Sunday Political Talk Show interviews during 2013-2015: on Corporations

James Webb: Reduce corporate tax rate; shift from income to consumption

Lawrence Lessig: We need a new law to take on Wall Street

LESSIG: On Dodd-Frank, look, every Democrat is talking now about how we have to go back and have a new law to take on Wall Street. But you can't take on Wall Street until you change the way campaigns are funded, because the biggest funder of campaigns in Congress is Wall Street.

Bernie Sanders: Wall Street business model is a fraud & led us to recession

SANDERS: People do not understand why the middle class of this country is collapsing at the same time as almost all of the new income and wealth is going to the top 1%. People do not like the idea that, as a result of Citizens United, our campaign finance system has become corrupt and politicians are dependent upon super PACs and billionaires for money. People want us to deal with climate change, make college affordable. Those are the issues I have been talking about.

Q: You also talk about taking on the billionaire class. Give us some specifics.

SANDERS: I think that the business model of Wall Street is fraud. And I think these guys drove us into the worst economic downturn into the modern history of America. I think they're at it again. I believe that, when you have so few banks with so much power, you have to not only reestablish Glass-Steagall, but you have got to break them up.

Bernie Sanders: Casino-type capitalism causes devastating problems

SANDERS: I think what the pope has been saying in a very profound and deep way is that casino-type capitalism is causing devastating problems not only in terms of our climate but in terms of income and wealth inequality. The pope is saying there's something wrong internationally where almost all of the new wealth in this world is going to people on the top and so many other people are falling by the wayside. So, yes, I think that Pope Francis has played an extraordinary role; he has been a voice of conscience all over the world, speaking out for those people who don't have a voice, those people who are suffering. And what are you saying, enough is enough. Money cannot be the God of life. We have got to look at our kids, look at those people who are hurting; we've got to come together to create a new world and not a world in which a handful of people have so much wealth and so many other people are suffering.

Carly Fiorina: US should uplift small businesses, not crony capitalism

Jill Stein: Hillary is the Wal-Mart candidate

STEIN: With Hillary, across the board, Hillary is the Wal-Mart candidate. Though she may change her tune a little bit, you know, she's been a member of the Wal-Mart board. On jobs, on trade, on healthcare, on banks, on foreign policy, it's hard to find where we are similar.

Carly Fiorina: Crony capitalism is alive and well: focus on small business

FIORINA: Well, I think we have two fundamental structural problems in our economy. One is that we have tangled people up in a web of dependence from which they can't escape. We're leaving lots of talent on the field. Secondly, we're crushing small businesses now. Elizabeth Warren is right, crony capitalism is alive and well. Big business and big government go hand in hand. But for the first time in US history now, we are destroying more businesses than we are creating. And so, while we have 10 banks, too big to fail, now have become 5 big banks too big to fail, [while] 3,000 community banks have gone out of business, and that's where family-owned and small businesses get their chance. That's important because small businesses create 2/3 of the new jobs and employ 1/2 the people. So, if we want the middle class growing again, we've got to get small and family-owned businesses going and growing again.

Carly Fiorina: As CEO, laid off 30,000 workers but doubled size of company

FIORINA: Well, I'm very proud of our record. We took Hewlett-Packard from about $44 billion to $88 billion. We took the growth rate from 2% to 9%. We tripled the rate of innovation to 11 patents a day. We quadrupled cash flow. We went from a market laggard to a market leader in every product category and every market segment. And we grew jobs. It is true that I managed through the worst technology recession in 25 years. Virtually every technology stock was down over that same period. And while it's true that in a technology recession, we had to lay people off, the truth is we outsourced more California jobs to Texas than we did to India or China, demonstrating we have to compete for every job.

Chris Christie: Overhaul ridiculous tax system so companies stop leaving

"Secondly," he added, "we would pass a national energy policy, and one that takes full advantage of all of the resources that we have available to us to help grow our economy and make the world a more peaceful and stable place."

"And the third thing," he said, "is to reestablish American leadership around the world."

Scott Walker: Put power into hands of job creators, and job growth results

WALKER: In the last year, from September to September, we saw the best private-sector job growth we've seen in more than a decade. Our unemployment rate's down from 9.2% in 2010 down to 5.5%. And I think if you lower taxes, ease regulations, and put the power back in the hands of the people to create jobs, you can do just that. And you can do it all across the country.

Q: Compared to the national average, when it comes to wage growth, Wisconsin is below the national average. Is it possible that the idea of cutting taxes as a way to create jobs and stimulate the economy just isn't working in Wisconsin?

WALKER: No, that's just the opposite. The reason revenues are down is because we cut withholding. "Withholding" is where the government takes more of your money than you actually owe them and holds onto them without getting you interest. We cut that in April.

James Webb: If you've got capital, you're feeling pretty good

JIM WEBB: We are at a crossroads as a nation. When you see the arguments here about economic fairness, the truth is that it really depends on where you're sitting in this country. We've got a stock market that has almost tripled since March of 2009.

Q: You're feeling good?

WEBB: Yeah, exactly: if you've got capital, you're feeling pretty good. But average salaries have gone down, loans to small businesses have actually decreased. And we have a criminal justice system that's embarrassing. And all of the country should be focusing on that too.

Bernie Sanders: Americans want change: corporations get rich & people don't

SANDERS: I know that the middle class in this country is collapsing. I know that the gap between the very, very rich and everybody else is growing wider. I know there is profound anger at the greed on Wall Street and corporate America. Anger at the political establishments. Anger at the media establishment.

Q: But if Hillary Clinton were speaking more robustly on these issues...

SANDERS: The issue is not Hillary. The question is: At a time when so many people have seen a decline in their standard of living, when the wealthiest people and largest corporations are doing phenomenally well, the American people want change. So, let Hillary speak for herself. I know where I'm coming from.

Elizabeth Warren: In 1980s, cops were taken off the beat in financial services

WARREN: I've made it clear--I've been working on for the last 25 years--that I'm worried a lot about power in the financial services industry. And I'm worried about the fact that basically starting in the '80s, you know, the cops were taken off the beat in financial services, these guys were allowed to just paint a bull's eye on the backsides of American families. They loaded up on risk. They crashed the economy. They got bailed out. And what bothers me now is they still strut around Washington. They block regulations that they don't want. They roll over agencies whenever they can.

Q: Did they roll over Hillary Clinton?

WARREN: Well, they break the law, and still don't end up being held accountable for it, and going to jail.

Mike Huckabee: Axis of evil exists between Washington and Wall Street

HUCKABEE: There is such a collusion between what happens in the financial world and what happens in the political world. One hand washes another and one feeds another. And who takes it in the teeth? It's most of the working class people of America. Big banks & big insurance companies get bailed out. Why? Because there are campaign contributions that come along with the bailout. I hear politicians that will resent the fact that some single mom is getting some assistance to put food on the table for her three children, and those same people say it's perfectly OK to bail out to the tune of billions big banks who are run by Ivy League people who should have known better how to recklessly mismanaged.