Channel: Fox Business
Date: 3/31/2009
Transcript:
Male News Anchor: I want to bring in Republican Congressman Ron Paul of Texas, who we all know is a critic of this government intervention. Congressman, what was your reaction on Sunday night – we haven’t talked to you since then – when you heard the news that the Obama administration was firing Rick Wagner.
Ron Paul: Well, I wasn’t a bit surprised. I thought that would be the predictable consequence once we started getting involved and financing these companies and bailing them out, the natural consequence would be that the politicians and the bureaucrats would become the so called owners and start talking about bonuses and who should do this and who should do that. That was the great danger of the initial bailout. We should have never done this, and quite frankly, we shouldn’t be surprised and all it does is delay the inevitable. It delays the restructuring that is necessary. So the sooner the government gets out of the way the better.
Female News Anchor: Well, you know Congressman, the American taxpayer does have bailout fatigue. You know that, we all know that right now. Just open up the front page of any news paper. But at the same time, the argument has always been that it would be the peripheral industries, the suppliers, steel makers, things like that, that were going to suffer under a bankruptcy of GM or Chrysler. So what do you say to those folks to that industry or to those Americans that will lose their job?
Ron Paul: Well, they are still going to, it’s just that the correction won’t come for ten of fifteen years rather than one or two. In the constitution there are provisions that allow the Federal government to be involved in bankruptcies. We write the laws on bankruptcies, and now we’re ignoring it, we’re delaying it. There’s no authority in the constitution for us to print money or appropriate funds, take money from innocent people and give it to people that got themselves into trouble. So, the sooner they go into bankruptcy the better.
That’s the proper procedure. If these companies would have declared bankruptcy a year ago, the good assets would have been bought up and I wouldn’t be so hesitant in buying a new car which I need. But now, I don’t know what the car companies are going to do.
Female News Anchor: Mayor Lidson, you’re still there. Go ahead and respond to Congressman, sir.
Mayor Lidson: Listen, listen to just what he just said. The difference … if the companies declare bankruptcy now all this unemployment happens. All these people are put out of work. The economy is put into a depression. Or, he says, it happens…. Ron Paul says it happens over fifteen years. Over fifteen years a lot can change. And these big three companies out of Detroit have been changing rapidly. So this gives them the opportunity to further make those necessary changes and become competitive. So I think he is right about the cataclysmic affect of what would happen if the government didn’t intervene. I think he is wrong about fifteen years of malaise, because I think what we see here are dynamic companies that are making changes. If you can’t see the changes that General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are making right now, today… if you can’t see this transition then you got to be blind. These companies are becoming leaner and greener and they have a real chance to make the leaner and greener cars of the future in the United States for export to the world. That’s what we’re talking about. We’re talking about the future of the domestic auto industry, and a key part of our economy that can be preserved over time with a more structured approach with government intervention.
Female News Anchor: Congressman, you’ve got fifteen seconds. Is the free market system gone?
Ron Paul: Too little, too late.
Female News Anchor: Too little, too late. Alright, that’s very good. That’s your response, alright. We’re going to leave it there then.
Ron Paul: We need the marketplace, we need to believe in freedom and a free market system.
Female News Anchor: Free market system? Well, we had one at some points around the world.
Mayor Lidson: What free market? What free market? There is no free market.
Ron Paul: You came crawling to the government, that’s not free markets.
Mayor Lidson: Please, please. Wall Street and Washington did it long before I got here.
Ron Paul: Well, they do. And that’s why I condemn the Federal Reserve. You’re right about that, the Federal Reserve Private System is the cause of the problem.
Female News Anchor: Gentlemen, thank you so much. We’re going to have to leave it there and cut and go to a commercial. Thanks guy, I appreciate it.
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I find it laudible that everyone views bankruptcy as a bad thing. It is usually bad for investors and stock holders as the value of stock goes to 0. That said, GM/Chrystler/Ford don’t nessecarily disappear because of this. Look at the Aerospace industry. After 911 a whole bunch of companies went bankrupt. Some couldn’t recover, however Frontier, Northwest, and many others came out stronger than ever.
Bankruptcy allows for the opening of every contract the company owns. They can renegotiate or just get out of them completely. This would allow the company to look for the most lean way to start back up.
There is a consumer confidence that needs to be managed, but to think that asking the Federal government is any less of a loss of consumer confidence, that is truely being blind.
If some of the car companies do go down, their brands would be sold, and the remaining manufacturing would be strengthened by the new contracts and the consolidation in the domestic marketplace.
There is no reason to not allow bankruptcy to happen, other than the political posturing and the set up for the collapse of the dollar and ownership of more private industry by the fed and private banks.
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I agree with you both. Freedom made America great not government. They all need a history lesson that’s for sure. I just wanted to note about cells comments on fossil fuel. Fossil fuel is a primitive form of fuel especially for cars that’s dead on. However oil companies (I am very involved in the oil business) makes the majority of its money from the construction of manufactured goods and plastics not so much from gasoline in your car. Currently there is no real replacement for plastic and on replacement for oil in the construction of plastic so in that sense its the best we got. We need innovative thinkers and inventors to fix that problem not the government.
Do your home work before you attack or your no better then the politicians
At least that guy confronted Ron Paul. I would like to see him go up against some one that can really oppose him with unlimited time so we can see a real debate and Ron Paul shine.
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I know oils are used for plastics,I to am in the oil industry. The use for plastics can be cut down drastically if it is recycled. I know oil will always be used until it runs out, but instead of depending on it we really need to try to conserve it. We really need a nation wide recycling program which will provide more jobs and cut demand for oil.So much good things could have been accomplished with that bailout money.
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Totally agree we need a good recycling program to help conserve all our natural resources especially with China / India growing at the rate they are.
I don’t believe any extra money should be created for the bail out but if government was to shift spending in certain places that we don’t need to come up with the money for bail outs and stimulus that would be a good alternative.
However I wouldn’t want the federal government to run the recycling program. In the city I live in (roughly 1 million people) a few private companies were running a recycling program curbside. 12.50$ a month and they would even sort it for you. The city decided that they want to run a program. There program costs 21$ a month (every one must pay through property tax) and they can’t even provided it to the entire city for another 2 years (You could call the private business and they would be at your house the very next week). Plus you have to sort it. Unfortunately this will probably run the private business out of business.
As for the energy and manufacturing there are some cases where oil isn’t the best solution and we should find alternatives and in other cases its relatively cheap and very available and efficient. There is a gas station on every corner and even in the most remote parts of the country you can go hundreds of miles on one tank its hard to beat that with current alternative technologies. Let hope government gets out of the way and lets people invent. A government subsidized alternative is not a real alternative.
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If GM made a car that can go 100 mpg maybe the wouldn’t go bankrupt.They would sell them faster then they can make them.Of course oil companies wont like it but oil is old, with all this technology where still using fossil fuels. For true change to happen people need to get out of their primitive need for greed. People protests and get nothing done “Don’t beg for things do it yourself or else you wont get anything” What about the 2.3 trillion dollars that went missing that was report 9-10-2001? What ever happened to that money?
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in my opinion,this mayor, like alot of his co-horts in washington are dead wrong.all they need to do is read up on some american history and they WILL SEE what made this country the most envied in the world.WE made the 5,000 year leap and it wasn’t done by government bail outs and,or stimulus packages!! he needs to listen to congressman paul!! this is AMERICA LAND OF THE FREE ,HOME OF THE BRAVE!
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