Season 6, Episode 19 - "Real Time with Bill Maher 6x19"
19 September, 2008
Guests: musician and Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am., journalist Naomi Klein, political blogger Andrew Sullivan, and economist Paul Krugman On the Wall Street Bailout You heard what happened. The federal government - you know them- they announced the plan to spend like a trillion of taxpayer dollars to buy up bad mortgages and debt. Wall Street was surprisingly enthusiastic about the plan to save their asses with other people's money. It was either that or Sarah Palin's idea to sell it all on eBay. – Bill Maher On the Economic Crisis Yeah, anybody who knew what was going on would have been in a bomb shelter by now. I mean, this is - this is panicky. Look, you know, quite seriously, I was looking at the numbers, like, on Wednesday. And I said, "You know, the world is coming to an end." And apparently the people at the Treasury Department thought the same thing. So, this was - boy, this was as - as - this is the worst thing I've ever seen. I've been - I've been in this business for a couple of decades, and this was the worst thing I've ever seen. – Paul Krugman And the disaster is far from over. They've actually just relocated the disaster. The disaster was on Wall Street, and they have moved the disaster to Main Street, by accepting those debts. And, you know, you said they didn't have to bomb, but the bomb has yet to detonate. You know, the bomb is the debt that has now been transferred to the taxpayers. So, it detonates when - if - John McCain becomes president in the midst of an economic crisis, and says, "Look, we're in trouble; we've got a disaster on our hands; we have to privatize Social Security; we can't afford health care; we can't afford food stamps; we - we need more deregulation, more privatization." – Naomi Klein At this point, we have - that's the crisis. And, now, look. Wall Street is to blame for - for giving these people these loans, but no one is ever forced to take out a bad loan they cannot repay. And, to some extent, the American people are responsible for the crisis they're currently in. If you had a sensible capitalist tax system which did not direct people to buy one thing rather than another and allowed the market to take place, this wouldn't have happened. I believe this is a failure of capitalism because capitalism hasn't been properly put into operation. – Andrew Sullivan I don't want to agree with the fact that it's the American people's fault, because the American people are relying on the government to govern them. So, to say that it's the American people's fault... I'm not saying that the government should bail you out. But, the government should put regulations on banks so that the banks have rules on what kind of loans they give to the people. – will.i.am On McCain And, yet, somehow - somehow, he is the - the man of the people. And this - this guy who was brought up on food stamps and earned his own way up the system, managed to make himself president of Harvard Law Review, he's the elitist?! – Andrew Sullivan On Palin But, I mean, the thing - the thing about Palin is - is - you know, the sort of liberal talking point about McCain is it's four more years of Bush - Palin is much closer to four more years of Bush. I mean, you have all of these traits in common. Secrecy and unwillingness to cooperate with inquiries. A belief that foreign policy is dictated by God. I mean, she's basically Bush in drag. And then when add the hunting - you've got Cheney, you know. – Naomi Klein On Religious Beliefs When you have a people that's never been given equal opportunity, and they're living in New Orleans - let's use New Orleans as a real example - when Katrina comes and they're left with no help from American government, the only thing they have to rely on is the Bible and those stories, because the troops did not come to help rebuild the Fifth Ward. So, you cannot fault them for believing in God and angels and all these things, when they can't even believe in their government. – will.i.am
