printHooray to a revolt on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade! The magnificent Rick Santelli of CNBC rails against having to bailout mortgage delinquents; reminds “President New Administration” that 90 percent of homeowners in the country pay their mortgages; invokes images of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin rolling in their graves at what the country has become; mentions “moral hazard,” gets the entire floor booing; hollers, “This is America”; restores my faith in this country. Watch Rick rock the floor:
“’The government is promoting bad behavior… do we really want to subsidize the losers’ mortgages… This is America! How many of you people want to pay for your neighbor’s mortgage? President Obama, are you listening? How about we all stop paying our mortgage! It’s a moral hazard” [Via Drudge]
Update II (Feb. 20): The machine goes after The Man, Rick Santelli. Robert Gibbs, Obama’s press primp himself lashed out:
“I’ve watched Mr. Santelli on cable the past 24 hours or so. I’m not entirely sure where Mr. Santelli lives or in what house he lives but the American people are struggling every day to meet their mortgages, stay in their jobs, pay their bills, send their kids to school,” Gibbs said. “I think we left a few months ago the adage that if it was good for a derivatives trader that it was good for Main Street. I think the verdict is in on that,” the press secretary said, poking directly at the cable journalist, who reports from the trading floor at the Chicago Board of Trade.
The media machine was even worse. Rick’s colleagues were aghast at his hopeless audacity. Today, anchorwoman Tessa Brewer, a large faced, childish, lip smacking simpleton, attempted to make fun of a trader sitting by Santelli. The venom with which the establishment is going after Trader Joe is the very same bile they reserved for Plumber Joe. The anonymous trader was asked condescendingly by Brewer whether he was having his 15 minutes of fame. The guy remained stoic and serious, and asked the silly sow whether he could get a bailout if the “bets” he places do not yield profit. Rick was quick on the draw: He told his trader buddy that “they are being rude to you,” and went on to stick up for yet another ordinary Trader Joe making a living.
If anyone can locate the YouTube for the last exchange, do send it along. I’ve been unable to find Santelli’s appearance on Hardball yesterday. Mike Barnacle, sitting in for “trickle down the leg” Chris Matthews, told Santelli: “you speak for many, Buddy.”
Here’s Santelli on Today. Some predictable backing down in the face of peer pressure, but he comes up with good, libertarian lines/principles: the government is “legislating your choice away.” “Do not break contract law.” “The market is us, people.” “Give us a tax holiday.” “We are spending money we do not have.”
Santelli also countered on Hardball yesterday the foolish and flimsy argument that bailing out the minority delinquent mortgage holders is justified because, if not done, “the value of your home will decline with his.” Santelli made the point we’ve often discussed in this household: your home is where YOU LIVE. Quit viewing it as an investment; stop borrowing against it. it’s your abode!
The Santelli rant made my day. The fact that the guys on the floor were cheering him on made it even better. During the Great Depression FDR badgered Wall Street until investment froze. We can’t let that happen again.
The acceptable range of political discussion is now narrowed to whose statist program will most efficiently be a welfare nanny. People no longer try to laugh off the politically organic, the local, the sacrosanctness of liberty, because in truth they have all but forgotten that such ideas exist and have legitimacy.
Who can I send the bill for my stock market losses over the last year – where’s MY bailout?? Actually, I certainly do not consider myself entitled to one but I resent those who believe that others should pay for their bad judgements. Sadly, Jefferson was wrong about liberty being “self-evident” – for every
Santilli, there are hundreds of Krugmans. The Universities, the media, the lobbyists, and the Congress are all stuffed with blowhard socialists to whom liberty and personal responsibility are utterly meaningless if it interferes with their governmental political power.
Hooray for Rick. I just hope they don’t fire him. The only reason I ever tune into that channel is to check the price of gold and silver, hear how far the market tanked, and listen for his tidbits.
A few weeks ago, he even got a plug in for Atlas Shrugged. My kind of guy!
Here’s the point missed by media naysayers who rail against the splendid Santelli: Our spending addictions both at home and abroad are pushing this country out of first place on the world stage. Pat Buchanan, in his recent excellent commentary, http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=89470, does a great job explaining the correlation between a country’s share of world product and its international prestige.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how loudly the PC crowd screams against Santelli. There is a larger world we need to succeed in. If we refuse to make the tough choices we need do that, we’re going down.