Economic Quote of the Day

From CNBC's Rick Santelli, the spiritual father of the Tea Party movement, on Obama's call to end tax breaks for oil companies:

"If I broke my right arm, am I going to pick a fight with the neighbor? No. If I'm two months behind on my mortgage, am I going to go complain to the bank? Probably not. But let's see, with gasoline approaching $5 a gallon, isn't this just a supreme time to pick a war with the energy people that are bringing us what already seems to be in the market's eyes in short supply? Just like picking fights with China when the world's about ready to go into recession. There's a time and a place for everything. And, by the way, all these profits Exxon's making, the administration doesn't like it. Well, what about Apple making a billion dollars a week, or Microsoft? I bet you if GM made a billion dollars a week, they wouldn't mind. Come on!"

The oil companies pay about 40 cents on the dollar in taxes. Apple pays about 20.

Charles Krauthammer also had some comments:

“I think any objective observer would look at what the president said today in the Rose Garden on this and conclude as I did: it is truly staggering cynicism,” Krauthammer said on Thursday’s broadcast. “Number one, when he was in the Senate, Obama supported the subsidies he’s denouncing today. And when our own Ed Henry asked Jay Carney about that, Carney had no answer. He was looking for a hole to hide in.”

“Second, the Congressional Research Office in March of 2011 showed that if you remove the subsidies, if it has any effect whatsoever on the gas prices, it will be to increase them, and the president is pretending he is trying to lower the gas prices.”

Obama is going after the oil companies because he hates their business and hates the fact they make a lot of money meeting America's energy needs. He can throw away $535 million taxpayer dollars on a failed solar energy company (Solyndra), but the idea the oil companies who are producing a product that actually works just ticks him off to no end.

Idiotic.

Economic Video of the Day

CNBC Analyst Rick Santelli, the spiritual father of the Tea Party, went on another legendary rant.


It was Santelli's 2-19-09 rant that got the Tea Party idea started.

Who Gets the Credit?

Politicians and pundits are trying to figure out who will get the credit should the GOP have a really good day on Nov. 2. I'll give you my answer in the minute:

Who will be the Republican Rahm Emanuel in 2010?

In 2006, Emanuel was acclaimed as the architect of Democrats’ sweep to power in the House and Senate. It helped launch him toward a job as President Obama’s chief of staff, which he has since vacated for a run at mayor of Chicago.

Now, Republicans look poised to take back the House, and possibly the Senate. GOP politicians and operatives demur when asked who will get credit for a big win on Nov. 2. But that doesn’t mean they’re not thinking about whose political star might be launched after a successful election.

The top names mentioned by the more than two dozen political insiders – most of them Republicans – were Karl Rove, Haley Barbour and Ed Gillespie, overshadowing the heads of the campaign committees, Texas Rep. Pete Sessions and Texas Sen. John Cornyn. Sessions and Cornyn were nonetheless generally described as having redeemed themselves after shaky starts to the cycle.

“My hunch is it’s going to be more the Eds, the Karls, the Haleys than the people at the party committees themselves, in part because the people at the committees are not generally known in the public,” said Ari Fleischer, a former White House press secretary for President George W. Bush.

In my book it's not a politician or political activist that will deserve the credit for a big GOP win, but people like Rick Santelli, the CNBC financial reporter whose rant back on February 19, 2009 began the Tea Party movement.  Credit also has to go to the millions of voters, many of whom had not previously been politically active, who took to the streets and are forcing the GOP to listen to their demands for smaller government.

In my book, they're the ones who made this possible.

Bonus Political Quote of the Day

From President Obama as reported by Don Surber:

President Obama: “We can’t keep on just borrowing from China. We have to pay interest on that debt, and that means we are mortgaging our children’s future with more and more debt.”

Rick Santelli smiles and thinks, I told you so.

No kidding.

CNBC Afraid It's Becoming the "Anti-Obama" Network

And that would be bad?

THE top suits and some of the on-air talent at CNBC were recently ordered to a top-secret meeting with General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt and NBC Universal President Jeff Zucker to discuss whether they've turned into the President Obama-bashing network, Page Six has learned.

"It was an intensive, three-hour dinner at 30 Rock which Zucker himself was behind," a source familiar with the powwow told us. "There was a long discussion about whether CNBC has become too conservative and is beating up on Obama too much. There's great concern that CNBC is now the anti-Obama network. The whole meeting was really kind of creepy."

One topic under the microscope, our insider said, was on-air CNBC editor Rick Santelli's rant two months ago about staging a "Chicago Tea Party" to protest the president's bailout programs -- an idea that spawned tax protest tea parties in other big cities, infuriating the White House. Oddly, Santelli was not at the meeting, while Jim Cramer was, noted our source, who added that no edict was ultimately handed down by the network chieftains.

CNN demonstrated yesterday that they are the unabashed champions of Obama rear-end kissing (Hugh Hewitt has the details), and maybe CNBC is afraid their reporting will balance the conservative-bashers at sister network MSNBC.

It sounds like CNBC is pretty embarassed that Santelli's rant spurred a movement that resulted in 800 Tea Parties with more to come. Like it or not a CNBC guy will be the face of the Tea Party movement forever.

Rick Santelli Reacts to Tea Parties

Some are crediting CNBC's Rick Santelli for starting the whole Tea Party movement. His well publicized anti-tax rant on February 19th may well have sparked the movement which has grown pretty much without his help. He was asked about it today:

While Fox News has celebrated the Taxpayer Tea Party rallies and MSNBC has denigrated them, the impetus of the movement – CNBC and specifically Rick Santelli, its inspiration – had been conspicuously quiet about it.

