Republicans charged Tuesday that the Dodd-Frank Act is helping to reduce jobs by 14.4 million and supressing average income by $6,042 compared to the average recovery since World War II.

But the claims by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling and former Texas senator Phil Gramm were countered by two prominent Democrats.

The leading Democrat on the committee, Los Angeles Rep. Maxine Waters, claimed Dodd-Frank has allowed the nation to prosper again because it has increased the stability of the financial system.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat from New York, claimed the absence of tough financial laws such as Dodd-Frank was responsible for the Great Recession, which she says was the first economic downturn caused by mismanagement of the financial system.

Brad Miller, a former North Carolina congressman, argued more regulation is needed because banks are too large and too corrupt.

Gramm, who was one of the leading congressional sponsors of deregulation in the late 1990s, said the housing market would be improved by allowing lenders to make mortgages based on character again rather than federal government rules.

Attacking the upcoming Dodd-Frank-mandated Securities and Exchange Commission rule on the pay ratio of executives to average workers, Gramm contended it amounted to bigotry against the successful.

“People pay for performance. Some people can add tremendous value,” said Gramm.

While massive defaults on subprime mortgages are given much of the blame for the recession, Gramm said the Obama Administration is not showing it has learned from that recent past by pushing for low-income home ownership through the Community Redevelopment Act and low down payment home loans.