Debt to America! Jon Covers the Financial Crisis Part II | TDS Time Machine

You're listening to Comedy Central September twenty thirty, two thousand and.

Eight, from Comedy Central's World News headquarters in New York.

This is The Daily Show with John Stewart.

Here you are not loving the darly Show. My name is John Stuart. What a program for you tonight? Former President Bill Clinton will be our guest tonight. He'll be here on the show. Hey, did you guys see Letterman last night? He and I'm in Los Angeles at the Emmy Awards. By the way, we won another little Emmy there last.

Night to have a stop in story.

Back and coil here.

Everybody here, I'm so proud of them, so proud of everybody that works there, just putting so much effort. I was so glad to see that pay out. But I was coming back on the plane there, and then I have little children, so I helped them to bed, so I didn't see it, but I heard, you know, the guy in the audience that he was on, and then Chris Rock was on and Chris Rock said funny things, and then after that I just started getting dizzy, you know, and everything got real dark.

But either way, we got a big show for you.

Tonight and the big story continues to be economic meltdown. For anybody out there who's been living in a cave, let me just say this, congratulations. You've apparently made the sound just real estate investment possible once again been wins. With Wall Street in shambles, Frankenstinian Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's has ridden to the rescue with a brilliant plan, the.

Federal government seven hundred billion dollar plan to bail out the financial industry.

Seven hundred billion dollars of your money, seven hundred billion dollars.

Seven hundred billion, seven hundred billion dollars.

Obviously is a lot of money.

It's also as American as apple pie McDonald's apple pie.

That is, two thousand of them.

That's how much seven hundred billion dollars would buy for every single American.

Oh, now I understand how powerful is a hydrogen bomb. Let's put it in terms of tacos.

Geez.

One hundred billion dollars is an awful lot of money. Do you think Paulson will take it? Well, he will, but only under certain conditions. For Secretary Paulson to accept our money, his decisions must be quote, non reviewable and committed to agency discretion and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency. And we must allow him to wear a cape, and we must address him only as Baron von money Pants. And on your wedding night, he must be the first to deflour

This financial guru never saw it coming.

I've got great confidence in our financial market, our financial institutions. Our markets are resilient, they're flexible. Our institutions, our banks and investment banks are strong foresight.

It's his achilles head, all right, Before we make this decision, let's hear from Paulson's supervisor. He's the CEO president, He's got an MBA from Harvard Business School.

It turns out that there's a lot of interlinks throughout the financial system.

Whoa slow down, Greenspan, Wow, I mean that went.

Actually, the interlinks was one of the major themes of Bush's Harvard thesis, suppor and demand. So you've discovered that our financial systems aren't connected. Is there a metaphor that you could use, mister president, that would inspire even less confidence.

And then obviously AIG came along, and Lehman came along and it was declared bankruptcy. Then AIG came along in it.

The house of cards was.

Much bigger, and so when one card started to go, we were worried about the whole deck going down.

House of Cards.

Oh yeah, mister president, the problem with your financial house is right over here. It's very clear hitded walls are made completely out of playing cards.

Yeah.

For example, right over here there we should have a low bearing stud There you have a looks like a six of clubs. I would recommend water steel or at least.

A face card. No disrespect, how you doing.

But none of this really explains why our invisible hand loving president now wants to use the red hand of Lenin.

Well, now, my first instinct wasn't to lay out a huge government plan.

My first instinct was to shotgun five core silver bullets.

I got a fat that one day at a time.

So the president wants to make one thing clear, his core principles of free market can create these problems.

Not so helpful.

In the fixing department, My first instinct was to let the market work until I realized that up, I'm being briefed by the experts of how significant this problem became.

It's like normally I pray to Jesus, but in this case, upon being briefed.

By the experts, hail seating.

For more on this, return to senior analyst John Oliver.

John, thanks very much for joining uspically.

Stunning destroy.

For this administration, for this administration after Katrina, after a raq Guantanamo bike. Yes, that also put us in a difficult situation.

How about the politicization of nation's judicial system, Yes, upsetting the draconian secrecy, yes, Okay.

My point is this, I didn't think there was another area that these guys could screw up.

I know, and it wasn't easy. It was like finding a vein on a failure junkie.

So is this I understand that's once the veins collapse, it's difficult. It is very hot.

Is this economic crisis then sort of the third icing on this administration's cake, if you will?

Okay, two things, One that was classy and and two don't count them out.

John.

It's a long way to January.

So you think there's more out there?

What is left for them to de accomplish if you will.

