEFF THORPE, BOOT HILL GAMBLING: To be a community, you have to embrace the needs of everyone. To invite everyone to the table. CINDY MALEK, CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: Increasing the quality of life in our community became such a priority and it was such a grass roots effort.

JOE BOGNER, BEER WHOLESALER: We haven't seen the me leadership, the I leadership. It's a we.

BRIAN WEBER, VICE MAYOR: And what we found is a lot of people who are hardworking, who love Dodge City, who wants to see Dodge City stronger.

FOREMAN: The cattle business is still king, but now not everyone's fortunes depend on that because they have built up a more diverse and promising future for their old west town.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN: And everybody we talked to here said the real secret to why this has worked is just like the secret to a good cattle drive, everybody working together.

Tony.

HARRIS: Good stuff, Tom. Thank you.

We are expecting to get reaction to the president's proposal to clean up Wall Street from Republican Congressman Darrell Issa. You will hear from him in just a couple of moments.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Top stories now.

A travel alert for Americans in India. The State Department is warning it has indications terrorists are planning attacks in New Delhi. Security is being beefed up around tourist hot spots, including market places.

No sign yet of 11 oil rig workers in the Gulf of Mexico. They have been mixing since an explosion yesterday. One hundred and fifteen other workers were evacuated. The rig is still on fire and oil is leaking.

A political shake-up in Belgium puts a controversial issue on the back burner. Parliament was set to vote on banning the burqa and other face coverings warn by Islamic women, then the liberal party withdrew from the coalition government and the prime minister offered to resign.

Another check of top stories in 20 minutes.

On this Earth Day, how is the president doing on his agenda to cut pollution and make the planet cleaner? We are asking business leaders.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HARRIS: You know, key senators indicate they are closing in on a bipartisan deal on a financial reform bill. One that can get Republican votes. Just 10 days ago, the top Senate Republican formally rejected the bill as nothing more than a perpetual bailout fund. Day by day Senator Mitch McConnell seemed to soften his tone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MINORITY LEADER: There are serious problems with this, particularly for main street, not Wall Street, and we are all optimistic that this can be fixed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: OK. The House approved its financial reform bill last December without a single Republican vote. California Congressman Darrell Issa helped lead opposition to the bill and he joins me from the Capitol.

Congressman, good to see you. Are you voting yes on anything these days? Here's my question. Was there not enough good in the bill that you could have at least held your nose and voted yes on it?

REP. DARRELL ISSA (R), CALIFORNIA: Well, first of all, the private sector does very well without us most of the time. So before we do something to, quote, "rein in the private sector," let's make sure we do no harm. In this bill, as you can imagine, what we see wrong with it in a non-bipartisan bill, there are no Republicans in the House or the Senate today, so no one can, including CNN, can, you know, proclaim that it's bipartisan until after they get a Republican. They haven't really done it.

Whether there's a $50 billion bailout package or not, main street Americans want to know why one group is too big to fail and the rest of us, you know, if we screw up, bankruptcy is where we end up. The fear of failure is a good thing in an economy. It causes people to be more cautious. It causes them to invest wisely and it causes them to work harder. That's what the rest of us have to deal with. I don't want anything on Wall Street that either makes them, quote, "government stepchildren that can't fail" or, in fact, causes them to fail artificially.

HARRIS: Got you. Well, wait a minute, Congressman Issa, Chuck Grassley has voted yes on some new rules to govern derivatives. That's a step in the bipartisan direction, isn't it?

ISSA: Look, if you want to break bills down to parts that we agree on and pass them, that's a pretty easy thing to do. The president could have done that on health care.

HARRIS: But you're suggesting that there's nothing but you're suggesting there's nothing going on here that is bipartisan and that doesn't seems to be the case.

ISSA: Look, it's very clear that a bill that is -- that has some things you like is exactly how we got in trouble. You know, appropriations for decades basically bought votes by putting something in somebody's home district. And the American people understand that we're 40 percent of our budget is now borrowed because, in fact, we put something in there for every vote, we just didn't care about the fact that we didn't balance the budget, we weren't fiscally conservatives.

Republicans are learning from decades of mistakes we participated in and we hope the Democrats appreciate that the problem with Freddie and Fannie is not addressed here and it won't be addressed if it's not part of this kind of reform. And, ultimately, you know, the House and the Senate voted on a bipartisan basis to have a commission to study the causes of this. That commission is still out. So what's the hurry to do that while, in fact, Freddie and Fannie are not included in this?

HARRIS: Well, you start with -- you start with the big financial firms. You start with trying to reform the system so that you don't get an AIG again. You don't get a Citigroup again. And then your --

ISSA: Hold it. I hear you, except for one thing, AIG's FP division in Britain is not part of this reform. The group that created this is not part of this reform. And, by the way, Moody's and the other rating agencies, they're not part of it. So you have Freddie and Fannie who helped create this euphoric market and bought a huge amount of these with your taxpayer guaranteed dollars. You have the foreign corporation in Britain who actually underwrote this stuff in an insurance-like instrument. And you have the rating agencies who constantly gave things AAA.

HARRIS: Gotcha.

