Conservative financial pundit had
an interview on Fox News about
the COVID relief package that's
being debated, and has been
debated, and continue to be debated
specifically about the stimulus
check to struggling Americans.
And he found a brand new angle to
really anger some folks, and
show just how much he doesn't care.
Let's take a look.
>> Not reality.
>> Dave, you come from
an interesting perspective.
You talk to Americans across
the country
every day on your radio program.
>> Yeah. >> What do you believe is
the right number, or the right
answer for the next stimulus check?
>> Well, I don't believe in
a stimulus check, because if $600
or $1400 changes your life, you
were pretty much screwed already.
You got other issues going on.
You have a career problem.
You have a debt problem.
You have a relationship problem.
You have mental health problems.
Something else is going on.
If $600 changes your life, and
that's not talking down to folks.
I've been bankrupt.
I've been broke.
I work with people every day who
are hurting.
I love people.
I want people to be lifted up.
But this is, again, it is just
political rhetoric, and it's just
throwing dollars out there.
It's peeing on a forest fire.
It's absolutely ridiculous.
>> Absolutely ridiculous, hey, but
he loves people.
They just have issues if 1400,
in addition to the previous 600,
if that does anything for
your life, you're pathetic,
and you brought this on yourself.
So apparently,
you should have been, I don't know,
hoarding your billions,
instead of spending it all,
because everyone's got that?
Please, we already know where
this is going.
What do you guys think?
>> Yeah, believe it or not,
this is going to be my third- No.
>> Slight defense of a conservative
in this show.
Okay, so everybody,
get ready to get angry.
So first of all, is he wrong?
Of course he's wrong on
the substance.
40% of Americans can't withstand
a $400 problem, let alone a 600, or
$1400 problem, right?
So he's really disconnected from
a huge percentage of Americans.
And that's not surprising,
given that he's a conservative.
So where's my slight defense?
So a couple of them.
Number one,
he's from talk radio, and
they talk like this all the time.
And his show is, if you ever listen
to Dave Ramsey's show, it's
nonstop, cut up your credit cards.
The problem isn't your debt.
The problem is what led to
your debt?
So he's speaking in that lingo, but
he's doing it in a format that
doesn't know the rest of his
context.
So it comes out as particularly
ugly, right?
Now, my second defense is biased,
so [LAUGH] giving you that warning
ahead of time.
Dave Ramsey, for no reason at all,
when TYT was first starting out,
helped us when no one else did,
just advice, and helpful stuff, and
calls here and there.
Nobody ever does that.
He talked to Dave Koehler, and
walk us through stuff.
So he's a Christian.
He talks about Jesus all the time.
But he's a rare Christian that
actually means it, so I'm just
giving you that background.
Now, nonetheless,
he's wrong about this topic,
of course [LAUGH].
And by the way, Joe Sandberg,
who's an awesome progressive, and
the founder of Aspiration, has
already challenged him to a debate.
And by the way,
we'll be your Huckleberry.
So I know Joe wants to
do it if Dave wants to do it, and
you can tell him I'll definitely be
fair to them.
They both helped us [LAUGH], right?
We'd be happy to host that debate.
But Mike,
now that I've been too soft,
go ahead.
>> Hold on, wait, Mike.
[CROSSTALK] >> Wait, Mike,
I'm going to let you finish, Doug.
I'm going to let you finish,
but- >> Go ahead.
>> Just- [LAUGH] >> The first
slight half defense, Cenk,
which I don't really think is even
a slight defense.
You said basically,
he talks in talk show lingo.
So therefore, he did it again here.
It sounds ridiculous.
Where's the defense?
He talks in talk show lingo?
Yeah, talk show- >> No, no,
I'm assessing.
[LAUGH] >> Yeah,
I hear you, brother.
I hear you. Look, and
it is unbelievable that I'm in any
way defending conservative radio.
So I want to be clear about what
I'm saying.
