Schweizer: Spirit Air collapse a “classic Democrat problem"

The Drill Down with Peter Schweizer

Government Accountability Institute

News Commentary, News, Daily News, Politics

4.9 • 627 Ratings

🗓️ 8 May 2026

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Whether it is interfering with airline mergers, off-shoring a state’s oil refineries to Asia, or placing bets on chip makers, the nine scariest words in English are, in President Ronald Reagan’s immortal phrase, “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.” The fall of Spirit Airlines “is the classic Democratic problem,” says author and investigative journalist Peter Schweizer. “They don’t understand the implications of their decisions, the costs and repercussions that affect real people’s lives.” On the most recent episode of The Drill Down podcast, Schweizer and co-host Eric Eggers tie a neat bow around Spirit Airlines, California oil refineries, and chip-maker Intel Corp.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Research that resonates.
0:05.0	He's the president of the Government Accountability Institute, Peter Switzer.
0:09.0	Peter Schweitzer. Peter Schweitzer. Peter Schweitzer has spent many years, in fact, probably done a more comprehensive job than anyone's ever done,
0:18.0	chronicling the corruption by the powerful in Washington.
0:26.1	Be very prescient Eric Eggers. Join me right now is Government Accountability Institute Research Director, Eric Eggers. We're going to take information that we've learned, that people like
0:30.6	Peter Schweitzer have uncovered, and we're going to try to go further. Great investigative reporting,
0:36.1	Peter. You're the only one doing it.
0:37.6	Thank God.
0:38.6	Eric Eggers from the Government Accountability Institute and co-hosts of that great podcast,
0:43.4	The Drilled Down with Peter Schweitzer.
0:45.7	This is The Drill Down with Peter Schweitzer.
0:49.7	Hi, it's Peter Schweitzer, and welcome to The Drill Down.
0:52.0	Well, you have California refineries,
0:55.1	Spirit Airways, and Intel. What do these industries and companies all have in common? They have
1:01.0	in common the government and how government at least seems to be screwing things up. We're going to
1:06.3	unpack that today with Eric Eggers. Eric, how are you? I'm good. It's almost like there's a
1:10.5	phrase we've
1:11.3	heard before, something about being from the government and how does it go? We're from the government
1:15.7	and we're here to help the scariest words in the English language. And we want to unpack,
1:20.9	of course, a lot of people know Spirit Airways went bankrupt. They tried to merge a couple of years
1:26.0	ago. The government refused to allow that to
1:28.0	happen. So they have collapsed. California continues to have huge problems. We're going to unpack that.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Government Accountability Institute, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Government Accountability Institute and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.