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September 24, 2008

Jack Welch on the Rescue Plan

Hannity & Colmes

HANNITY: Now, earlier this afternoon, Senator John McCain announced that he was suspending his campaign so he could return to Washington and work on this bailout plan.

Now he also called for the postponement of Friday's first debate at the University of Mississippi.

Senator Obama then responded saying that the candidates can do both and there is no need to postpone the debate.

Tonight, quite frankly, it's not clear where things stand. Former speaker of the house, Newt Gingrich, he's going to join us in a few minutes with all the political analysis of what all of this means.

But for reaction to the president's address, we're joined first by former chairman and CEO of General Electric. We welcome back Jack Welch.

Jack, good to see you. Thanks for being with us.

JACK WELCH, FORMER CHAIRMAN/CEO, GENERAL ELECTRIC: Good to see you.

HANNITY: All right. First of all, big picture, president's speech. We'll get to the politics later. What do you think?

WELCH: I think he had to be out here. Look, this is a serious, serious problem. These guys have got to get together and get a bill passed. The credit markets are frozen. The economy is sliding. And it's going to be precipitous if we don't get some action.

HANNITY: All right. Now Barack Obama, I'll use his words. He said today that -- talking about greed on Wall Street and said, "This is a moment of great uncertainty in America.

He said that "this financial crisis is so serious, the most serious we've faced since the Great Depression." He went on to say, "Every American has a stake in solving the crisis and saving our financial system from collapse, because if we don't act soon people's jobs, savings, economic security will be put at risk."

Is it as dire as Barack Obama said?

WELCH: Well, I don't often agree with Barack Obama, but on this one it is pretty damn bad.

HANNITY: Well, then it raises the question about, you know, if it's that serious, and if we're talking about the secretary of the treasury wanting this done by Friday, why wouldn't he -- he already passed on 10 town halls with John McCain, why wouldn't he postpone the debate and just put it off later?

WELCH: I'm not going to get in that debate, whether -- who was right to postpone. I think they've got to act and those three guys are better off in Washington than they are in the campaign trail right now.

HANNITY: How did we get here?

WELCH: George money. A lot of people are guilty. This is a little bit like the murder on the Orient Express. There's a passenger in every car.

It's the lender. It's the person who took the mortgage without any intent to pay back. It's the renting agencies with the AAA. It's the Wall Street money culture, where you roll the dice and you win and you never lose.

HANNITY: I wonder to the extent -- I look at the foundation of this being Fannie and Freddie, and tell me if you think I'm wrong here. And this is what's so surprising to me. And I get a little bit more political than I think you're going to get here.

But you look at, for example -- well, you know, Frank Raines made $90 million in six years. We've got, for example, Jim Johnson. He made tens of millions of dollars.

You know, John McCain warned three years ago. He actually said the following when he co-sponsored a bill for -- to reform this. He said three years ago, "If Congress doesn't act the American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie and Freddie pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole." He was right three years ago.

WELCH: And so was Alan Greenspan, and so were a lot of Republicans. This is one that the Democrats have. The Republicans have plenty of things to be blamed for on this one. But as far as Fannie and Freddie are concerned, pushing people into housing. It started in 1999 when they pushed for more subprime, to let more people get in in the Clinton administration.

COLMES: Plenty of blame to go around in both parties. Right?

WELCH: Absolutely. There is.

COLMES: I mean, McCain's got people, lobbyists, Rick Davis, people who worked for him who were part of Fannie and Freddie. But let me ask you this. The average person -- you're laughing at me.

HANNITY: He can't help himself.

COLMES: We can only take shots at Franklin Raines, who by the way, is not part of the Obama campaign.

Let me ask you about this. How this effects the person on Main Street? The person watching, what happens to me?

WELCH: Let's get down with it. They're not handing a 700 million -- billion-dollar check to somebody. They're investing in something that, hopefully, will create a return or at least break even.

But what they're going to do is they're going to free up credit markets.

Right now, Alan, if you want to get money to pay your payrolls, buy a car, you can't get it.

COLMES: Yes. Right.

WELCH: You can't get a loan. And what it means to Main Street is jobs. This economy in the third quarter will slow dramatically and in the fourth quarter, right now, it has the chance to go off to real negative growth. And that means jobs. It also means 401(k)s.

So, every single person -- now, they can be mad as hell that these guys on Wall Street did this, made all this money.

COLMES: Right.

WELCH: But, in the end we can't just sit here and be mad. We've got to take care of the problem.

COLMES: But let's say they solve the problem to some extent and some of the money comes back. How does that come down to the taxpayer? Does the taxpayer get to share in any of those profits?

WELCH: Hopefully, reduce the deficit and will stop your guys from raising more taxes.

COLMES: My guys? Who are my guys.

WELCH: Those fellows over there on the left side.

COLMES: Like I am. Like Barack Obama wants to lower the tax for 95 percent.

WELCH: He wants to tax small business...

COLMES: Over 250 a year.

WELCH: ... which is the engine of jobs. We're all about jobs.

COLMES: He's talking about actually not taxing small businesses, startups under -- who have profits of under $250,000 a year. But obviously, you believe McCain has it right.

The Wall Street Journal just the other day, and they're not exactly a Democratic organ, as you put it. They said McCain doesn't understand what's going on when he's talking about firing Christopher Cox. The "Wall Street Journal" says that.

WELCH: I'm not going to defend what he says about Christopher Cox or anybody like that. I'm telling you this is a -- this is not a Wall Street problem. This is a Wall Street-Main Street problem.

COLMES: Do they have it right? What do they need to have in this bill to make it work?

WELCH: Is it perfectly right? Who knows? But you can't sit here and ponder it. You've got to take action. These markets are frozen. You can't get a dollar of credit.

COLMES: Are you saying they should just sign it and let -- and work out the details later?

WELCH: The thing I like about this is I think a good, healthy debate between the executive branch and the Congress has been healthy. I think this bill is going to better in the end for doing it.

COLMES: Is there an urgency to sign it this week? Got to be done by Friday?

WELCH: I'd like to have it done by the weekend.

COLMES: All right. Well, listen, thank you.

WELCH: I really would.

HANNITY: By the weekend?

WELCH: Or Monday, if they promise to. I don't want to screw around with it for two weeks.

COLMES: Thanks for being here, sir.

WELCH: Thanks a lot, Alan. Great to see you.

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