SANDRA SMITH (CO-ANCHOR): South Bend, IN, Mayor Pete Buttigieg saying the U.S. is heading down a treacherous road of capitalism if capitalism remains unchecked -- hopefully capitalism. And he's not the only White House hopeful who believes the system needs drastic measures. Many of the 2020 Democrats are unleashing on capitalism as they hit the campaign trail over the weekend. Here with us now, Fox Business Network's David Asman, anchor of Bulls and Bears. What is the message that is out there?
DAVID ASMAN (FOX BUSINESS ANCHOR): First of all, the message that they've got to be careful about sending is that they are more in favor of socialism than capitalism because the American people are not. We had a Fox News poll in February that showed by two to one, Americans favor capitalism over socialism and see a negative connotation of socialism and a postive connotation with capitalism. So they've got to be careful about pushing it.
Now they're saying that they want to check capitalism. Well, we know what checked capitalism looks like. We saw it during the Obama administration. Harnessed capitalism means that you grow at rates that we saw during the eight years of the Obama administration, one of the lowest growth two terms that we've seen under any president at all. Looks like growth in Europe, which is pathetic. It's just kind of creeping along. It wasn't until [President Donald] Trump came along, took the handcuffs off of most of the companies that we saw the kind of growth -- job growth, wage growth -- that we see now. So, you know, again, we've been there, done that. We've seen what harnessed capitalism looks like. It looks like very slow growth, and I don't think that's what Americans want.
SMITH: Liz Warren is quick to say, and as we heard when she made her announcement, she is a capitalist, she believes in the markets, but she too is saying, got to keep a check on the corporations.
ASMAN: How can you be a capitalist and be in favor of the Green New Deal? When you look at what the Green New Deal calls for, it calls for getting rid of -- essentially getting rid of carbon energy, which is one of the great growing elements of our economy. One of the reasons the economy is growing so great is because we're becoming more and more independent based on President Trump taking the hooks off of carbon energy fuel. And that -- if you want to go that route, you're not going the capitalist route. I don't know how she defines capitalism, but it's not the way I do.
BILL HEMMER (CO-ANCHOR): I don't know if we've ever had a primary campaign where a candidate was asked whether or not they're a capitalist or socialist or some other category.