But on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” April 15, co-host Joe Kernen asked Santelli what he thought of being a “cultural phenomenon.” That was the same show Santelli famously called out President Barack Obama for the unfairness of his housing bailout proposal on Feb. 19.

“A lot of articles about these tea parties,” Kernen said. “They all have your name in them, like you caused it. Are you actually attending any or are you just sort of got the idea going initially? What do you think? I mean, you’re like a cultural phenomenon at this point.”

Santelli didn’t shy away. He called the rallies American and said he was proud of what he inspired.

“I don’t know about cultural phenomenon, but I’ll tell you what,” Santelli said. “I think that this tea party phenomenon is steeped in American culture and steeped in American notion to get involved with what’s going on with our government. I haven’t organized. I’m going to have to work to pay my taxes, so I’m not going to be able to get away today. But, I have to tell you – I’m pretty proud of this.

He also said despite the claims from others in the media, including people at CNBC’s sister network MSNBC, calling the movement “Astroturf,” Santelli declared it a grassroots movement.

“I think from a grassroots standpoint, I’m sure some of the media out there is not going to peg it that way, but isn’t it about as American as it gets – for people to roll their strollers and make their signs and go voice their opinion about the direction of the country?” Santelli said. “Good, bad or indifferent – that’s a great thing. There’s not a lot of countries, of course, that afford their people that, that type of right. It’s a great thing.”

Santelli was probably wise to stay away from the head of the Tea Party parade. It gives that much more credibility to the idea that this movement sprang from grassroots efforts and not just from an attachment to a TV personality.

Rick Santelli Pounds Back at the White House

I thought Robert Gibbs was very ill advised to take on CNBC's Rick Santelli the other day after Santelli went off on Obama's housing plan. Based on this interview with Larry Kudlow, I think I was right. Santelli isn't going to be intimidated by the rookie president and his crew:

White House Forgets That You Don't Tug On Superman's Cape

Right now CNBC's Rick Santelli is the superman of the housing bailout debate after his well-publicized rant about bailing out losers went viral yesterday. He clearly did some damage to Obama and the public perception of the housing plan, and today press secretary Robert Gibbs, who often makes Scott McClellan look brilliant, made the mistake of attacking Santelli personally:

The White House is lashing out publicly and personally at a CNBC reporter whose attack on President Barack Obama’s anti-foreclosure plan caught fire on the Internet on Thursday.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs jumped at the chance to go after the CNBC journalist, Rick Santelli, when a question about his bracing critique was asked at Friday’s news briefing.

“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.

Gibbs insisted Santelli was misinformed when he said Obama’s program would amount to a transfer of money from prudent taxpayers to those who had taken reckless risks.

“Mr. Santelli has argued, I think quite wrongly, that this plan won’t help everyone,” Gibbs said. “This plan helps people who have been playing by the rules. ... I would encouraged him to read the president’s plan. ... I’d be more than happy to have him come here to read it. I’d be happy to buy him a cup of coffee — decaf,” the press secretary said, in a not-so-subtle jab at Santelli’s frantic style.

Gibbs brandished a copy of a fact sheet about Obama’s plan. “Download it, hit print, and begin to read it,” he said. In an unusually personal and direct attack on a specific journalist, Gibbs used Santelli’s name at least five times.

The proper way to deal with a critic who has hurt you like Santelli hurt Obama is to dismiss his criticism and move on. Dwelling on it like Gibbs did simply reinforces the idea that Santelli is on to something with his charges and will only draw increased attention to them as the press predictably goes back to Santelli for his reaction.

The White House will not win this spitting war, especially as public support for Santelli and his opinion rapidly escalates. Various groups are already planning to follow through with the Chicago Tea Party proposed by Santelli, and I'm guessing that on July 4th that will be the place to be.

I just looked at Facebook and right now there are 30 different Santelli fan pages or Tea Party pages, and I see that at least three events are being planned for July 4th in Boston, Chicago and Santa Monica. Of course, this could all fizzle, but these things have a way of catching on.

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Rick Santelli of CNBC seemed to capture lightning in a bottle with his anti-Obama housing plan rant on CNBC Thursday morning (you can see the video here). I've probably received 25 invitations to join new "Chicago Tea Party" Facebook groups or events, and CNBC ran a poll to see what percentage of web viewers would want to join Rick for his July 4th Tea Party. Here's what the poll looked like after I voted:

K-Lo at The Corner described the reaction she's been hearing:

I've had a case of deja vu today.

I'm noticing the tone. I'm seeing the enthusiasm. And I'm digging out from the sheer volume of e-mails I've been getting today about that CNBC dude. The reaction to Rick Santelli's Chicago-trading-floor incident this morning echoes the emotional reaction my inbox had to Sarah Palin's convention speech this summer.

I make no endorsements. It's just an observation.

I think people are hungry for someone who is fed up with the way things are and who seem to believe in something enough to know there in an alternative worth fighting for. Some of the voices may be far from perfect, but Americans are looking for signs of the life of an alternative. And so if a representative pops up — someone who appears to have roots and energy, folks will cheer them on in the hopes there's a candidate here. Maybe not a presidential candidate, but a leader of some sort. Someone who can offer a vision of something other than a culture of bailout.

Today, Rick Santelli was that sign of life.

The enthusiasm will probably die down, but I think a new star is born.

UPDATE: With nearly 140,000 responses, the poll now shows 93% "yes". The idea is very popular.

Political Video of the Day

I can't embed the video here so you'll have to click on the link, but the content is worth the effort. Floor traders on CNBC openly mocking President Obama's housing plan. Some key excerpts (h/t Drudge):

'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'...

UPDATE: NRO interviews CNBC's Rick Santelli about the reaction this video has gotten.

UPDATE 2: Here's the video: