House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence delivered a speech to the New York Hedge Fund Roundtable earlier today. Please see some highlights of that event:

But I also believe many of the nation’s current economic problems can be traced to an overly intrusive government’s meddling in the free market.  I always will defend the free market.  I believe that economic freedom means the freedom to succeed and the freedom to fail.  And I believe we must get back to that basic premise.

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The Democrats, however, believe that the government’s intrusion into the marketplace was not great enough.  Like their government takeover of health care, the Democrats’ solution for financial reform consists of two words: government control.  They want government control and they want it now, regardless of the will of the public.

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The president and Congressional Democrats have determined that they know what’s best for you, your business and your family, regardless of your opinion or the conclusions reached by their own investigative commission.  I find it frightening that the political elites who played the primary roles in causing the financial turmoil are the very ones who are now rushing to implement their ill-conceived plan to “fix” the problem.

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Rather than institutionalizing bailouts, the Republican plan ends the era of bailouts.  It would create a new chapter of the bankruptcy code to make it more efficient and better suited for winding down large non-bank financial institutions.  Republicans are committed to stopping the politicization of the economy by preventing the government from picking winners and losers in the marketplace.
 
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The Republican plan also would put an end to the taxpayer subsidies for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and gradually privatize them.  It would remove the federal government’s seal of approval of credit rating agencies by removing all references to credit rating agencies that appear in federal law.  Each of these institutions—Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the credit rating agencies—would be required to compete fairly in the marketplace.