Well, let's see, do you still have a home. Yes, well, there you go. Did your children have breakfast this morning?

They did, They had a good breakfast.

Was it something they found in the street?

No, it was not.

All right.

But you're saying the president here won't be satisfied until American children are eating roadkill.

Well, until they're fighting over road kill, until roadkill is the prize for the strongest American children.

But why legacy?

John?

Look, we all know he'll never be ranked as the best president, but he could still, if he works hard.

Enough, be the worst, the last.

John, All of us will be right back. What about my god?

Tonight a two term president of these United States? His Clinton Global Initiative kicks off its annual meeting tomorrow, September twenty fourth. Please welcome back to the show, President Bill Clinton. Thank you for joining us.

Nice to see you again.

Very excited.

Let me ask you, you know, I know that presidential legacy is an important thing.

Are you grateful to this president?

Actually? I was thinking about how.

Now that you've shown me the light, if I were there, I'd spend this seven hundred million for two thousand pies for everyone, and I never realized how optionally was out there.

That's I want to thank you.

The first one you burn the roof of your mouth, But you learn by pie three.

Hundred and fifty.

You'll learn after you eat three hundred and fifty, you won't care that you don't own a home anymore.

You'll be so full.

Or you could just build an apartment building out of pies and live in there and they heat themselves.

Here's what's difficult for me to understand.

The President says, boy, this problem is so big that I need seven hundred billion dollars of taxpayer money to save us. I've never normally do this. I'm a free market guy. But he rails on. If you want to give health insurance to kids without it, that's socialism. Does he have a fun.

The cognitive dissonance?

We ought to say, Okay, you want us to put up to seven hundred billion, here are the conditions. Number one, there has to be an effort to There ought to be a moratorium on home mortgage foreclosures.

And every single one of these mortgages ought to be reviewed.

And if you can write them down a little bit, and somebody can make the payment that will cost the taxpayers less and the economy less than a foreclosure. So first rewrite it. That's what we did in the depression. It actually made money for the taxpayers. By the way, when I loaned Mexico you money, you remember that they paid it back early with a six hundred million dollar profit.

Loaned the money.

They took an eighty percent ownership share. They loaned the money at interest. It was a very high interest rate. They're going to make profits. The second thing we ought to say is, look, you want to take all of our money as taxpayers and help these people get through.

A rough spot.

Fine, you either got a loan of money at interest so we can make money, or if you loaning the money in effect with no interest, then you.

Have to get a piece of the upside.

You get a percentage of the profit that goes back to the taxpayers.

Now and that nationalization are we now France?

Then no, But it's it's the heavier involvement of the government. But it's what happened because we had too much speculation, too.

Long, the starnment see this coming. Do your in countet meetings? You held countet meetings?

Does the Treasury secretary in a meeting go oh before we go?

I want to I just want to mention real quick. You know those banks yet they don't have any more money.

Well they should have because all markets play out. This all started because you had too much money and the only place that could make money was in housing.

If you remember, in my second term, we had.

Lots of jobs, in part because all these high tech industries were booming, right, So like every boom, it.

Led to a downturn.

When the downturn occurred, the Federal Reserve left a lot of money in America, but the only thing was in making money was housing. Two thousand and one the fundamental This is one of those presidential elections, important folks, not to find evildoers, but growth. In two thousand and one, all this money was out there and it all went.

Into houses and construction.

So we had to keep finding funny ways to have more houses. Like the subprime mortgages are the derivatives. What if we had put a lot of this money into solar energy and the wind energy into a hybrid electric vehicle, and all these things making all of our cities as energy efficient as possible.

We would have.

Created millions of jobs, raised incomes, had the revenues to provide health care to everybody, and there would have been competition for investment.

Looking like a crazy person, now you've got All I'm saying.

Is how much would you win if we owe the presidential race today?

How many? What do you think you'd win by twenty No? For real, don't you think.

Don't you think in your heart of hearts, don't you think if you threw yourself out there and you went up against them, you you would you would pretty much crush him.

Well, I still got it. I don't know.

No, why do you come back much?

Allots O?

Yes, what's important.

Thing is Barack Obama's gonna win a black Obama. I think Obama's gonna win. Our party is going to win.

There's presidential rights to every about Bland Belt partons, blah blah blah.

Obama President Bill Clinton were discuss saying, Uh, I want to talk about you mentioned one of the parts of this bailout that you think is important, this congressional oversight. Can the Democratic Congress have that oversight and do it effectively. Because the difference between let's say the Republican Congress in ninety four that you were up against. They seemed focused, They had an ability to challenge you.

