My favorite American at the moment is Rick Santelli. A week ago, Mr. Santelli was just another financial television journalist. As of February 19, he has been elevated into a national hero for those, like me, who regard the economic policies of the current President of the United States with a mixture of revulsion and horror.
Speaking from the trading floor at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Mr. Santelli called for a Chicago tea party next July: a taxpayer’s revolt against the obscene redistributionist policies of the Pelosi-Reid-Obama troika.
Commenting on the latest effort to take yet more of your money to subsidize failure, Mr. Santelli bluntly charged that “The government is promoting bad behavior.”
After poking a little fun at the derisory tax rebate (“$8 or $10″) the current plan would provide for low-income workers, Mr. Santelli proceeded to eviscerate the style and substance of the Democratic Special-Interest and Wealth-Transfer Initiative (that’s an English translation of “Stimulus”) that Washington just shoved down your throat.
As to style: how about a little “transparency”? Why don’t we actually debate the provisions of this $787,000,000,000 plan before passing it? Didn’t the current President of the United States promise “a new era of responsibility” in the way government does business?
“The new administration,” observed Mr. Santelli,
is big on computers and technology. How about this, Mr. President and new administration. Why don’t you put up a website to have people vote on the internet as a referendum to see if we really want to subsidize the losers mortgages? Or would they like to at least buy cars, buy a house that is in foreclosure — give it to people who might have a chance to actually prosper down the road and reward people that can carry the water instead of drink the water?
What do you reckon the results of that referendum would be? Mr. Santelli then dilated on the “spread-the-wealth-around” confiscatory assumption behind the White House plan.
How many people want to pay for your neighbor’s mortgages that has an extra bathroom and can’t pay their bills? Raise their hand! [A chorus of boos, but no hands raised.]
President Obama, are you listening?
You know Cuba used to have mansions and a relatively decent economy. They moved from the individual to the collective. Now they’re driving ‘54 Chevys.
It’s time for another tea party.
What we are doing in this country will make Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin roll over in their graves.
You said it! And Washington, Madison, and Hamilton would be rolling over along with them.
There been a lot of talk about the current President of the United States looking for a “Swedish solution” for crisis in the banking industry. A depressing prospect, that. But I think Mr. Santelli touches on another real danger to the US economy, even worse than the Swedish solution, namely the Cuban Catastrophe. I don’t think the current President of the United States is going grow and beard and start donning combat fatigues (too much Harvard for that). But his policies just might tip the mighty US economy over into a serious and protracted decline.
They just don’t get it.
Practical economics is not about “fairness” (one of the current President’s favorite words) or “spreading-the-wealth-around” (the ultimate aim of his domestic policy). Practical economics is about the creation of wealth, not the redistribution of wealth. A rising tide floats all boats. More wealth means more jobs, greater prosperity for everyone.
Santelli also pointed to Larry Summers (Obama’s chief economic advisor)academic degrees and supposed expertise, and he asked, if the “multiplier effect” you point to is real, why not just pour trillions into the economy and for each trillion we will get a trillion and a half out.. The administration is trying to sell us a perpetual motion machine..
I do so enjoy it when democracy is used against those who claimed to be its most ardent defenders. A word to the unwise -in this case this would be the overly-groomed and pruned talking heads including Mr. Gibbs, drop the arrogance and disdain for ‘the mob’ or you may find yourselves lumped among those who “are struggling every day to meet their mortgages, stay in their jobs, pay their bills, send their kids to school.”
Signing and initialing stacks of documents without reading and understanding them is what started the problem. These trillions could have paid off the defaults instead of overthrowing our democratic system — oh right, that’s what Double Chin Gibbs overlord wants.
The so-called tax debate is despicable. It’s the Obama Administration and the Democrat Congress leaving you little people a tip. While the real bucks are doled out to the people in charge to ensure fealty and advance the progressive agenda.
Even renters–i.e., people who don’t own their own house–are mad about the housing bailout. Check out angryrenter.com and sign the petition. NB: you don’t have to be a renter to sign.
Rick Santelli, that sounds like the kind of name you get in a Scorsese movie!
Obama is what he has always been. A Ghetto Hustler. Period
Is Mr. Santelli still a financial, television journalist?
After watching NBC “it” boys Matt Lauer and Brian Williams gang up on Santelli with snarky, dismissive viciousness……I really wouldn’t bet on his long term career prospects at that network.
Thank goodness for Rick Santelli. Obama and his administration are so thin-skinned they almost seem cowardly. Why are they so afraid of other points of view?
4. Zhombre:
The so-called tax debate is despicable. It’s the Obama Administration and the Democrat Congress leaving you little people a tip. While the real bucks are doled out to the people in charge to ensure fealty and advance the progressive agenda.
~
Z, I couldn’t have said it better myself. The Libs are lining their own fat cat pockets and throwing a few crumbs to the unwashed masses to deflect the blatant raping of the treasury. Grand plan ain’t it?
If Mr. Santelli loses his job I’m sure he’ll get offers for his own radio show or something because obviously there are a lot of Americans cheering him on.
MARTINCHUZZLEWIT writes:
“After watching NBC “it” boys Matt Lauer and Brian Williams gang up on Santelli with snarky, dismissive viciousness……I really wouldn’t bet on his long term career prospects at that network.”
..yeah, you might be correct, Martin, but who’s to say that Mr Santelli will not be picked up by another organization interested in in reaching hardworking main-streeters who are sick of this crap.
The love affair with Obama cannot last four years if he keeps screwing the working American people like he is now. When the mantra becomes strong enough, even the blow-dried Lauer and Williams will begin singing the same tune — or lose their audience.
There may be a silver lining to all this. The Liberal Progressives are getting all that they want just like the investors who were fooled by Bernie Madoff. When things come crashing down, they are going to be left with nothing. The problem is of course, so will we!
