11th Democratic Primary Debate: on Budget & Economy

Bernie Sanders: Voted against bailout, because wealthiest didn't pay for it

Sanders: Yes.

Q: Many believe those spending bills were a crucial part of stabilizing the economy back then. Would you support bailouts for industries that are being crushed by the Coronavirus outbreak now?

Sanders: I voted against the bailout because I believed that the illegal behavior being done by the people on Wall Street should not be rewarded by a bailout. And today, by the way, those banks are more prosperous and own more assets, by and large, than they did back then. They're bigger now than they were then. I thought at the time that in the midst of massive income and wealth inequality, the people on top [should pay for the] bail out. Joe [Biden] voted for that. I voted against it. But to answer your question where we are right now, we need to stabilize the economy, but we can't repeat what we did in 2008. Our job right now is to tell every working person in this country, "you are not going to suffer."

Joe Biden: Supported bank bailout, but someone should have gone to jail

Sanders: I voted against the bailout because I believed that the illegal behavior being done by the people on Wall Street should not be rewarded by a bailout. I thought that in the midst of massive income and wealth inequality, the people on top [should pay for the] bail out. Joe voted for that. I voted against it.

Biden: Had those banks all gone under, all those people Bernie says he cares about would be in deep trouble--all those little folks would lose everything that they had in that bank, whether it was $10 or $300 or a savings account. This was about saving an economy, and it did save the economy, and the banks paid back and they paid back with interest. I agree with Bernie, some of them should have gone to jail. That was the big disagreement I had in terms of bailing out, but they paid back.