Congressman Tom Price (R-GA) issued the following statement in response to President Obama’s speech on Wall Street today.

“Sound economic principle should drive any reform of our financial system,” said Congressman Price. “Unfortunately, President Obama supports changes that push us in the wrong direction. This administration’s idea of financial sector reform is to expand the power of the Federal Reserve, perpetuate the bailout culture by putting in law the ‘too big to fail’ mentality, create a new agency to make financial innovation illegal, and ignore the problems inherent in Government Sponsored Enterprises like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This is an open-ended, big government response to a problem best solved by appropriately targeted, common sense measures consistent with American success.

“It is possible to improve the stability of the financial sector and preserve our free market system at the same time. Once again, Republicans have better solutions. Legislation introduced by House Republicans is based on the principle of responsibility rather than a broad expansion of government power. Our plan will bring an end to the culture of bailouts, consolidate and streamline regulatory powers, rein in the Federal Reserve, and transition the GSEs away from taxpayer reliance. The remarkable growth of the American economy from our humble beginnings until today was made possible by adherence to free-market capitalism. We will not get back on track by abandoning those principles.”

NOTE: House Republicans have introduced H.R. 3310, the Consumer Protection and Regulatory Enhancement Act. A full summary of this legislation can be found here.