The Hope Dope shouldn’t be so thin skinned…he’s becoming a laughing stock,lashing out at Rush and Sean and now Rick Santelli
The government sancitioning bad behavior? The government is the poster child for bad behavior!
Please..the government and big business and Wall Street got us into this mess.
Congress passed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act that has a get out of jail free card on page 262 for those violating state and local gambling rules by basically instituting bucket shops that were outlawed in the first decade of the 20th century.
Fly by night mortgage brokers conned stupid consumers into signing what they could not possibly pay for, stupid bankers lent the money. Greedy builders sold more house than the customer could afford, especially in the upgrade studios.
Wall Street bought the jumk (created by the aforementioned act) and sold it to people that did not know what was going on. I can’t imagine a banker or an investment house purchasing investment instruments that they did not understand.
Obama isn’t screwing the American public, look to Congress & the Senate. Its a shame that the president has to go to the people that made the mess to get the power to fix it.
Whatever happens, it’s always the people that work hard,pay their bills and are self sufficient that pick up the tab for the greed and ignorance of an uneducated public and a pandering buch of so called elected representatives whose only aim in life is to get re-elected.
Let’s see. After a 20% pay cut last fall I get $13 a week “tax cut”. Whoop-de-f*****g-do!!! Obambi looks more like Bernie Madoff on speed. What a bunch of arrogant hypocrites. Maybe Marie Claude could give them a little history lesson on how quickly things go from “let them eat cake” to “off with their heads”. Bravo, Mr. Santelli.
Obama is about restributing wealth from the white heterosexual male population and giving it to the
1. Blacks
2. Single women
3. Gays, Lesbians and transexuals
John Galt above:
Re-read your biography.
It’s great to have the Minister of Truth and Information(Gibbs) put on the spot. There are a lot of angry people out there and Rick provided a rare “what the hell are you doing” by the MSM. Maybe just some more of BO’s lap dog reporters will tap into the moment. What really galls me is BO’s people will not say it’s unfair, wonder what unfair to them. Just remember Hope is a good outcome without any effort, he has given the deadbeats hope.
With his crack team of Gibberish Gibbs and Turbo Tax Geithner jointly spinning his bus down the road, Obama is hell bent on throwing every responsible American under its wheels!!
What if every ACTUAL taxpayer in this country took a month off from work, and just walked out on strike? Obama would surely provide them their “fair” share then, once it’s the whole country on unemployment. Wouldn’t he? Even when the wheels fall off? Sure thing.
Take away Obama’s credit card before it’s too late to return sanity & prosperity to America.
JRS
If I were Santelli, I’d accept the invitation; He’d be the first person “water-boarded” in the Obama administration with decaf coffee.
And since Obama’s philosophy is spreading around the wealth; Let’s cut the rate of pay for his office. They are severely overpaid for what they do. This money could go toward elementary education.
Galt: you forgot that they will give it also to Hispanics.
They will manage to get the cash of the Asian communities too.
(and the entrepreneurs of the Hispanic group will get hosed too, though not as bad as white men, at least not right away).
Of course once that is done the money will just be gone as working assets to the middle class, along with the middle class themselves. It will just end up in the coffers of the government sooner or later.
That is what it is really all about, attacking any area that might resist the State. They are just starting with the middle class. Destroy the Kulaks. That is the whole point.
Once they have done that they will start with the other group, single white women will be next.
The sad thing is that if left alone, this “crisis” would have worked itself out in a few quarters.
We are watching a communist, anti-American coup take p[lace right before our eyes.
Where is Steele and the GOP in this. The memes and the propaganda needs to be countered now! they do not need any larger strategy than common sense at this point.
We all have to start speaking out right now.
can you imagine having the likes of Pelosi control every aspect of your life and the loves of your descendants. That is what we are looking at.
And there is no need for it. It is just a complete con game.
I guess I’d feel better about this if it didn’t seem like the pot calling the kettle black. Shouldn’t the investment bankers be all about cleaning up their part of this mess instead of pointing fingers at the politicians? Don’t get me wrong, the politicians are just as culpable here and they deserve the scorn of the taxpayers. But this argument about which bunch of crooks is to blame is counterproductive.
And re-distributing wealth from rural and suburban areas to cities.
http://www.stimuluswatch.org/project/by_state
Take that, Whitey!
By the way…….why’s everyone screwing up the amount of the “tax cut” that’s not really a tax cut?
The measly amount is even smaller….$400 for a worker who makes less than $75k/year…….amounts to…..
$8 a week. Why is that complicated for the MSM? They never get it right.
And I wish that every time someone mentioned $1T that the govt wants to spend, they’d put it into terms that we all can understand.
It is about 9 months……so let’s say a whole year when interest is added…….a WHOLE EXTRA YEAR of federal income taxes. Everyone should know that Obama will want to raise our taxes (those of us making more than $75k/year I guess) in the future to get an extra year of income taxes from us!!!
That’s how it should be described!! The MSM is a cruel joke, never making things clear. We are screwed with Obama’s socialism. America made a MAJOR mistake last Nov4, but the MSM abetted it all year long in ’08 to help make it happen. Economic-illiteracy now RULES the country!
Thank you, Mr. Santelli, for giving voice to the people that play by the rules.
