Here we go again: More spending in Washington, more viewers firmly convinced I’m only going after it now in Washington.
Writes Alicia T. from New York City: “I don’t recall you bemoaning the last president’s spending spree. Oh, that’s right, he was a Republican.”
Kimberly Allen e-mails: “So now you’re upset about TARP. Where were you when the last president got the ball rolling?”
John Emlin, Atlanta, Ga.: “Hey crackpot, this all started with the last crackpot. Where was your rage then?”
John, plenty of rage then, because I was plenty clear then.
Memories apparently very selective now. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: I hate unaccountable spending and unaccountable bailouts and rescues.
I hate it now and I hated it then. Don’t believe me? Then let’s go back in time, shall we? To when President Bush got these financial rescues going.
Join me, won’t you?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP MONTAGE)
CAVUTO, NOVEMBER 17, 2008: Who knew bailout also meant logging out your brain.
CAVUTO, SEPTEMBER 22, 2008: It is our dough; forked over to our government. A government that says it has our best interests but refuses to even show those interests.
CAVUTO, OCTOBER 3, 2008: So you stop being tough and you start being dumb. The only difference between the parents who cave and the politicians who cave? Well, the parents are really just blowing their money. The politicians are blowing ours.
CAVUTO, SEPTEMBER 19, 2008: We are not capitalists, we’re not free-marketeers. We’re more like Mouseketeers: Funny to watch, hard to respect.
CAVUTO, OCTOBER 3, 2008: Quit acting like asses and like the stewards of our money you’re supposed to be. It is your job to address a crisis. It’s not your job to say yes to the very folks who caused it. Calm. Calm. It’s time to go to a bar.
(END VIDEO CLIP MONTAGE)
And for those who think I might have cut Republicans a break at the time, here verbatim, is what I was asking at the time, these are all Republicans.
All Republicans, beginning with Ron Nehring, California’s Republican state chairman, when I cornered him at a Sacramento tea party.
(BEGIN VIDEO MONTAGE)
• April 15, 2009
Ron Nehring: I want all these people to be registered Republicans and to vote in our primaries and to chose the people…
Cavuto: I just said they don’t like Republicans either.
Nehring: Well, they are the biggest of the Republican Party…
Cavuto: They’re, they’re off your base.
Nehring: Well we need to make sure that everyone knows.
Cavuto: How do you do that?
Nehring: Number one is by going on the Fox News Channel and by going on Fox Business and by coming on your show.
Cavuto: Yeah but they told me on Fox News Channel they hate what’s going on.
Nehring: We can’t raise taxes in California
Cavuto: You just did!
• November 13, 2008
Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah): We need more oversight staff in Congress. That’s something that is vitally important.
Cavuto: Well didn’t you know that when you voted for this?
Cannon: Sure I did, now the reason I voted for..
Cavuto: Why did you vote for it if there was no oversight?
• Sept. 18, 2009
Cavuto: You can’t pick and choose, right? I mean you just said you were for Freddie and Fannie, I guess you were for Bear in the beginning, you’re revisitng the idea.. what are you for what are you against?
Rep. Jeb Hensarling: That is not true, Neil.
• October 10, 2008
Nick Brady, Fmr. Treasury Secretary: I am totally, 100 percent in favor of what’s going on now…
Cavuto: But this isn’t, you and I have a different view of this maybe, and I respect the heck out of you like I say, but this is not free.
• October 2, 2008
Adam Putnam (R-Fla.): We’ve got car dealerships that can’t finance their floor plans. Small businesses that can’t..
Cavuto: What makes you think spending 700 or 800 billion dollars, so what are you saying? Don’t try so that’s your only option to spend this obscene amount of money. Do you think that’s going to do the trick?
• Oct. 17, 2008
Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.): Twenty percent of the 700 billion was supposed to go to ACORN. That’s their idea.
Cavuto: But Congresswoman, here’s what happens though: You’re guy voted for this rescue.
• September 27, 2008
Jack Welch: You have a view. I have another view. It’s not that I’m in Palm Beach or anything else. I’m just sitting here..
Cavuto: Be careful of the cure, that’s all I’m telling you here. I just worry with this, Jack, that
Welch: No, no I agree with you…
Cavuto: Jack, look at what’s happened, Jack. We rescued AIG or whatever we called it. The same with Bear Stearns, Freddie and Fannie. The market has a near turn pop and oh oh it’s great and we got the problem behind us. You know what we’re gonna do if we do this $700 billion thing? Same thing.
• Sept. 29, 2008
Steve Forbes: We got to first stop the patient from bleeding.
Cavuto: Steve, you are Mr. Capitalist, your magazine is all about un-tethered market capitalism and now when things hit the fan, what I find a little weird is every market capitalist, true-blood capitalist comes back and says government, we need you.
Forbes: Neil, the government helped create the problem. They created Fannie and Freddie and Congress resisted McCain.
Cavuto: Now you’re trusting the very institutions that created the issue.
Nov. 22, 2008
Ben Stein: The federal government has to stabilize the economy. There’s no one else who can.
Cavuto: No it doesn’t, Ben.
Stein: Yes it does, yes it does.
Cavuto: And by the way we were pre-hocking on this, we were pre-hocking on this.
Stein: The federal government is the only one who can stabilize this economy
Cavuto: No it is not, it is a slippery slope
(END VIDEO MONTAGE)
• Video: Click here to watch Common Sense
And it got worse.
So I want to restate something here. I am the nerd. I am the Fox nerd. I’m in charge of all things nerdy, I am the chief loser of numbers, OK? That’s all I care about: numbers. I’d wear an eyeshade thing but my head can’t hold it.
This isn’t about red or blue. This show, I am about only one thing: green. Your green. Your money. Who’s spending it, who’s wasting it, whether Democrats are accountable for it, Republicans accountable for it, that’s all I’m pursuing.
That’s it; that is all of it.
If you want to glean some political bias into going after this waste, you can do it all you want. I figure it’s a bi-partisan rant, it is your money, you have every damn right to expect who’s spending it and why.
— Watch Neil Cavuto weekdays at 4 p.m. ET on “Your World with Cavuto” and send your comments to cavuto@foxnews.com
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