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Bannon: I think one is about responsibility. For Christians, and particularly for those
who believe in the underpinnings of the Judeo-Christian West, I don’t believe that we
should have a bailout. I think the bailouts in 2008 were wrong. And I think, you look in
hindsight, it was a lot of misinformation that was presented about the bailouts of the
banks in the West.
And look at the [unintelligible] it. Middle-class taxpayers, people that are working-class
people, right, people making incomes under $50,000 and $60,000, it was the burden of
those taxpayers, right, that bailed out the elites. And let’s think about it for a second.
Here’s how capitalism metastasized, is that all the burdens put on the working-class
people who get none of the upside. All of the upside goes to the crony capitalists.
The bailouts were absolutely outrageous, and here’s why: It bailed out a group of
shareholders and executives who were specifically accountable. The shareholders were
accountable for one simple reason: They allowed this to go wrong without changing
management. And the management team of this. And we know this now from
congressional investigations, we know it from independent investigations, this is not
some secret conspiracy. This is kind of in plain sight.
In fact, one of the committees in Congress said to the Justice Department 35 executives, I
believe, that they should have criminal indictments against — not one of those has ever
been followed up on. Because even with the Democrats, right, in power, there’s a sense
between the law firms, and the accounting firms, and the investment banks, and their
stooges on Capitol Hill, they looked the other way.
So you can understand why middle class people having a tough go of it making $50 or
$60 thousand a year and see their taxes go up, and they see that their taxes are going to
pay for government sponsored bailouts, what you’ve created is really a free option. You
say to this investment banking, create a free option for bad behavior. In otherwise all the
upside goes to the hedge funds and the investment bank, and to the crony capitalist with
stock increases and bonus increases. And their downside is limited, because middle class
people are going to come and bail them out with tax dollars.
And that’s what I think is fueling this populist revolt. Whether that revolt is in the
midlands of England, or whether it’s in Middle America. And I think people are fed up
with it.
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