A MUST READ ! – Mr. Santelli’s comments not only reflect what majority of American’s feel but reflect exactly what people around the world feel. Amazingly enough, the very politicians that we put in power not only don’t care, they continuously rub it in our faces by wasting our billions into the pockets of the very ones that placed us in this economic down spiral in the first place. By not listening to what the majority of the markets are saying, not only is Obama allowing this down spiral to continue, he is quickly becoming the biggest dissapointment known to mankind. The majority of congress & people like Pelosi blowing in his ear, Obama is also setting us up for the complete collapse of the US dollar. If you don’t know what this means, begin by watching “Oil Storm” & prepare for the near future. You have herd him say it, “there will be a Tarp 2 ,3 etc !. The solution to this USA economic collapse lies in the 50Bil + , the US taxpayer throws away MONTHLY to import oil. Scientific fact, it has been known for over 25years (But not publicized) that there’s enough oil in just one well in Prodough Bay Alaska to supply the entire USA for almost 200 years !. the same goes for Natural gas from the very same region ! Obama expects us feel warm and fuzzy inside for spending 40 of the 800 billion on green energy projects ! when in fact only about 1/2 of the so called “Stimulus” is required to makes nearly energy independent. we need to push hard on Obama to spend this money wisely on this task, and spend it now not next year ! 1/2 of this Pork bill will actually put us all to work overnight on things like converting our cars to run on natural gas, smart electrical infrastructure in every City and town, and once in for all, seriously ramping up electric vehicle production. They’ve already flushed away 15 billion or so to the auto makers when it only costs about 1 billion too produce every new car model. All we need is about 10-15 electric car models to satisfy the overall market. Saving 50+ billion a month from not burning oil will turn this ship around in about 5 years – All American’s better wake up fast and start banging on the governments doors before Obama throw’s away another few TRILLION and makes the US dollar worthless. Take this to heart, 95% of Americans truly only have months before the rest of your meager net worth disappears.
Where was all the ranting and raving about “Socialism” and “rewarding bad behavior” from the Right when McCain proposed his mega-moral-hazard $300,000,000,000.00 (that’s $300 Billion) mortgage buy down plan for mortgages that are worth more than the homes?
I guess when a Conservative puts forward a plan that has no real protections in place to screen the scammers from those in need, it’s a “Let’s Bail Out Main Street NOT Wall Street” initiative.
But if a Liberal proposes a plan that is well thought out tries hard to weed out the investors and speculators who don’t deserve help; it’s “Socialism” and “Rewarding bad behavior”.
When someone takes a heaping stinking dump on the middle of the dinning room table during dinner, like Bush and Conservatives did with their failed polices that got us into this mess; sane people don’t yell at the person who tries to clean it up. They save their scorn for those who took the heaping stinking dump on the middle of the dinning room table during dinner. The Right should that one, and they might not get their butts handed to then, again, come next election.
In Conclusion: Mr. Obama, for now, the majority do truly support you but you must actually start doing what you promised us before you got elected, that is your promise that change for the better is coming to America. Right now your heading us right for the worst.
Hopefully more people who have a national platform and know the truth will speak out. Anyone with a modicum of sense will see through obsequious asses like Gibbs, Lauer, and Williams, et al.
If someone forcloses on their home in my neighborhood, why would my circumstances become so much the worse? I would simply buy the home for sale at market value (something the idiot who bought it at 300% over-value couldn’t seem to grasp), and then rent it back to the previous owners (provided they met my rental requirements) at a rate they could actually afford. I now have a nice piece of property priced where I can successfully rent it to people who either cannot afford their own home or who are saving for one or simply do not want to buy, and the house now has occupants to need to live somewhere. Why is this plan worse that giving the people in the home my money I intended to use to buy their home on the market and rent it back to them?
I think the large banks are in working with the Fed Govt to protect their over-valued assets that, if they came to market, would mean big losses for them (but big gains for the trillions of dollars in private capital sitting on the sidelines). Rocket-docket those houses and bring them to market; there are millions of people with smart money who will benefit. Shoot the zombie banks in the head, and clear out all the irresponsible losers who ran up their debts, and let the adults make the decisions about money in this country again.
#31 Kuni:
“Where was all the ranting and raving about “Socialism” and “rewarding bad behavior” from the Right when McCain proposed his mega-moral-hazard $300,000,000,000.00 (that’s $300 Billion) mortgage buy down plan for mortgages that are worth more than the homes?”
Because, hard as this might be for you to believe, McCain isn’t “of” the Right.
Conservatives expect McCain to kiss the Left’s ass, so his yapping gets lukewarm derision, when they’re noted at all.
McCain’s time has come and is going. He’ll be shuffling off the national stage in the next few years to write his memoirs that few will buy, and less will read, and do the speaking engagement routine for as long as he can get a check from it.
IOTW, he’s got upcoming reservations at a table with Dukakis, Quayle, Dole, Gore and Kerry…forever.
#21 Asleep at the Wheel:
“What if every ACTUAL taxpayer in this country took a month off from work, and just walked out on strike?”
Then a lot of people would go broke and not accomplish much of anything.
Take it from an old union rank-and-filer…a
strike is a weapon of last resort.
What’s needed is a targeted effort against a specific Democratic benefactor/benefactee. In Union Organizing, this is known as a “Corporate Campaign”.
I’d observe that The Alleged Hawaiian is bailing out Chrysler and GM…then refuse to buy Chrysler, (they’re the weakest).
Boycott media outlets that accept advertising money from Chrysler.
Spend a few hours dickering around with the sales people on the Chrysler lot, (they’re very nice folks), and then walk away from the deal. A lot of hours wasted on both parties parts, but you keep your money.
Take a wrist-rocket and see how close you can come to hitting the Chrysler dealership’s road signs,without actually hitting it, since THAT would be vandalism).
The possibilities are limited only by one’s fervent imagination…but they must be carefully targeted, and to BE a statement, the reasons for the targeting should be clearly enunciated.
Oh, and on your 1040′s…check “NO” in the box where you’re invited to fund campaign contributions.
Now that we are all in agreement that something has to be done, let’s get it going. We have to get these entrenched, incompetent lawmakersout of DC. The same bad legislators making more failed policies, is ruinous. Just look at how over-spending and over-regulation destroyed the once propserous state of CA, the US is heading down the same spiral. DC needs a clean sweep and the people have to start it, the MSM is still overt-the-top with this admin and will not report with any accuracy. Just read Alter’s Newsweek columm this week, they have all resorted to IV Kool Aid. Can’t even fathom if this nonsense was going on with a R by the name. How does Holder get away with his nonsense when Lott was taken down for far less? We must unite and clean house!!!