When Dave Ramsey on his show
talks about debt, and
talks about financial trouble,
which is the essence of this show,
it's a finance show.
He talks about the underlying
problems, right?
And he always tells people to
cut up your credit card,
believe in Jesus, okay,
and solve the underlying problems.
He's truncating that here and
saying that you've got other
problems like mental health
problems.
And you're like, whoa,
without hearing the rest of what he
normally says.
You go, wait, Dave, you just said
people have mental health problems,
and that's why they're suffering
during coronavirus.
And that sounds super bad.
>> All right, so
he did not help me, so
I can drop a sledgehammer on him.
[LAUGH] >> Let me just say this.
When he said that he declared
bankruptcy, what that
means is he got a bailout.
And in the clip, the Fox News
hosts talk about moral hazard.
There's no bigger moral hazard
under that logic
than wiping away all your debt, or,
I don't know, $4 trillion for
Wall Street, which was the first
coronavirus stimulus bill.
And the thing about these self-help
hucksters is that they have no
value.
People are not in debt because of
credit cards, or
financial products.
Although, that may contribute.
It's that because their income is
not growing,
because productivity is growing up,
wealth is being created, and
it's 100% being captured by
the wealthiest in our society.
During coronavirus,
every problem with our society has
been accelerated.
They're growing their wealth,
the billionaires in our society,
by nearly a trillion dollars since
the course of this pandemic.
And the rest of us, the bottom 90%,
what do you know?
We lost a trillion dollars.
So the reason why this guy is so
toxic is people are suffering
under coronavirus,
due to no fault of their own.
And the dirty little secret about
capitalism is that's true all the
time, not just during coronavirus.
But when people have unemployment,
our system is designed to have
a certain level of baseline
unemployment.
That means some people looking for
jobs who are qualified will not
find them.
That is a feature,
not a bug of capitalism.
And the purpose of that is to drive
down your wages.
It is to make you more exploitable.
And so when he talks about all this
self-help hucksterism of cutting
your credit cards up, the reality
is Americans have actually topped
up their consumption with debt,
because their wages are flat, and
they have been flat for 30 years.
>> Yeah, so let me back up Mike on
the substance.
First of all, it's actually 40
years that they've been flat.
And in that time, American
productivity has nearly doubled.
So you have worked your ass off,
and not gotten any wage increase.
And by the way, currently,
corporate Democrats are screwing
you, and
taking out the increase in minimum
wage from the COVID relief bill.
And by the way, speaking of
corporate Democrats screwing you,
so who's the person that made it
nearly impossible to get rid of
student debt?
Joe Biden. >> Joe.
>> He was the author of
the bankruptcy bill.
And the bankruptcy bill is the one
that said, if you're a student,
you'll never be able to get rid of
your debt.
On the other hand,
as Mike just pointed out,
Dave Ramsey just said yeah,
I went bankrupt, and
he's fine now, right?
Donald Trump went bankrupt six
times, and he's totally fine.
The rich are always fine, right?
But you can't get rid of your debt,
because of Republicans and
corporate Democrats.
>> Well, and it's important to
notice one thing Cenk about this is
they don't want you to get rid
of your student loan debt, right?
Which is debt that you did to build
your personal capital.
And I mean, you get a degree, but
you don't have any
assets at the end of it.
So your balance sheet,
you're balance sheet insolvent.
If you have student loan debt, and
no assets, you are actually
legally qualified to be bankrupt,
except it's student loan debt, and
we exclude that.
And so you can't declare bankruptcy
for student loans.
And in fact, people used to declare
bankruptcy for student loans until
that bankruptcy bill that Joe Biden
wrote 15 years ago.
So that is why so
many people are struggling.
And it's so disgusting whenever you
watch a businessman who's declared
bankruptcy had his debt washed away
by who?
Big daddy government.
That's what bankruptcy is.
It's the government stepping in
telling creditors enough is enough.
You get a piece of what this guy
has, and that's it.