ISSA: It's what's not in this bill that is every bit as important as the things in this bill that should be taken out. And if you want a bipartisan bill, you look at the entire problem and you realize that there are some oxes being gored on both sides. In this case, Senator Dodd and former Senator Obama were the largest recipients of Freddie and Fannie money and yet they're not offering to give that money back. They're not offering to reform those organizations.

And right now, what's really happening is you can get a 3 percent mortgage from the government and that's what's operating. That's actually part of the dysfunctional market. We have virtually no money down loans being the majority of the loans going for homes. We need to work on those things on behalf of Americans who pay for it.

HARRIS: True. I don't think anyone would disagree with that. But you -- you know, we don't live in a 100 percent world, congressman. No one gets 100 percent of everything. Why not --

ISSA: Nobody's asking for 100 percent. But we're asking not to do harm to our economy. We're recognizing that the fundamental part of a free market is the ability to fail at your own peril, not this perpetual bailout system.

And, by the way, remember, you said big financial. But when it came time for TARP, which I voted against, big financial included the auto companies. Big financial included a lot of people that weren't there. So let's not pretend that this is only about Goldman Sachs, who has been vilified by the SEC at a very convenient time. This is, in fact, a very important bill. We need to get it right.

If breaking it into parts we can agree on.

HARRIS: What do you -- what do you mean --

ISSA: If waiting for the commission to report and then doing more is the right thing to do, then why can't the Democrats take the part we can agree on today and work on these other parts when the commission has reported? Which, by the way, is a non-partisan or bipartisan commission.

HARRIS: What are you suggesting when you say that Goldman Sachs has been vilified by the SEC at a very convenient time? What are you suggesting?

ISSA: I'm suggesting that it is a very politically motivated attack by the SEC. They could have sued Goldman Sachs six months ago. They could sue them six months from now. They sued them during the basic run-up week to this event.

HARRIS: What do you have? What do you -- do you have a document? Where do you -- where do you get to make a claim -- what do you have?

ISSA: Look, first of all, I have letters out to do discovery and I have not been given responses. You know, you could make the same claim, you know, what do I have on Joe Sistack(ph) being offered a job in order to get out of the race by a member of the White House staff? Well, what I have is Congressman Sistack's own statement repeatedly.

So, do I have other proof? No. But do I have an event that occurred there? Do I have an event with the SEC that shouldn't have happened? You know, the SEC does not release during the trading day, except in this case they released during the trading day and Goldman goes back down by 13 points. And now there's this whole back and forth about whether this was an appropriate case or maybe it was just intended to cover up an IT report that said this SEC doesn't do its job.

The fact is, Republicans want real reform. We admit that we were part of letting Freddie and Fannie and the escalation of the housing market go on. We're not saying that government isn't at fault. What we're saying is, government is at fault and government is not part of the solution right now. It's only the private sector. And what we're giving the private sector is a pass on being able to fail if they don't do it right the next time. That's the wrong direction, not the right direction.

HARRIS: So, congressman, do you feel like you got a fair hearing here today?

ISSA: Well, I certainly think you've made up your mind on one hand. But, yes, any time you let -- any time you let me speak to your listeners and the people there on the margin get to understand that we do, both sides want to reach a good conclusion, this bill is not there. It would be great if we started calling bipartisan when Republicans and Democrats actually compromise or come to what they agree on. We did that on derivatives. We can do it on a lot of other things. We can't do it by ramming through a bill and then looking for one person to break a filibuster.

HARRIS: But you would acknowledge that -- I know we've got to go. Give me a second here. But you would give me -- you would acknowledge that I can't ask questions to illicit a fuller, expanded comment from you

ISSA: Absolutely.

HARRIS: On your positions.

ISSA: I absolutely enjoy the kind of dialogue that forces me to make my case. I want that in public (ph) commentary.

HARRIS: Bingo.

ISSA: Absolutely.

HARRIS: All right, congressman, I appreciate it. That was good. Thank you, sir.

ISSA: Thank you.

HARRIS: Let's take a break. I won't do the tease, because we've got to go. We've got to get to Ali Velshi too. We'll be back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Got to tell you, we've been asking for you to weigh in on Wall Street reform and you haven't let us down. You never do. Ines Ferre is in the newsroom.

Quite a response, huh, lady?

INES FERRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, yes, Tony. And some very strong opinions. And full disclosure here, not too many favorable comments. Let's take a look.

Pat says, "Wall Street is making billions gambling. This is no different than the bookies in Las Vegas taking bets on a football game, except that here only the rich guys can play."

Also, from Donovan. "It's high time we realize that the good of America and the good of Wall Street fat cats are not the same. Selling weak stock to Americans is fraud and this is just another way for the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer."

And here we have a comment from Mark. "None of us complained when these risky maneuvers were driving our 401(k)s through the roof. But now that they went south, what evil people they are? Wall Street is about risk, and that means both rewards and problems."

HARRIS: I love it. I love it. Let's keep the conversation going. Cnn.com/tony is our prop you chair up, man.

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: There's something wrong with my chair. Look at this. Look at this.

HARRIS: I can't wait for your take on this.

VELSHI: I'm like Tony's little son. Look at that, man.

HARRIS: CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Ali