“Bravo…Santelli..Television Financial Journalist” — Here’s a disconnected quote that represents the disconnect illuminated by “the Street” and it’s representative media mouthpiece…Did Santelli rev up the floor when we were bailing out BearSterns, AIG or any of those “too big to fail” puveyors of the biggest financial ponzi scheme in the history of the world?..Better still, what is the point of the “financial media”?…Is it to cover the financial industry in objective fashion??..Apparently NOT..The biggest crime for the prospective “tea party” insurgents is pretty easy to see because it’s right in the mirror: The “financial media” let down this nation by being too close (in relationships and ideology) to wall street muckety-mucks to bother to do ANY investigative reporting that could have shined a light on this crisis BEFORE the Hank Paulson and the Fed INTRODUCED the world to it!!..There’s a populist consent to cheer this guy for opining about a plan that had ZERO to do with any movement on Wall Street (the market did not respond “up” or “down” to the mortgage plan)..Whether you agree of disagree with Santelli’s point of view; it is VERY CLEAR that the “finacial journalists” FAILED in their “day jobs”..They TOTALLY MISSED the biggest story of their collective existence! THAT story was: “Are the cameras turned off?..OK, what happened here is that WAll Street got drunk and we have to pick up the tab” – George W. Bush. For those pseudo fiscal conservatives (tieing the 1977 Community Reinvestment act to the present crisis is the LIBERAL equivalent of “blaming a broken home” for a murderer’s actions) who want everyone to fend for themselves; let’s remember that “self accountability” was not there at the very HIGHEST levels of Capitalism! Wall street did get “drunk”. I don’t approve of bailing out either party but I’ll trade the “wall street” tab for the “mortgage tab” every day of the week..”Hero Santelli”??…How about calling the “financial media” on the carpet for gross negligence in their respective “day jobs”..They turned away while “the Street” kept on pouring those drinks!!..One can forgive these guys if they actually looked in the mirror. There’s been $7 TRILLION and counting, doled out to his banking nad financial “neighbors” who fuel the Chicago Mercantile exchange floor.
Santelli, who is indeed a hero for using his visibility to say what he, and evidently thousands of others think, has also called for an income-tax holiday. That is an idea worth fighting and protesting for. The tea parties are a great beginning, but we should keep the momentum going beyond those. We ARE Atlas, and it’s time we shrugged.
When John Galt in “Atlas Shrugged” was being begged by the government goons who kidnapped him, to become the country’s “Economic Dictator” he asked them, if he agreed, would they do anything he asked them to? They said, yes, anything you say! Galt replied – Then abolish the income tax! Well, no, anything but that, his captors replied.
The redistribution of wealth starts there – in the government-sanctioned office of the IRS. Americans have the right to every penny we have earned, and we have the right to do with it as we wish. One small way to shrug is to reclaim some of your earnings, by increasing the number of withholdings on your W-4. I already did. From now until next April 15, my money is mine. I’ll worry about the IRS later.
Another way to shrug, is to do the majority of your shopping on-line. The dramatic increase in Christmas sales from Amazon is probably an indicator of Americans trying to keep as much of their money as possible – by avoiding sales taxes.
The only way for the government to increase its “revenues” (i.e., theft) is with our cooperation. Don’t give it to them.
All I can say is it’s really too bad Milton Friedman isn’t alive today to explain the ABCs of simple free enterprise economics to the dunderheads in Washington.
Here’s what I’d like to see happen, in lieu of multiple tea parties: I’d like to see huge bonfires in every town square. The fodder for the fire? TAX FORMS: 1040s and 1099s and all of those schedules A,B,C, etc. Burn ‘em all.
Moogie: A copy of the Ferengi “Rules of Acquisition” wouldn’t be a bad idea for reading, either.
Yep, burn the Tax Forms, along with copies of the Stimulus Bill.
And Moogie, why not do both? I will send tea from France!! They helped first time around…
Just a recent observation. My neighborhood and parking garage was covered with Obama bumper stickers. In the last month they ALL have disappeared. Perhaps, they worry the tea party people might be trouble. OR they don’t want to advertise their recent stupidty in their presidential choice.
NOBODY read the damn bill!!! NOBODY!! When`s the last time anyone actually read an 1100 page book??
I`m sure Barney Fwank`s mouth…..oops, i mean hands are all over this though
Where in the world are CHRIS DODD`S MORTGAGE PAPERS ?
Moogie, Thomas Sowell is around today & those DC morons don’t listen to him either.
Has anyone noticed that the Santelli video that was on NY Times site was quickly removed by them just in case more people could watch and try join the ranks of Santrelli’s tea party in July!!! The newspaper with a motto of ” all the news that is fit to print” obviously santelli’s comments were not fit to be Times’agenda. Liberal hypocrisy in it’s full glory!!!
since we’re on the subject of tea parties…Does anyone have any feathers or hot tar?
Billions of tea bags to Washington.
First, for those that are taking shots at financial networks for not predicting the collapse of the market: If they could do that, they wouldn’t be in news, they would be Warren Buffett. If you watch Santelli daily, he gives it to everyone equally. He is not a shill for Wall Street, and has been very critical of them too. He also is not a shill for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange floor, but he understands the floor very well. The floor is populated by people who are essentially sole proprietors that trade their own money. They assume and take a lot of risk. The floor is unnerved by the policies put forth by government. Santelli also gave Paulson low marks for the TARP. He criticizes Republicans as well as Democrats.
Second, I really don’t believe this should be a vitriolic debate about Obama. This started with Bush. It should be a debate about government intervention. First banks, then autos, now mortgages. Where does it stop?