And then we move on
with a fresh start.
And to say that it's okay for him,
but not for you,
because you went and
tried to get an education, or
because of coronavirus, is absurd.
And to talk down about a stimulus
check that obviously millions of
people need is, frankly,
disgusting to me.
>> Yeah, I can't help but
jump in one more time.
I don't know if there's
one last time.
So number one, on Dave Ramsey,
we have no idea what his opinion
on student loan debt is,
to be fair, right?
But generally, for Republicans and
conservatives, they love that you
can't get rid of that debt.
And I'm not sure I agree with Mike
on the unemployment point he made.
It's a great one.
It's a really interesting one, and
one that maybe we could debate
another time.
But the student loan debt one is
definitely a function of
runaway capitalism,
because it is not something that is
naturally created by the markets.
It is a law artificially passed by
corrupt politicians paid off by
corporations.
And why do they want that?
It's not just the bankers that
wanted that passed.
It was all other corporations
as well, why?
because if you're forever indebted,
you must work for
corporate America.
If you don't work for
corporate America,
you can't get rid of that debt.
It turns you into indentured
servants.
That's why they love that law.
That's why it was an abomination.
And Biden still has
never apologized for it,
never looked to undo it.
And that's why we talk about not
just Republicans,
but corporate Republicans and
Democrats screwing all of us over
to help their donors.
>> Well, considering you
were talking about the indentured
servitude, and the fact that people
have to do it this way.
And you can add that to the list of
things that Ramsey was talking
about, are your issues,
mental health,
you have problems with your career.
You have problems with your
relationships I
think he went through?
And also, this little problem of
600 to $1400 is just peeing on
a forest fire, which won't get you
anywhere, right?
Maybe it should be more.
Usually, if you pee on a forest
fire, and then it doesn't go off.
You know what they do?
They bring in some larger hoses.
Maybe they bring in, especially in
California, since it's hard to
access a lot of these things,
they bring in the airplanes to drop
all this red dust, chemical fire
retardant stuff to put on the fire.
So if we're not doing enough,
maybe we should do more.
I'm just saying he brought up
the point about peeing on a forest
fire does nothing.
You're right, 600 bucks, 1400 bucks
is peeing on a forest fire.
Maybe we should put it out.
Maybe we should start putting out
the forest fires,
rather than watching them burn.
And then when we pee on them go,
hey, that's enough for you guy, and
then move on and ask them why they
haven't put out their fires in,
either way it goes.
Right after he said that nice
little fun analogy, Bill Hemmer and
Dana Perino and he had a nice
little chuckle at the expense
of the folks that is their reality,
that forest fire that they're
trying to pee on.
Let's just take a look
at that part.
>> And I imagine that that does
not work.
[LAUGH] >> As I visualize it,
Dave Ramsey.
[LAUGH] >> Thank you.
>> Great to have you on.
I hope you come back, Dave.
>> [LAUGH] Yeah,
that's the problem, and
then we're laughing about it.
So as people can't feed
their family,
as people are having trouble trying
to figure out if they're going to
stay in their house, maybe they're
going to have to move out.
Maybe tents is the next place where
my kid's going to go.
I have no idea
what's going to happen,
but on Fox News is the response.
All right, man,
that part is really annoyed me.
>> Yeah, well- >> I don't mean to
laugh, but I mean, I'm sorry.
>> No, no, JR, man,
your point about the forest fires
unassailable.
>> Right. >> There's no question
you're right.
It's like they're laughing about
a forest fire, but
doing nothing to put it out.
They're like [LAUGH] the fire's
going to burn you all down [LAUGH]
good luck trying to pee on it.
Okay, so anyways, look guys,
I'm going to turn it into a lighter
note during the post-game.
So the post-game's for members.
I'm going to tell you about when I
started a fire in my backyard, and
how disastrous it turned out.
You're going to love that story.
>> I love that story.
>> Okay, so
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