Barney Frank: 'Increase the Role of Government'

MSNBC's Ed Schultz gave Barney Frank a forum to bloviate about how the Republicans screwed up government. Ralph Nader also participated in the discussion.

Frank blames Republican incompetence for why the American public opposes government intrusion into their lives.

Frank does make one truthful revelation: "We (the Dems) are trying in every front to increase the role of government in the regulatory area."

Video here.

Transcript

RALPH NADER: But the important thing is-and this is where I think Barney the weakest. In 2000, he voted for a bill that continued the deregulation of the burgeoning derivative racket. And now he's supporting a bill that has a huge loophole in terms of exempting trillions of dollars of certain categories of derivatives.

BARNEY FRANK: Let me respond.

(CROSSTALK)

SCHULTZ: Let him respond.

Go ahead.

NADER: And he hasn't-don't interrupt so much, Barney.

SCHULTZ: All right, Mr. Nader. Let him respond to that.

NADER: And the other is he didn't support a categorical ban on abuse of derivatives.

SCHULTZ: All right.

Quickly respond to that, Barney.

FRANK: Well, first of all, I think Ralph gets to luxuriate in the impurity of his irrelevance.

We're in there fighting these things. I had overwhelming Republican opposition to any regulation derivatives, and some Democrats. And we fought hard for it.

We are establishing a great framework for the regulation of derivatives. We are moving forward in that. And we've done as much as we can politically.

But the fact is that we have a political situation. And I'll tell you, here's the real irony of this, Ed. The right wing took control of government and ruined it. They gave it a bad reputation.

Now that we are trying in every front to increase the role of government in the regulatory area, we run into this public opinion that says, hey, those are the guys who screwed up Katrina. So- the frustration is, they're benefiting from their own incompetence.

SCHULTZ: All right, Gentlemen.

"Ralph gets to luxuriate in the impurity of his irrelevance"?

I think Frank gets away with saying some angry and off-the-wall stuff because he's often so difficult to understand.

His assertion that the public doesn't trust the government because of the Republicans is ridiculous.

In general, the Democrats are running into opposition because when Americans are informed about their radical plans, they reject them.