On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street,” Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) criticized the prospect of a government bailout of Spirit Airlines in exchange for a stake in the company by saying, “I think it’s going to, ultimately, undermine the discipline of a free market.” And “imagine if they were Democrats who were in charge of this, we certainly wouldn’t want them investing and making decisions like this.”
McCormick said, [relevant remarks begin around 4:05] “I’m sympathetic to the 14,000 jobs, and some of those jobs are in Pennsylvania, but I’m skeptical of the United States government getting involved in transactions like this, in general. If the debtors and the investors don’t think there’s a profitable business in Spirit, it’s hard to imagine the government is going to be able to do a particularly good job on this. Now, I also understand that, in some cases, the government does need to get involved, in the areas involving national security, semiconductors, and other areas. I think the president, Secretary Lutnick have done a great job in making sure these critical industries come back to the United States or are prosperous here. But this one seems a little bit outside that definition.”
He continued, “And it’s a slippery slope, because if the government starts getting involved in all of these sorts of things, I think it’s going to, ultimately, undermine the discipline of a free market. And, listen, imagine, we’ve got businesspeople in this administration that are going to make good decisions, imagine if they were Democrats who were in charge of this, we certainly wouldn’t want them investing and making decisions like this. So, I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to find a private sector solution.”
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