Jimmy Dore Interview with Dylan Ratigan
Critique of Elizabeth Warren-AOC Plan to Rescue Small Business
May 4, 2020
"Private equity firms do not give a damn about small businesses, OK? Private equity firms care about distressed medium and even large businesses. They're managing hundreds of billions of dollars. Do you think Blackstone wants to buy up your corner deli? It's idiotic. The very phrasing offends my sensibilities, because it's an insight to the level of stupidity of American politicians. That they would be so moronic as to think that private equity would give a damn about buying a small business. They're going to buy the biggest possible business they can buy that's in the most possible distress. You idiots.
And the grandstanding around small business is so played out. First of all, small business is not the engine of job growth anywhere. New business - new business formation is the job growth creator. And yes, statistically, most new businesses are small. So people then perceive small businesses to be the job creator, but that is not the case. New business formation is the job creator in any economy ever. In order to have new business formation you need to have an educational system that works, a health care system that works, optimism in the economy, and some amount of money available to human beings. And the rate of new business formation in America has been in a free fall since Barack Obama (inaudible) the financial crisis, OK?
"And so, this no M and A thing (mergers and acquisitions) from Warren and AOC, as if they're going to gobble up small businesses (1) reveals how stupid these people are, and (2) reveals how craven and hypocritical they are, that they then vote for a bill that empowers private equity to buy distressed assets while they shut down an economy that shouldn't be shut down, because they should have been prepared for the damn pandemic months ago, years ago, and then they want credit for looking out for the little guy. Fuck them!
"There's a known risk of a pandemic. They refused to prepare for the pandemic. They then grossly mismanage the pandemic and point to the village moron as if it's only his fault. After Harvey Singer attacks money for a decade and is failing to prepare for the pandemic, blaming the village moron, they then use the pandemic to give the money to the vultures and then walk out after the whole thing is done and pretend that they give a damn.
"I prefer Republicans. Republicans come right up to your face and say, 'I think you should be dead, and I want all your money.' . . . As opposed to these people (Democrats). . . Pretending . . . .
"It's like the women that pretended to care about sexual assault, so that they could advance their careers. And in the process made women more vulnerable to sexual assault . . ..
"The very premise (of the Warren-AOC plan) is idiotic. If you are in the business of getting a return on $10 billion, and I give you the opportunity to buy the local dry cleaner for $85,000 and that dry cleaner after you buy it becomes worth $200,000, and you've more than doubled your money, you just made a hundred grand on your $85,000, the cost of the accounting, and tax services of dealing with the nightmare of that small business, relative to the return on your $10 billion fund, is the most preposterous concept I've ever heard in my life. If you have a lot of money and are paid to make money on that money, you know what you have to do? You've got to buy other things that are worth a lot of money . . . . .
"You're going to see a lot of empty storefronts. The drugstore [will survive because it] is a unique thing because it's a universally and guaranteed customer base, [a] monopoly basically, right? You're going to get your prescription, you're going to buy soap and toothpaste, shampoo. That's a unique situation. . .. . [Apart from that, you'll see] empty storefronts. Small towns across America, that have little or no virus risk, but all these small businesses have been shut down for months? What are these people going to do?
"And the reason they're shut down is because the government that they pay taxes to refused to prepare for a pandemic? Forget whether we responded in time. What's the response? There is no response! The response is to tell everybody to stay home. That's your plan? That's what we paid for? You don't have cotton swabs? You can't make a test? And so because you don't have cotton swabs and a test everybody's got to stay home? FUCK YOU!
"Nancy Pelosi is the same person that gave you the health care system that's failed right now . . . . Her claim to fame is . . . put her in the same room with Clinton, Obama, and Biden. With a $4 trillion health care system charging double what the world pays for a health care system, that is useless to provide cotton swabs and a test. Multi-trillion dollar government, multi-trillion dollar health care system, and they can't provide cotton swabs and a test? And so their alternative after collecting these trillions is to scorch the entire economy? And blame the village idiot.
"And offer an alternative senile rapist (to vote for). No UBI (universal basic income) from him, no Medicare For All from him, no new business formation, no cotton swabs, no test, no working economy, nothing. Just make fun of the village idiot.
"Do you know how low on the totem pole you have to be if your only claim to fame is you make fun of the village idiot? We've made a national industry of ridiculing the village idiot. And then everybody feels better about themselves because they're like, 'Look at the village idiot - he wants you to drink bleach.' Well, of course he wants you to drink bleach, he's the village idiot!
"Righteous, sanctimonious, holier-than-thou. Falsely defending the small business. Pretending that their entire situation is Donald Trump's fault because this entire national health care system, or whatever you want to call our health care system, and this entire political apparatus, refused to do anything to prepare for a known risk that is a pandemic? As we allocate trillions in Defense Department spending? And we've launched a space force? We're getting ready for war with aliens? But you can't get a cotton swab?"
------Dylan Ratigan, May 4, 2020, Jimmy Dore Show
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