They had an ability to uh.

Try and reign in what they thought was an opposite ideology. This Democratic Congress seems unable to mount a meaningful challenge.

Well, I think they First, let's give them credit. They have. They have passed a lot of progressive legislation in education and raise a minium ways, they did a lot of other things.

They're going to pass a good energy bill here.

I think they passed one that was pretty good before, but they're going to pass a better one I think.

Now. Now here's the problem they have.

The president can veto what they passed, and they don't have a veto proof margin. When new Gingrich Congress was elected, they were in a very different frame of mind. They wanted to do things and they knew I could stop them, but they also wanted to just say no to me. And they hadn't had a majority in decades. So I would say newt was a better better is the wrong word, but.

Clearer even now, Yeah, bring yourself.

No, I mean, oh, I'll get along with him, fine, But I never had any doubt what had happened to be if I got caught alone in a dark alley. But he was smart and articulate and forceful. But there was a lot of appeal the into this hardcore.

Right wing rhetoric.

But with everything going on, does it surprise you? Does it stun you? With the dire consequence of all these things that this election apparently is taking us all the way back to nineteen sixty eight and Nixonian and McGovern culture divide, it's once again the left demonizing the right for narrow mindedness and the right demonizing the left for elitism. And it almost seems like a repeat of this same movie that we keep seeing.

And I think, as you know, I think it's a mistake.

That is.

I think for Senator Obama, I told you before, I think he'll win.

I think he'll win.

Because I think he's run a responsive campaign.

To the issues. I think he's intelligent.

I think he's really tried to come to grips with like this financial crisis here, tried to come up with answers.

And I think that.

The economies in trouble two Thursday, the American people having trouble paying their bills. Demographically, the country's moving towards US in greater diversity. Enthusiastically, there are more democratic new voters than Republican ones. And he's very well organized, as we've seen and as I saw in the primary. So I think so I'll be surprised, really surprised if he doesn't win. But you should understand that.

We all vote for a whole welter of different reasons.

And you shouldn't be surprised that a lot of young people and people immigrants and identify with Center Obama. You shouldn't be surprised at a lot of Vietnam veterans and older identify with John McCain and the extraordinary.

Sacrifice that they identify.

I'm always surprised that the conversation, that the conversation is dominated some in the media and everything, all right, But if you.

Go back to the speech that Hillary gave in a speech I gave in Denver, we tried to stop that.

That is because what Senator over.

Even that's that's a great example, and the media narrative for both of those was did Hillary say enough, did she show Obama enough love? Did Bill Clinton show Obama enough love? The whole thing was not about what you said. It was all about yet would you reach the bar of love? Even this guy I had some guy in the audience said to me, did you see him on Letterman?

But all I can say is I'm glad he's got people that love him that much.

But those are not the people that hold this election.

The people that hold this election are the people that think that he is on their side.

And he loves them. In other words, he.

Needs to get the votes of the people that voted for Hillary or our Independence didn't even vote. But they know the country's off in the wrong direction. They want to change. And what I tried to do, and what Hillary tried to do in Denver was to say, listen, this is not about people's personal feelings. This is about which president is on your side, Who is in there for you and your family and your children and your future.

Who is going to restore the American dream? At home.

Who is going to restore our country's position for peace and prosperity and.

Harmony throughout the world.

If you look at that, we she and I have concluded that even though we actually have had a long and good relationship with Senator McCain, we admire him no question that if you vote for Senator Obama and Senator Biden, you'll get better economic results, broader shared prosperity, fewer of these headache problems, and a better position in the world. That's what we believe, and I think that's the ground

You know, this is not a roar shock test. This is about winning.

An election that can change the future of the country by giving you get back.

To the American mean, that's actually great power. Let me just find this out.

Is that doing?

Are you told that all right?

Now?

He feels better.

It feels better now if.

You just say this just one thing, since you mentioned that, I have been I'm doing this global initiative, and then I'm going out. Hillary has already done more for Senator Obama than all the runners up in the democratic nominating process in the last forty years, combined jerk combined no hand.

No, not jerk. But let's get real here.

The purpose of this election is to win.

We need to do what gets votes. We already got all the people that love us on this side. We got to get some others.

Let me just say, we got to love them, not expect them to love us.

That really hurt my arm.

President Bill Clinton, I got shall guys tomorrow night and eleven.

Here it is for loving to Daddy and the average family. We weren't gonna let that happen. You want to call on somebody.

I never choose down. You never dned the question I would, he had on today, I have to do this.

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