Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus appeared on Fox Business and defended capitalism from Bernie Sanders and the Democrats.
“Don’t bring up Bernie Sanders. That is a red flag in front of me,” said Marcus on Monday. “He is the enemy of every entrepreneur that’s ever going to be born in this country, and has been born in the past.”
Marking the 40-year anniversary of Home Depot’s founding, one of the great entrepreneurial success stories in American business, iconic co-founders Marcus and Ken Langone appeared on “Fox Business” with host Neil Cavuto and were resolute in their defense of capitalism at a time when the Dems are moving foolishly toward socialism.
Host Cavuto asked about a group of liberal billionaires who claim they want to pay more in taxes.
“You’re both billionaires. You have had great success. There is the push from the billionaire’s club … you’ve heard … a group that wants higher taxes … George Soros, Chris Hughes, Facebook co-founder, a host of others, descendants of family empires, Abigail Disney, Pritzker, they say tax us more. What do you think of that?” asked Cavuto.
“Well, they trust the government more than I do,” Marcus replied. “Look, I can’t tell you how much money we’ve given away. My foundation actually has given away over $2 billion. I would rather give it away than have some congressman give it away. We built hospitals. We built the Georgia aquarium … We have cardiac units, we have stroke units. NYU. We do better with our money than the government. Why would I want the government to have it? Anything they touch …”
“Do you get annoyed,” Cavuto interjected, “when you have big targets, not specifically on you, the rich … all these democratic candidates, to a man or women, they single out guys like you, saying this is what happened to capitalism.”
“Wait a minute,” Langone said. “What has happened to capitalism? Two, three, four of us, all humble origins,” talking about the founders of Home Depot. “Every one of the four of us. His father was a plumber. Enormously successful financially. Look what we’ve done. But I have a different point. I have no trouble paying more taxes provided it is used to redeem the futures of the young people today. What the hell am I doing? What is Bernie doing getting Social Security? We shouldn’t get a check. Fix it. Make that happen. They haven’t got the guts in Washington.”
“Bernie Sanders is out today with a plan that will tax Wall Street trades, pennies on the dollar, but it’s a start to pay for among other things, college debt, and maybe free college down the road,” Cavuto said.
“Don’t bring up Bernie Sanders. That is a red flag in front of me. He is the enemy of every entrepreneur that’s ever going to born in this country, and has been born in the past,” said Marcus.
“If he became president what would you guys do?” asked host Cavuto.
“Me? Probably move to Australia,” Marcus said, while laughing. “What could he do? He can’t do anything to us. He will affect my grandchildren.”
“Let me bring up one thing,” Marcus continued. “Bernie Sanders talks about socialized medicine. My foundation now is working on one issue, that is taking care of these veterans, kids who fought in Afghanistan, Iraq. You know that 20 a day commit suicide. Twenty every single day. What is Bernie Sanders doing about that? Why doesn’t he shut his mouth and do something about these kids? They go to the Veterans Administration. They can’t take care of it. The proof in the pudding is, 20 a day are committing suicide.”
“If it was measles, the CDC, the world, would be in an uproar. But it is kids that put their lives on the line, that are treated so badly. I didn’t hear one single candidate talk about it. By the way, Trump is fully supportive of this. He has done some things (like) fire people, that have done the wrong thing at the Veterans Administration. The Veterans Administration is what medical care is going to be like in the United States if Bernie Sanders is elected.” he said.
“Believe it or not Chavez in Venezuela came into power through a democratic process,” said Langone. “If the people in America today, the fellows with the hard hats on, if they want to know what the future holds for them following Bernie Sanders, go to Cuba, go to Venezuela, go to Russia, go to Eastern Europe. Guess what? It doesn’t work. It never worked. The average Venezuelan last year lost 34 pounds. There is no food down there.”
“It was one of the wealthiest countries in the Southern Hemisphere. It was sitting on a huge pool of oil,” he added.
