Jon Huntsman - TARP
Summary
Governor Huntsman supported the Troubled Asset Relief Program, otherwise known as TARP. When asked about a possible bailout in October of 2008, Governor Huntsman stated that it was necessary for Congress to step in and do something. He stated that he supported the proposed plan.
Gubernatorial Debate
In October of 2008, Governor Huntsman was asked about his views on a possible bailout in the Gubernatorial debate on KUED. He explains the need for a bailout and is then asked if he supports the current plan and states that he does.
HUNTSMAN: "In order to get the system working again, Congress is going to have to step in and do something. Now, we all have questions about the mechanics of how that $700 billion bailout package would work, if, in fact, we would recoup anything from that, since you're buying distressed and undervalued securities and derivatives and mortgages. You know, that's a big question mark for a lot of people. But where we go, I don't know. But I'll tell you this, the American economy is very resilient. I'd never bet against the American economy. We've been down before, we were down October of '87, we were down right after 9/11, we've been down many times in the past. We figure out how to solve the problem, we get back on our feet and we move forward."
QUESTION: "So on balance you support the bailout plan right now?"
HUNTSMAN: "I do."
Michigan Economic Debate
On November 10, 2011 Governor Huntsman participated in the Michigan economic debate. He pledged to never again bail out banks.
HUNTSMAN: Let me just say that I want to be the president of the 99 percent. I also want to be the president of the 1 percent. This nation is divided, and it's painful, and it is unnatural for the most optimistic, blue-sky people this world has ever known. We are problem-solvers.
When I hear out the people who are part of the Wall Street protests, I say, thank goodness we have the ability to speak out. I might not agree with everything they say. I don't like the anti- capitalism messages.
But I do agree that this country is never again going to bail out corporations. I do agree...
(APPLAUSE)
Thank you. I do agree that we have blown through trillions and trillions of dollars with nothing to show on the balance sheet but debt, and no uplift in our ability to compete, and no addressing our level of unemployment.
HUNTSMAN: And I do agree that we have institutions, banks that are too big to fail in this country. And until we address that problem -- we can fix taxes. We can fix the regulatory environment. We can move toward energy independence. So long as we have instant banks (ph) that are too big to fail, we are setting ourselves up for long-term disaster and failure.
HARWOOD: So, Governor, you agree with Governor Romney that the bailout that Governor Snyder supports in Michigan was a mistake?
HUNTSMAN: The bailout here in the auto sector, $68 billion worth, we are going to end up footing a bill -- Governor Snyder knows that -- of probably $15 billion when all is said and done. I don't think that's a good use of taxpayer money.
Instead, there ought to be some way of taking the auto sector through some sort of reorganization, get them back on their feet. The people in this country are sick and tired of seeing taxpayer dollars go toward bailouts, and we're not going to have it anymore in this country.
...
HARWOOD: Governor Huntsman, I want to go back to the issue that you raised before about too big to fail. If anything, that problem has gotten worse since the financial crisis than before. The 10 biggest bank holding companies in this country now hold nearly 90 percent of all the assets in the banking system, up from 75 percent in 2006.
So, what would you do? Would you break up the banks to remove the risk, or diminish the risk for American taxpayers?
HUNTSMAN: Let me just say, on the housing discussion here, lost in all of this debate is the fact that there are people tuning in tonight who are upside down in terms of the financing of their homes. They are feeling real pain. People who probably heard today that they lost a job.
These issues are very real. They are complicated. For us to say that there is an easy solution to housing, that's just not right, and that's not fair. The economy does have to recover in order for the housing market to pick up its slack and for us to get on to housing starts, which ought to be 15 percent of our nation's GDP, and today it's two percent.
With respect to the banks that are too big to fail, you know today we've got, as I mentioned earlier, six institutions that are equal to 60, 65 percent of our GDP, $9.4 trillion. They have an implied guarantee by the taxpayers that they will be protected. That's not fair, that's not right for the taxpayers.
HARWOOD: So you break them up?
HUNTSMAN: I say we need to right-size them. I say, in the 1990s, you had Goldman Sachs, for example. That was $200 billion in size. By 2008, it had grown to $1.1 trillion in size. Was that good for the people of this country, or --
HARWOOD: Well, how would you accomplish that? How would you right-size that?
(CROSSTALK)
HUNTSMAN: I think we ought to set up some sort of fund. I think we ought to charge some sort of fee from the banks that mitigates the risk that otherwise the taxpayers are carrying. There has got to be something that takes the risk from the taxpayers off the table so that these institutions don't go forward with this implied assumption that we're going to bail them out at the end of the day. That's not right, and it's not fair for the taxpayers of this country.