Seeking the Republican nomination for president, Herman Cain is former chairman and CEO of Godfather’s Pizza and former deputy chairman of the civilian board of directors to the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Other reporters questioned him on a poll that allegedly shows him tied with Sarah Palin for second place in Iowa.
I asked him — since he’s been outspoken against welfare allegedly creating a “culture of dependency” for poor people — doesn’t it amount to welfare when Wall Street gets bailouts, Federal Reserve has preferential policies for big banks, mining and broadcasting giants get giveaways from the government — shouldn’t huge corporations get off welfare as well?
Cain claimed that he is “against the too big to fail philosophy” but then later said he was for TARP because we “needed to do something drastic” adding that “where I parted ways was when the administration was picking winners and losers.”
Cain wrote in 2008: “Wake up people! Owning a part of the major banks in America is not a bad thing. We could make a profit while solving a problem.” But buying stock would seem to be a way of “picking winners and losers.”
Then I referenced (unfortunately mangling the quote in the process), Jesus: “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” and asked how that related to Cain’s philosophy.
I sort of regret saying “Isn’t it time to get big business off welfare as well” at the beging of my questioning — the “as well” would make it seem that I agree with the notion that poor people should not be on welfare, which in any case was gutted during the Clinton administration. I also think I sort of bought into Cain’s tacit assumption in the back and forth that there aren’t alot of poor people who are working very hard and still can’t make ends meet. Full transcript of our exchange:
Sam Husseini: You’ve spoken against welfare creating a culture of dependency for poor people. Doesn’t it amount to welfare when Wall Street gets bailouts, when the Federal Reserve does preferential economic policies towards the big banks, mining get handouts, broadcasters get free airwaves? Isn’t it time to get big business off welfare as well?
Herman Cain: It’s time to get everybody off welfare and the only way you’re going to do that is to totally eliminate the tax code and replace it with the Fair Tax, which is a national consumption tax. Look, as long as we have the current tax code, politicians and administrations will always have the discretion to pick winners and losers whether they’re picking it for Wall Street, whether they’re picking it for corporations. And so the only way to solve the problem isn’t to just say we’re just going to get rid of all of it unless we get rid of the entire tax code. That’s the ultimate solution.
SH: But are you for getting rid of “too-big-to-fail” type things, getting the broadcasters to pay for their licenses?
HC: Yes I am against the too big to fail philosophy. The way you sort out winners and losers is not by having the government making that decision; you let the marketplace make that decision. That’s why we have bankruptcy laws. But the bigger problem is eliminating the tax code, replacing it, such that we don’t have the opportunity for a lot of those kind of programs to be interested into the economic process.
HC: No, let’s clarify. I hope you run this clip over and over and over and over. I was for the concept of TARP because of the financial meltdown we were looking at because I studied the financial meltdown, which was drastic, and we needed to do something drastic. Where I parted ways with TARP was when the administration started to pick and choose winners and come up with ideas like “too big to fail.” I didn’t agree with that. I think the administration of the TARP funds was too discretionary. And even on top of that they tried to get some banks to take money that they didn’t want. That wasn’t how I expected the administration to utilize those funds. That’s how I parted ways with the whole concept.
SH: How do you explain something like Jesus’ teaching that it’s easier for a rich man to pass through the eye of a needle with your own philosophy?
HC: I believe in a philosophy of “help those that help themselves.”
SH: And what happens to the others who can’t for some reason?
HC: Help those that help themselves. And if people can help themselves, and they don’t want to help themselves, well yes, there will always be some compassionate people out there with some compassionate ways to help them.
SH: But that’s not you?
HC: Oh no it is me. If you were familiar with my giving and my compassion, I help people who help themselves. One of the fundamental things I want to change as president of the United States is that I want to get away from this entitlement society to an empowerment society. And if people aren’t willing to help themselves. Now the good news is that more people are willing to help themselves but I happen to believe that a lot of the programs encourage people to stay on government programs rather than encourage people to get off of government programs. That’s what I mean by restructuring these programs and converting it to an empowerment society.
[originally published on Washington Stakeout on June 6, 2011; posted on posthaven Nov. 13, 2015]