RUSH: Here’s Rick in Minneapolis. Rick, I’m glad you waited. Welcome to the EIB Network.
CALLER: Yeah, Rush, thanks for taking my call. I’m an avid listener. I love your show, and I think you’re an asset to the United States of America.
RUSH: Thank you, sir, very much. Very perceptive of you.
CALLER: If you give me ten seconds, I’m going to say who I am. I’m a small business owner who is downsizing. I have four children, a wonderful wife.
RUSH: How do you do it?
CALLER: I almost ran for mayor in my small town of Elko New Market, but I was three weeks late. But I have an idea for this $700 billion bailout.
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: Instead of being a bailout, I think — in my opinion, and I just want to know what Rush thinks — it should be a buyout so theoretically if it’s a buyout then what happens is the government owns all of our homes who have a mortgage. If the government takes 2% interest and gives us 2% interest for the next 15 years, it’s going to put more money in our pockets, and it’s going to increase spending, and it’s going to increase the economy. What do you think about that, Rush?
RUSH: Disaster.
CALLER: You think so?
RUSH: Well, look at the mortgages the government’s already been running. What got us into this mess?
CALLER: Well, we could get into a long story about that.
RUSH: Well, no. It’s not a long answer. How did we get into the mess? What do you think?
CALLER: Well, in my opinion it was Clinton ’cause Clinton wanted everybody to own houses, and his dream came true.
RUSH: All right. Yeah. Now you want the government to own your house!
CALLER: Well, right —
RUSH: At 2% interest.
CALLER: — and they still make money off the percentage of 2%.
RUSH: At 2 percent? Who’s going to make money on 2%?
CALLER: Well, the government pays us, I think, 3% on bonds, right?
RUSH: The government saves you 3% on bonds?
CALLER: Well, I mean —
RUSH: Oh, pays you 3%. Pays you.
CALLER: — if I buy a government bond, they pay us 3%.
RUSH: Well, yeah, depending on the bond. Okay. So the government pays you 3% on bonds. So if you buy a government bond, it pays you 3%, then what?
CALLER: I guess my whole point, Rush, is that if the government gives us a 2% interest rate for 15 years and if there’s somebody that has to refinance, we penalize them, give them an extra 2%, which is 4%, I think it’s gonna —
RUSH: All right, so basically what you’re telling me (laughing). There’s nobody’s going to get a 2% interest rate. They’re either going to get zero interest and no payments required, or the full-fledged requirement of the mortgage they negotiated. That’s what’s on tap here. Now, I did a little calculation yesterday — or repeated some calculations that were made at the Wizbang blog — and for this $700 billion, the government could virtually own every outstanding first mortgage under $75,000 a year. But you do that one time, just one time, and it’s over with. The philosophy here is that what you’re telling me you want… Because not everybody has a mortgage, not everybody has a house. What you’re telling me is, you want your neighbors to subsidize your house for 15 years at an interest rate nobody could get. I don’t know. I’m hoping your request, your desire here is not typical, because if it is, we’re finished.
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RUSH: Look, my friends, look at me here, look at me. We do not want the government involved in home ownership. Oh, that’s so depressing, this previous caller, he swallowed the hook, bait and all. If the government has equity in your home, remember, you don’t own it ’til you pay it off, folks. I mean you can think you own the home and you’re getting the mortgage interest deduction — by the way, what’s that going to be worth to you at 2%? But, anyway, you don’t own it. The government owns it. The government will have equity in your house, and if they have equity in your house, they have equity in your liberty and another way to control your future. You can’t smoke in your house if they tell you you can’t smoke in your house. If they own it, you can’t smoke in your house, a lot of things you might not be able to do in your house, that if you get caught doing, guess what can happen to you? Besides, where in the Constitution does it say — oh, I know, that’s so quaint to say the Constitution — I’m sorry for bringing up the Constitution. I realize it’s a has-been.
Richard in San Diego, welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Thank you very much for taking my call.
RUSH: You bet.
CALLER: I’ve enjoyed your show.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: I have a question with regards to the FDIC. I hear on the media and all over that nobody’s ever lost any money in an insured account. However, I often wondered if you have car insurance, if you have health insurance, if you have home insurance and you don’t pay your premium, you don’t have insurance. And I was curious as to how many institutions haven’t paid their FDIC insurance premium? I called the FDIC yesterday and asked this question. They said they weren’t at liberty to give out that kind of information.
RUSH: Is that right? (laughing)
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: I hadn’t even thought of this.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: So the big Senate bill here ups the insurance stake to $250,000, but if member banks haven’t paid the insurance, you have none. Is that what you’re saying?
CALLER: Yes, that would seem to me. So I think the public ought to investigate their lending institutions or place where they have their money to see if in fact they’ve paid their premiums.
RUSH: Well, see, in the big scheme of things the public really can’t do this. Individuals can. In the old days, there was a media that would investigate and find out if these things were going on. The media used to try to expose corruption in high places of power. Today, they protect it —
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: — if it’s chaired and led by Democrats. Richard, thanks. I appreciate that.
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RUSH: By the way, a banker friend of mine informs me that all banks pay the FDIC or they are shut down if they don’t pay. If that still happens. We don’t know anything anymore about what’s going on.