Third, Gibbs cites a statistic: If your neighbors home goes in foreclosure, you lose 9% on yours. This is a negative externality. It can be fixed in a few ways. The most direct, would be a payment by the government to the damaged party. The second would be to try and create a climate where homes were not foreclosed on. How we handle that is subject to debate. Erik Hurst, an economics professor at the University of Chicago has predicted that on a macro level, housing values in the US will decline 20-30% in the next two to three years. So 9% won’t really matter, it’s going to lose that much in value anyway.
for those that make this about race, it isn’t. Santelli is not a racist. He merely is criticizing a govt. policy. Has nothing to do with race. If you are offended by his comments about carrying or drinking water, examine your own beliefs and sensitivities. Santelli never mentioned skin color, and never has in any of his remarks. The market doesn’t understand skin color.
I look forward to similar outbursts from other journalists like Brian Williams, Andrea Mitchell, et al. Obviously rants by people like Santelli strike a note with some but then so do rants by Limbaugh, Jim Cramer, Sean Hannity and Joe the Plumber. It’s basically grievance feeding. If all the Obama haters want to make Santelli their poster boy that’s fine but an ex derivatives trader of somewhat sleazy appearance shouting in a trading pit doesn’t seem the most effective vehicle for their anger. After he got slapped back by Gibbs he went silent all of a sudden. Why? NBC reminding him he’s supposed to be a journalist? Some previous financial industry baggage that would almost certainly come to light if he got involved in a prolonged shouting match with the White House. The latter I suspect. As long as Republicans keep allowing clowns like Palin, Joe the plumber, Santelli and Limbaugh, who are basically right wing versions of buffoons like Sharpton, to be semi official spokesmen for party opinion, just so long will the right be viewed as clownish.
Unite ‘santelli’s’ of the USA…time for people to start standing up to the thin-skinned bullies in the WH & Congress. Time for Tea Parties and Pork Roasts to happen! And they will, indeed.
The Gov’t needs a good swat on the back of the head to remind them that it works for us. Not the other way around.
I didn’t see anyone else suggest this so let me be the first (my apologies if I missed someone).
Rick Santelli for President 2012!
re: #49. Great idea. I was thinking about sending my legislators two nickels each, so they could redistribute my wealth to some poor unfortunate, who would then also have two nickels to rub together, as after the “changes” take effect, I don’t imagine I’ll have any folding money left.
Sending a tea bag to your legislators is a better idea, and one I plan to do. Thanks
Hate to disagree, but if Santelli is a hard news reporter he shouldn’t be making comments like this (frankly, he wasn’t on my radar until this incident). It’s opinion reportage, like O’Reilly, Olbermann and their ilk do. And that’s fine. But you shouldn’t step out of your ‘just the facts’ shoes to sound off on something.
Not that he’s wrong …
Marshall:
No! Not for president! Politics is not the only solution. Santelli has already said that he would never live in Washington, and have to take a “shower every hour.” All these responses prove that we don’t need a president to tell us the right thing to do – we already know.
Remember “Life of Brian?” “We are all individuals!”
John Galt, this is not a racial problem, its a values problem. Santelli speaks for the people of all colors who act responsibly and are fed up with paying for those who are not.
The US taxpayer has been loaded with debt to aid every foreign country, the UN, the world Bank and wall street. From Truman through George W Bush, the government has piled it on. They’ve made it impossible to build a nuclear power plant or manufacture anything we can sell, oblivious as jobs leave but happy the air we breath while unemployed and broke is clean enough for Barbara Streisand and government employees on double pensions.
We’re supporting single moms, deadbeats, government clerks retiring at age 55, barely-worked tenured professors teaching victim studies, homeless people that won’t work, people with diabilities that can still play tennis and the octuplets mom with welfare and food stamps. And that is after legions of SWAT teams harassing marijuana growers, prisoners who get free medical care (don’t laugh-a California inmate got a $1 million heart transplant)and god knows how many corrupt foreign countries that export nothing but drugs and trouble.
Unionized state and city workforces lock in pensions and health benefits for life while the taxpayers that pay for them lose theirs.
Now we’re expected to tell oour own retirement fund to wait, our kids to do with less, and reach not our slimmer wallet or purse to help people that lied about their income, ran up huge credit card debt keep their homes.
This is values not anything else.
Blame the media that covered eevry aspect of Paris Hilton while ignoring business news. Blame the voters for rejecting the California propositions in 2004 that might have shut down or at least curtailed these abuses in California. Blame media lackeys at the Los Angels Times that bay for more taxes while ignoring ridiculous expenses and never once publishing an article other tahn a simplistic pie chart that explains where the state budget goes. Blame the Bush and the GOP for getting us into this mess in the last 8 years–it wasn’t single moms that were in charge on the Fed, the SEC and the FDIC while federally insured funds poured out to to wall street schemers.
Oh Please, NBC reminding anyone they are journalists…..YOU MUST BE KIDDING!!!! Have you read any of the failing major publications, newspappers or listened to the MSM? Journalism is DEAD, unfortunately.
Clearly the administration is incredibly thin-skinned, personally I don’t think theyhave the stomach for this job. why else do they even respond to their critics, they are afraid of the Santelli’s, Rush, sean et al…. It’s amazing, that is where they like to showcase their “Transparency.”
Rep Gomert proposed a 3-6mo tax holiday, which makes so much sense. Let the people keep their hard-earned money instead of raping the hard-earners and borrowing from difficult regimes. This borrowing is akin to the left’s famous “dependence on foreign oil”, but they won’t fix that either our own incredible resources. We the people have to take the power back! go Santelli, Rush, Mark, Sean, et al…
One more thing, to the lack of stomach for the job: that is why Obama has to constantly go on the road, he needs the adulation of those who throw themselves at him, all the while he can remain the elite he is. Somebody needs to remid him to stay home and GOVERN, which might actually mean making some spending cuts like families are doing, rather than over-spending again. Talk about a disconnect.
