Glick, Perino Sort Out GM Bankruptcy

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," June 1, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And for more on the General Motors bankruptcy filing, we are joined by former White House press secretary, FOX News contributor, Dana Perino, and FOX Business — yes, our very own, Alexis Glick is back.

Good to see you both.

I want to look at a broader picture here. Isn't this really about a power grab by the government? If we're going to dictate CEO pay, we're going to take over banks, financial institutions, now car companies, is this — is there a bigger picture that maybe people need to know about?

DANA PERINO, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: There is something you said a while ago that this is not the America we grew up in, and I think that today when you take a look at the bigger picture, as you're talking about, I don't know if it was an intentional power grab, but that is the result of what we're going to be dealing with.

• Video: Watch Sean's interview

HANNITY: Well — doesn't it kind of have to be intentional?

PERINO: Well, I think — maybe they thought that they had no choice. I think that they did. I don't think that Bush would have gone this further step. I think that we wanted a controlled bankruptcy and we'll let them do that on their own, but now that they've decided to do it, they have a responsibility to the taxpayers, and I don't know — I think that in the White House that they're probably thinking what did we just do and how are we going to make this work?

HANNITY: Alexis?

ALEXIS GLICK, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK: This was inevitable, somebody had to do it, it's ugly, it's bloody, it involves enormous amounts of taxpayer dollars. At the end of the day we're not just talking about $50 billion, we're talking about probably upwards of $100 billion.

But it had to happen at some point. This is not the ideal case scenario. Fritz Henderson, the CEO of General Motors said if we...

HANNITY: Can I interrupt you for a second?

GLICK: ... had restructuring finances back in the fall last year, we would have done it.

HANNITY: All right. But you're saying that the government takeover had to be inevitable. Wait a minute. We have bankruptcy laws.

GLICK: Not the government takeover.

HANNITY: You're saying bankruptcy.

GLICK: Bankruptcy.

HANNITY: All right. But really this is about a government takeover which is a bigger — I don't disagree with you, but we have bankruptcy laws and precedents on the books, and yes never used to bully debt holders that are first in line to take 29 cents on the dollar, Alexis.

GLICK: Here's the thing. Who else was going to step up to the plate and get this company through financing? It's called debtor in possession financing. Normally financial institutions step up to give the money necessary to get through a restructuring.

Not one financial institution in this country wanted to do it. Now is that a problem for us, the U.S. taxpayer? Absolutely. Ultimately do we want to own 60 percent of this company? We do not.

HANNITY: 70.

GLICK: We own 60. The Canadian government owns 12 percent.

HANNITY: Good for them.

GLICK: OK. But look.

(LAUGHTER)

We don't want to own this.

HANNITY: All right.

GLICK: But this is.

PERINO: ... the shareholders and the unions as well. Right?

HANNITY: Well, the unions were taken care of, but the debt holders were not.

GLICK: Right.

HANNITY: And they were also intimidated by the administration.

PERINO: This is the government playing favorites, and I think that as they go forward and were trying to talk with other companies — I'm sorry, other countries about good free trade principles that our position is dramatically weakened.

HANNITY: Well, then you raise a point, and I brought this up with Dick Morris. I'll let you both comment on this. Tim Geithner is in China begging the Chinese, of course, to buy more of our bonds and carry more of our debt.

You know he said Chinese assets are very safe, quote from Reuters, "his answer drew loud laughter." They mocked him. They laughed at him. They ridiculed him. Basically ridiculing the Obama economy because he's quadrupling the debt and quadrupling the deficit.

GLICK: Here's the most dangerous thing about what's happening in China is we are so interconnected with one another. First of own they own $2 trillion in U.S. dollar dominated assets, and if we continue to print money and finance the record amount of debt, it could have really negative consequences for all the dollar denominated assets that they own.

The interesting thing I was just speaking to somebody the other day about this, is they're now actually trying to figure out what they can do to hedge their position and perhaps buy inflation-protected items because they're so concerned that we're going to have to raise interest rates to pay for them.

HANNITY: This guy Roubini who predicted this downturn, we've talked about him before, and other experts are saying as they keep printing money we're destined for inflation, hyper inflation, and that a lot of these — you know it's going to absorb a lot of money outside of the...

PERINO: It's a domino effect.

HANNITY: It's going to be a domino effect.

PERINO: There's a domino effect...

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: You're a better host than me.

(LAUGHTER)

PERINO: There's a domino effect that's going to happen. And I think one of the things that — I want to just go back to one thing, Alexis, that we have now put in $100 million of American taxpayer money into these car companies and the question is — into this car company. Will people actually buy these cars at the end of the day?

HANNITY: I'll tell you.

PERINO: And I'm very skeptical in that point.

HANNITY: I have only bought American cars in my life, and GM is a sponsor and has been through a couple of years on my radio show. They made the turnaround in my eyes many years ago, and one of the problems is that I think government has played a role up until this point in terms of dictating what kind of cars we can buy.

Bad energy policy. We're not energy independent. I think number one, CAFE standards, mileage standards, safety standards. They've already had an impact on the economy. What are they going to do now? They're going to let the environmentalists design the cars?

GLICK: Here's the number one issue that every American at home has to think about. If you can go to a car lot right now and buy a Pontiac for $15,000, buy a Chevy Tahoe for $25, $30,000. If the residual value of all American vehicles right now is declining as a result of these bankruptcies, what is going to incentivize me to go out and buy a $40,000 Chevy Volt even if it is offering the proper kind of technology?

HANNITY: And you're raising...

GLICK: That's a big problem. The demand equation is a serious issue. But are you going to go to a European automaker and spend $10, $15,000 more when you can probably buy a U.S. domestic vehicle for a record cheap prices.

HANNITY: All right. What if this doesn't work out, Dana? This is a big — Obama basically taking over this company. What if this doesn't work out?

PERINO: Right. They put all their chips on the other side of the table. So that — I think that they must be betting that it's going to work out but I would think that they're thinking 2 1/2 years from now as the reelection effort is well under way, that they hope it works out better than I think it's going to. I think it's going to be very difficult to try to make...

HANNITY: It could even impact — if Roubini is right that we're going to have a slight up tick and then we go right back into the recessionary cycle, that is going to be problematic.

PERINO: Well, I certainly hope not but if that is the case then I think that.

HANNITY: He makes sense to me.

GLICK: Sending Cabinet members out to four states in the Rust Belt who decided to vote for him in this election, he knows the consequences here are tremendous. He's got to make sure he creates those jobs and revitalize those economies. Otherwise it's going to have a real negative implication for midterm elections.

PERINO: They know that there are tried and true ways to create jobs in this country. It's lower taxes and to give entrepreneurs free reign and be able to create the great companies that we celebrate today in America.

HANNITY: You guys are a great combination. You know we've got the great political analysis.

GLICK: I love this. This is so much fun.

HANNITY: ... and business — I'm learning every time we have you both.

Thank you both for being with us.

GLICK: Thank you.

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