Rick Santelli's Shout Heard 'Round the World

CNBC's Rick Santelli called for a "Chicago Tea Party" Thursday, leading the charge for calls to revolt against the Obama Administration's mortgage bailout plan (see video below).

The clip has gone viral on the Internet, bringing with it loads of opinions, both pro and con.
You can share yours here.

And CNBC.com's The Heat is back for the occasion, asking "Should America Join Santelli's Tea Party?"

Santelli was back in action Friday (watch the video), and even the White House mentioned him directly in response to questions about the bailout — not once, not twice, but NINE times ... and even invited Rick to the White House for coffee. Not tea, mind you.

Santelli responded to criticism from the White Houseon The Kudlow Report on Friday night.

And, in Santelli's Manifesto, he explains what led to the "Shout Heard 'Round the World."

Watch the original shout heard 'round the world in the following video clip. Then read below what others are saying about it.

Related Links:

  • Kudlow: Subsidizing Bad Behavior?
    Team Obama is rewarding bad behavior. It is enlarging moral hazard. It is expanding its welfarist approach to economic policy.
  • Obama Plan: What is Fair?
    Fairness will be the death of us. In all the discussions of Obama's new housing plan, the notion of fairness, or rather, the plan's fundamental unfairness, comes up again and again. I say so what? Who cares if it's fair?
  • Busch: Is Cure Worse Than Disease?
    Words My Mom Taught Me To Fear: We're From the Government and We're Here To Help.
  • World Responds to 'Tea Party' Rant
    Maybe Obama’s plan isn’t so great, who knows, but one thing is clear, and that’s that Rick Santelli hates poor people—and by poor people we mean the bottom 50-90% of per capita income earners. — Wonkette
  • Even Europe Weighed In On Santelli's Comments
    The debate in Europe of whether a housing bill should bailout irresponsible borrowers was highly contentious.
  • Quick: Santelli Becomes Online Rockstar
    One viewer sent us a special "Santelli For Senate" button he'd created. But he may have been shooting too low ... hundreds of others have written in "Santelli for President" ballots.

What Readers are Saying (share your opinion using the template below):

I think your description of the people getting help on their mortgages was biased and misleading. I am all for helping hard working Americans keep their homes. Lowering interest rates will give them more discretionary spending money which will help the economy. Limiting foreclosures will help stabilize home prices for everyone. Hard working low and middle income people need our help. I think Mr. Santelli is being very selfish. — Dolores

If you reward the people who have paid their mortgages and do not have high credit card bills, the money you give them will go back into the econmy and stimulate it instead of just paying existing bills. GO! I ahve only one big screen TV, they should be required to give up their TVs and donate them to schools and institutions. They have to pay somewhere. — Debbie

Sign me up for the tea party. Rick couldn't be more spot on. We need to let these people, banks and broker dealers fail. Not everyone did things the wrong way and there are plenty of us who are looking for opportunity in times like these. I'll go on record and say let BofA / Merrill and Citi / Smith Barney fail and I will take the first 100 brokers who want a pay raise and a better environment to work in. We happen to be hiring and expanding in this market and as long as the Government continues to bail out these people and institutions it squashes the competitive nature of a capitalistic society. — Ian

Where do I sign up to join the Chicago Tea Party? It's time that Americans demand that Congress listen to us! I pay my bills, I work two jobs, and this year paid more in taxes because my wife and I both work. We pay our bills, student loans, etc, yet every semester I teach, I run across students that throw away their Pell Grants and other financial aid by not coming to class or by acting like college is nothing more than high school.
With great opportunities comes great responsibility - I think we need to demand an end to wasteful spending. — Alan

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