I noticed that Kudlow was very upset about the treatment of Santelli by the White House, he told him that he will go to Chicago’s tea party and will speak at it, just let him know when and where. I think Santelli started something big, I hope it continues.
Up With Traders! The heros of the Moment – the white guys on the trading floor! and what do THEY think about Americans in trouble: “the losers mortgages…”
The Losers? That’s who the republicans worship – the guy who calls his neighbor a LOSER. It’s sort of like Joe the Plumber with a brain and Sarah Palin beaten with the ugly stick…good americans and bad americans. Don’t you guys EVER tire of this schtick. I mean, pretty soon, some of might ask why ANYONE with a mortgage deserves ANY break in taxes because they borrowed for a home? Us renters don’t get one. And how about that cut you get for the spawn you cart about in your neighborhood. Us without kids have to subsidize people like YOU?
So keep pushing- and maybe we’ll finally REALLY get FAIR about stuff…
I think that the EPA has labeled hot tar a possible carcinogen and it has become extremely difficult to get in recreational quantities, and feathers – aside from their known allergic properties – have been the subject of a PETA lawsuit because the way they are gathered leads to widespread fowl abuse…
Of course, this could be yet another political conspiracy to protect lawmakers from the classic “tar and feather” treatment. The “ridden out of town on a rail” part does have a certain “green” appeal however, since rails are organic and recyclable (just don’t burn them!).
This may induce someone to develop an aerosol “tar and feather” scented repellent for use during especially fractious legislative debates to lend an air of seriousness to the deliberations. Or not.
I suppose it would be bad form to suggest that Mr. Santelli is from Chicago and may “know a guy” who is “connected” and need not therefore fear for his job.
This is precisely what is needed; “In your face” activism. The ONY thing the Left understands.
MORE; MORE!
53. Marshall Gill:
I think you are on the right track; How about Stimulus Czar?
Rick Santelli is a hero, doesn’t need a telepromter like President Lightweight…What Rick states is the truth..keep it up
#51
As long as Republicans keep allowing clowns like Palin, Joe the plumber, Santelli and Limbaugh, who are basically right wing versions of buffoons like Sharpton, to be semi official spokesmen for party opinion, just so long will the right be viewed as clownish.
I’ll make you a deal: Stop taxing the hell out of me and I’ll stop making people you consider “buffoons” my semi-official spokesmen.
Deal?
All the crap about morals, who deserves what and other fine and dandy BS aside, this is all about whether or not we’re going to become slaves to the government, i.e. will we spend every working hour just to pay taxes so that someone else can decide how to spend them. I, for one, would prefer not to end up in that situation.
You can take your opinions about who is and isn’t a buffoon and shove them where the sun don’t shine until you provide me with a single reason why I should spend one minute working for someone I don’t know, care to know or care about, just because they wanted to capitalize on the then-booming housing market and lost the game of musical chairs everyone was playing. That’s essentially slavery, when your time is not your own. One thing the right needs to do is emphasize that the government is enslaving us by taking our time and making it theirs to dispose of as they please. It sickens me to realize that I don’t start working for ME and my family until about noon and all the time before that I’m working for someone else, including people like you, whom I don’t know and couldn’t care less about. But because we happened to be born on the same patch of dirt within some artificially-defined borders, I’m supposed to work to pay taxes to benefit you? It’s ludicrous.
I wish individuals could secede from the Union. I’d gladly give up the pseudo-benefits of living in society. Oooh, I couldn’t attend NEA-sponsored “art” shows and I wouldn’t get the pleasure of knowing that somewhere some 80-year old granny was getting her medicine because I was paying Medicare taxes. Whoop-de-doo, what a loss.
51: To be sure, Bobo the experienced-at-absolutely-nothing Clown and his merry band of tax cheats, incompetents, and little Hugo Chaves wannabees are in the catbird seat for the moment. It’s been a mere month and they’re already a laughing stock. Clueless Joe watched FDR on the Tube in 1929, Botox Nancy wants to stimulate condoms, Blarney Fwank is still skimming Fannie’s larceny, and chicken-shite Eric Holder is trying to set a new standard for disgracing a government office. All the while, dim-bulb Bobo whines that it’s not his fault.
If Santelli got into a “shouting match” with the White House, all that would come to light is the usual pathetic string of “um”, “uh”, hopey-changey content-free blather from the chump-in-chief with a mouse in his pocket.
Fred writes:
“The Losers? Us renters don’t get one. And how about that cut you get for the spawn you cart about in your neighborhood. Us without kids have to subsidize people like YOU?
So keep pushing- and maybe we’ll finally REALLY get FAIR about stuff…”
…mmmm…Fred, you sound bitter. I suggest you relax and enjoy the $8 per week your idiot Dear Leader will be doling out to you from our paychecks. That sounds fair, doesn’t it?
57 Ben Franklin. Basically blame the endless line of hysterical ninnies with a social, environmental, whatever – CAUSE that “We” absolutely HAVE to fix (and pay for BTW). Though the number of causes is limited only by the fevered imaginations of the folks with the little vortices for pupils, the rest of us don’t actually have unlimited resources just waiting to be appropriated.
Santelli has now ripped up the mortgage bailout bill and it is totally on. The White House is now in the position of attacking the media for doing its job.
I’ve never known Santelli before now, but he’s the newest American Hero. He’s going to get the Joe the Plumber fiscal rectal exam and have the $3 Chicago parking ticket from 1982 that he forgot to pay trumped up against him soon. The guy has got spine and the TEA PARTY idea is awesome– tar and feathers anyone?
What, the emperor is wearing no clothes?
That the President is a Marxist is more evident every day. Wake up America!
49. Meryl: I recommended that everyone send this article to the White House on this site and others last week to crash their system. Bet I was the only one who did.
Putin warns US to eschew socialism
The American Thinker ^ | February 18, 2009 | Clarice Feldman
Posted on Wednesday, February 18, 2009 1:09:57 PM by Scanian
What is the world coming to? Pat Dollard reports the Russian leader warned the US against adopting socialism because it doesn’t work: Russian Prime Minister Vladamir Putin has said the US should take a lesson from the pages of Russian history and not exercise “excessive intervention in economic activity and blind faith in the state’s omnipotence”.
“In the 20th century, the Soviet Union made the state’s role absolute,” Putin said during a speech at the opening ceremony of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “In the long run, this made the Soviet economy totally uncompetitive. This lesson cost us dearly. I am sure nobody wants to see it repeated.”[Snip.]
Sounding more like Barry Goldwater than the former head of the KGB, Putin said, “Nor should we turn a blind eye to the fact that the spirit of free enterprise, including the principle of personal responsibility of businesspeople, investors, and shareholders for their decisions, is being eroded in the last few months. There is no reason to believe that we can achieve better results by shifting responsibility onto the state.”
Putin also echoed the words of conservative maverick Ron Paul when he said, “we must assess the real situation and write off all hopeless debts and ‘bad’ assets. True, this will be an extremely painful and unpleasant process. Far from everyone can accept such measures, fearing for their capitalization, bonuses, or reputation. However, we would ‘conserve’ and prolong the crisis, unless we clean up our balance sheets.”
Go, Go Go! Mr. Santelli!
Anyone have santelli’s email CNBC does not like feedback. I’d love to attend the Chicago Tea Party!
Go Santelli. Tell the truth on the bailout.
Dear Fred, once again we see the reasoned response from the left: “It’s someone else’s fault!”
Of COURSE it’s the GOP’s fault… it’s the Dem’s fault as well. It’s Bush’s fault for signing on the first mortgage bailout, and it’s Obama’s fault for signing on the second mortgage bailout AND the spendulus tome. It’s FDR’s fault for meddling with his New Deal.
Here’s my grind: the government is too big, too meddlesome, and too greedy. I don’t care what animal they hail from, ass or elephant: they’re all politicians who cater to special interest groups at the expense (and I mean this literally) of the ordinary American citizen.
I’ve said it more than once: when I want their help, I’ll let them know. Meanwhile, leave me and my money alone. As for those “losers” who bought houses with money they didn’t have … well, bummer for them. Perhaps they’ll know now to never do that again.
When will people ever learn? If you play today, you’ll have to pay tomorrow. Also, why do so many people believe our government is competent enough to manage the economy? It has failed at this repeatedly.
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.” – Alber Einstein. “A government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have.” – Thomas Jefferson.
Santelli v. Obama reminds me of Dr. Seuss’s “Yertle the Turtle,” with Obama as Yertle and Santelli as Mack.
Remember when Mack, the little guy at ground zero holding up the enormous pile of turtles that Yertle had built to bluster on, “burped”? The whole thing came a-tumblin’ down like a house of cards.
We here at ground zero are mad as hell and the time will come when we collectively retch and throw the tyrant down off his self-constructed throne he’s built on the backs of taxpayers.
I wonder if the sycophants that are the apologists for this disaster of an administration even have a clue as to how bad they are destroying their own reputations.
“do we really need to go back to economic kindergarten and relearn them?”
It looks like the socialists need to go back to economic pre-school. Really, that is where they belong, not in the Washington running the economy into the ground.
Santelli should be given the Media Medal of Honor. He is a lone voice in the Media wilderness of Obama worship. When will other journalists with the guts to do so, stand up to this arrogant, self-serving bunch of Marxists in Washington?
The anger out here in the hinterlands is palpable. Those who are up for re-election in 2010 had better dummy up or we may see the biggest turnover in history!
Mr. Santelli, thank you. Perhaps your cantor is the reason for the following:
Yahoo! News had the headline, ‘Did T.V. News Miss Point in Covering Stimulus Plan’?
-Of the 681 people who appeared as guests on a dozen cable news and four network Sunday morning talk shows in the three weeks that ended last Sunday, only 41, or 6 percent, were economists, said the liberal media watchdog Media Matters for America.
-Media Matters didn’t keep track of interview subjects on the most-watched newscasts, the broadcast network evening programs, but the conservative Media Research Center did. About 13 percent of the people interviewed on economic recovery between Obama’s election and final passage of the bill were economists, the group said.
That’s almost one per substantial story, but Dan Gainor, vice president of the MRC’s Business & Media Institute, said that ratio was “appalling.”
-CBS’ News Chief Washington Correspondent Bob Schieffer had this to say, “I’ve been a reporter now for 52 years..This thing is so complicated that I’m not sure what is the right or wrong thing.”
How the hell does he not know what is the, ‘right or wrong thing’? He just gave himself platitudes with the, ‘…reporter now for 52 years…’, and in the same sentence doesn’t know???
What an a-hole. Perhaps Mr. Schieffer should look at the reporting he has done for CBS his 52 years on the job..
The ’2 legs good, 4 legs bad’ analogy is in cahoots when relating news stories of how the Dems (2 legs) and Reps (4 legs) are presented.
Here’s the whole piece:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ap_on_tv_stimululating_stimulus
Fred and Toto: So, the conservatives are represented by clowns making clownish statements? Hmmm…. I seem to recall the Messiah saying, “small-town America “clings to guns or religion”. Talk about a clown. Give him a pass: good for me and mine; not for thee and thine.
Santelli’s just trying to divide the working-class because he’s scared we’ll rise up and knock him and his
ruling-class ilk off of their privileged pedestals.
That’s rich, Hillary – who died & appointed you spokeswoman for the workin’ class?
I’ll tell you what I’m scared of. I’m scared because despite having a low-paying job my state WOULDN’T give me a tax refund, but could scrape up the $ to finance in-state tuition for illegals and countless other Demo-scum pet projects. Just the kind of redistributionist garbage your Negro-Jeebus wants to implement nationwide.
