Party of the (rich) people

[dcsmart]

The Democrats are making the running to be big capital's favorite political party again.

IT ISN'T just SocialistWorker.org that called attention to the double standard the Obama administration is using to ladle out huge sums to Wall Street while threatening auto companies with bankruptcy. Or how it is straining to tamp down calls for limits on bankers' bonuses while forcing union autoworkers to take huge concessions.

In an article headlined "Carrots for banks, sticks for autos," the Politico wrote: "Critics of President Obama's do-or-die plan for General Motors and Chrysler are making this a fight over fairness: Why do banks get carrots and the autos get the heavy stick? It's a fair question, and one likely to resonate with those who feel Obama has gone light on insurance giant AIG and bailed-out banks like Citigroup."

In Michigan, the state hardest-hit by the auto industry's collapse--and whose union households voted for Obama at a 2 to 1 rate over Republican John McCain last November--the disparate treatment is a slap in the face. As Brian Fredline, president of UAW Local 602 near Lansing, Mich., told the Associated Press:

It's the age-old Wall Street vs. Main Street smackdown again. You have all kinds of funding available to banks that are apparently too big to fail, but they're also too big to be responsible...But when it comes to auto manufacturing and middle-class jobs and people that don't matter on Wall Street, there are certainly different standards that we have to meet--higher standards--than the financials. That is a double standard that exists, and it's unfair.
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FULL ARTICLE
http://socialistworker.org/2009/04/14/party-of-the-rich-people