Barney Frank on ‘This Week’ with Stephanopoulos (VIDEOS)
It’s always priceless when Barney Frank is on any show, espousing his left-wing liberal views. He was on the Sunday show ‘This Week.’ Panelists were SC Senator Jim DeMint (R), Fred Smith CEO of FedEx, Eric Schmidt CEO of Google, and Chairman of the Financial Services Committee, Bawney Fwank (of Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac flame…er, ah FAME! 
).
Here are just a few gems from the transcript: (emphasis mine)
FRANK: We need — and I think we’ve suffered from an extremism in this country in the past of relying only on private-sector activity and having too little government. It’s possible to have too much government, no question. But it’s possible to have too little. And some parts of this stimulus — extending unemployment benefits, helping with food stamps — you know, we have two purposes here. One is to stimulate the overall economy. The other is to go to the aid of some people who, through no fault of their own, have been damaged. You can’t just look at the aggregates.
I think we’ve gotten in trouble by looking only at the aggregates. If the GDP goes up but income inequality greatly increases and a lot of average workers are feeling put upon, it’s a problem.
…and some more:
DEMINT: Well, the quickest way to — to get money in the economy is not to take it out in the first place. And it’s interesting, as we talk, like buy-American. We all — we all want to buy American.
But then we have the highest corporate tax rate in the world. We’ve got a regulatory system that makes us less competitive. So we — we actually put these people out of work, ship jobs overseas with bad policy, and then we want to put our hand up and stop our imports from coming in.
…If we could expense — if companies like FedEx could expense buying an airplane immediately, instead of over a number of years, a lot of companies would make those capital equipment purchases now rather than waiting.
And so it really comes down to a basic argument: Do you want a government-directed plan or do you want the free markets to work?FRANK: Well, yes, I do want — I want highways. I want better medical care for people laid off. This notion — and the one thing I would most disagree with is you say we overregulated. It was the complete absence of regulation in the financial area that led to the crisis we’re in today.
DEMINT: It was bad policy.
FRANK: Jim, can I please?
DEMINT: OK, sure.
FRANK: The policy was, yes, to put no restrictions on people outside the banking system who are extending themselves in the financial area into instruments which they couldn’t back up. It was even within the banking system, letting people go with things that were off the balance sheet.
The complete absence of regulation in the financial area has, I think, been a disaster. And I think we’re back to where we were when Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson stepped in or Franklin Roosevelt.
Does Barney Frank think that nobody pays attention to the news, or reads anything on the internet? Does he really think we are that stupid that we don’t know that he was one of THE biggest barriers to regulating Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? I mean, seriously folks. Come on! I can’t believe those words can come out of his mouth, keeping a straight face.
… and lastly, this posit:
FRANK: The largest spending bill in history is going to turn out to be the war in Iraq. And one of the things, if we’re going to talk about spending, I don’t — I have a problem when we leave out that extraordinarily expensive, damaging war in Iraq, which has caused much more harm than good, in my judgment.
And I don’t understand why, from some of my conservative friends, building a road, building a school, helping somebody get health care, that’s — that’s wasteful spending, but that war in Iraq, which is going to cost us over $1 trillion before we’re through — yes, I wish we hadn’t have done that. We’d have been in a lot better shape fiscally.
STEPHANOPOULOS: That is a whole another show, so I’m going to…
(CROSSTALK)
FRANK: That’s the problem. The problem is that we look at spending and say, “Oh, don’t spend on highways. Don’t spend on health care. But let’s build Cold War weapons to defeat the Soviet Union when we don’t need them. Let’s have hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars going to the military without a check.” Unless everything’s on the table, then you’re going to have a disproportionate hit in some places.
The war in Iraq is going to cost us more than $1 trillion before we’re through? Hell, Barney, you and your other socialist buddies on the Hill have already gone through that much in a month’s time! And with your $1 trillion, nobody will gain any freedom – everybody will LOSE freedom! Jeebus this guy makes my head hurt!
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