Rick Santelli Branded the 'Father' of the Tea Party Movement

He has reported from the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade for longer than many can remember, and every morning, he shows up on CNBC as if nothing happened one year ago.  At the time, many called Santelli's outburst live on air on February 19th 2009 a rant.  Little did he, or any of us know, that his comments would spark a new american revolution.

Alex Pappas of The Daily Caller caught up with Santelli, and writes;

“That was spontaneous, absolutely,” Santelli said of his famed Feb. 19 appearance in an interview with The Daily Caller. “It was also from the heart, and I had no idea of the direction it would take or the response it would get.” Santelli said at the time that the Founding Fathers would be appalled by the expansion of government. If anything, his view has hardened during the last 12 months. “I think it’s the case times the power of 10 today.”

Santelli says he hasn’t “seen any empirical evidence that this money is finding any type of return that anybody who implemented these programs should be proud of. We spent just boatloads, boatloads of money.” Now “a year has elapsed and we see the post mortem on some of these programs are not very impressive.”

Yet, Santelli, who still goes to work every day on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade, has not become an activist. He plays virtually no direct role in the political movement he helped to spawn. “The requests are almost unending,” he says. “And I feel bad to a certain extent because, even though I may share many of the philosophies of the tea party and many believe I was instrumental in being a catalyst for its formation, I also think that considering what I do for a living — and I take it very seriously — I try to avoid political ties… I’m pretty darn happy with my day job. At the end of the day, the markets are my passion.”

Read more here.