Melvin Watt: “This has kind of turned out to be the kind of debate that you hear in politics: Democrats believe in government and…”

“This has kind of turned out to be the kind of debate that you hear in politics: Democrats believe in government and government can do everything; and Republicans believe in the private sector, and the private sector can do everything. The truth of the matter is neither one of those things is correct. There are some things that government can do and there are some things, a lot of things, that the private sector can do. One thing I think the private sector cannot do effectively is to insure against the kind of things that are really governmental responsibilities, protection of ourselves, our national defense. When that fails, it becomes a responsibility of government to accept and provide a safety net for our business community, or for our people. It is unfortunate that this debate has deteriorated into that kind of dichotomy. You have to either have all of government or all of the private sector. We think this is an ideal time for the government to be providing this kind of insurance protection so that business and the private sector and real estate development can continue to operate without fear of intervention by foreign powers or terrorists.”