Oh, and say “hi” to your buddy Kim Jong Kill for me, Hil!
I wish Roger had said these things when Hank Paulsen was throwing $350 billion at his friends without any accountability. Bush and the Republicans were all for this and now they are criticizing the very policies they launched themselves while the incompetent failures were giving themselves giant bonuses. We need to throw all of them out. The Republican leadership in the House and Senate is pathetic and if anyone starts talking about Newt’s comback, I will become ill.
Hill, you got it wrong there Madam Secratary. He was sticking up for the ave joe that pays his mortgage and is now being asking to pay the mortgage of the clown that could never afford theirs in the first place but is now somehow trying to get a house for free. Now how is that sticking up for the elite?
****
82. Hilary Smith:
Santelli’s just trying to divide the working-class because he’s scared we’ll rise up and knock him and his
ruling-class ilk off of their privileged pedestals.
Feb 23, 2009 – 1:05 am
I watch CNBC first thing in the morning, it’s a habit, you see I use to have money in the stock market. President Bush said the economy was fine, I left my money in, and after a period of time, lost a very good share of my retirement.
I will admit that I have a crush on Rick Santelli. Rick Santelli is not the most handsome, but his intelligence and candor makes him a scream! If I remember right, he was just as poignant with his criticisms with the Bush administration. But you weren’t listening to him then? Ha! I was, because I love this guy.
I have witnessed eight years of the government writing out blank checks without checks or balances, and with the last billion dollars, some of it went to spa vacations and paying CEO’s millions in bonus money. Lobbyist were washing their hands an wiping their backsides with taxpayer money, and their wasn’t much protest; possibly these people are more deserving than the middle class?
I think Rick might be wathing his P’s and Q’s, as CNBC is sister station owned by GE, Rick might be wondering when he will get the pink slip.
Here’s what The great Santini, who voted for McCain, said on September 2 of last year, just two weeks before the financial markets crashed and we entered this global depression, he was on the same CNBC program, standing in the same stock exchange, saying that the economy is healthy and that the reason there’s talk of recession is just because the business media was itself in a recession.
31 Kuni, contrary to your assumption, many of us did call McCain a socialist when he proposed his mortgage bail out plan, which is why he couldn’t effectively capitalize on Joe The Plumber. And we called Bush a socialist too. So there goes your argument. This isn’t about political party. It is about economics and political philosophy. Crying partisanship, especially wrongly, doesn’t advance the serious policy debate. It is your guy crapping all over the dinner table now and he has no one but himself to blame for it.
51 John, do you have an intelligent point to make? Or is name calling all you’ve got in your arsenal?
WASHINGTON DC TEA PARTY
I sent the below letter to Barack Obama, and included a tea packet:
——————————————–
Mr. President,
As the early colonists of the USA did on December 16, 1773 I am starting a Washington DC Tea Party for the same reason as they did: TOO MANY TAXES. THE STIMULUS TAX INCREASE is the straw that broke the taxpayers back.
This is my token way of tossing YOUR TEA into Boston Harbor. I will be contacting as many people as I can to do the same thing if they feel the government is overtaxing us. We need TAX RELIEF, not a bunch of NEW TAXES. No reply necessary, except to start putting the taxpayer first.
———————————————
I encourage anyone who feels the stimulus bill is the tax that broke the taxpayers back to do the same. Send the president a tea packet, and include a SHORT letter explaining why you are doing it. The address to send it is:
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington DC
20500
#31 Kuni,
You throw around a bunch of shit on the dining room table and you don’t even have the intelligence to explain what you are talking about.
Try backing up your opinions with maybe a fact or two, before belching such a shitty analogy. We don’t all just believe George Bush destroyed our economy because you just say so.
PJM, maybe you will edit this post and that is fine with me, but maybe you will go back to post #31 and edit that garbage as well. I don’t come to this website to read unsupported crap like that. I am done now.
Too bad Santelli doesn’t have any idea what is actually IN the bill. That would really help is credibility.
To JB, “Hmmm…. I seem to recall the Messiah saying, “small-town America “clings to guns or religion”.”
I’m just asking…I never hear anyone on the left refer to Obama as the Messiah, even as they’re fainting in his presence. I only hear that from the right. And it’s always with the sneering tone the Romans used for the real Messiah.
I don’t think Obama has any claims to the Christhood, but I wonder if the one who does would have some objections to the metaphor you are making.
Herb. Remember all of us chimpanzee lovers? Well, we aren’t sneering, we got religion, that’s all. I hope you and your guy can take it.
23. Mongoose:
Learn to live your new life.
vivo,
It will be you who will learn a lot in the next couple of years, I’m sure. Obama and the Dems will ignore you like the useful idiot you are, and you won’t even know what happened. It is all about their power, not yours.
Someone75,
Do YOU know what is in that bill? Have you read it? Please enlighten us all. I am betting against you, bud.
Any of you other mealy mouthed Socialist looters out there?
This is a post Bush era. Obama just took over a failed and tattered United States. I can tell you what is NOT in this stimulus bill….senseless millions going to CEO’s and spa vacations. This money will be watched over, and scrutinized more than Darwin’s assumptions of evolution. It’s about time!
Republicans are never scrutinized. Give me a flying pig!
My life will change and yours won’t. You will now feel the pinch that I have felt for eight years. The wealthy shoot themselves in the foot every time….give me the money and I will trickle this back up to you-I will get this economy going.
Yes, this money is make believe, and so is Santa Clause, but we must make sure that he attends the Macy’s Day Parade next year.
Cry, cry, all you want….you can’t have a small business if nobody has any money to spend. What goes around comes around. You people have never understood economics, and how can you, if you have old money sitting in your boxer shorts.
Long live the middle class!!!
Have a look at this one folks:
http://www.nysun.com/opinion/walter-bagehot-was-wrong/80283/
Acj,
What middle class? It is fading before our very eyes.
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