Republican Senators Who Support Wall Street Bankers but not Auto Workers

Here is a list of the Republican Senators who voted for bailing out Wall Street with taxpayer funds:

Alexander (R-TN)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bond (R-MO)
Burr (R-NC)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Craig (R-ID)
Domenici (R-NM)
Ensign (R-NV)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Isakson (R-GA)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Smith (R-OR)
Snowe (R-ME)
Specter (R-PA)
Stevens (R-AK)
Sununu (R-NH)
Thune (R-SD)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Warner (R-VA)


Here's a list of Republican Senators who voted against bailing out Detroit with taxpayer funds by voting not to cut off debate on the bill:

Allard (R-CO)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Coleman (R-MN)
Corker (R-TN)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)I
Isakson (R-GA)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Martinez (R-FL)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Wicker (R-MS)


The Republican Senators who voted for both bailing out Wall Street and against bailing out Detroit are highlighted in red on the second list.

So, why did these Senators find nothing wrong with using up to 700 billion dollars of taxpayer money to bail out banks, but opposed using 15 billion to help American automakers? Well, according to a report in the L.A. Times, it comes down to their opposition to unions. Republicans can't stand the UAW because it supports Democrats and because it fights for ordinary Americans, you know, Americans who build the Cadillacs and Lincolns that their rich supporters drive.

Here's our political lesson for the day: You can rip off your fellow Americans, and make scads of money doing it, and these Republicans will help you out with taxpayer money if you get in trouble because of your own stupidity. If, however, you are the ordinary citizen affected by these actions, there is no protection against foreclosure and no help in saving your union job. In other words, they are less troubled by protecting corporate golden parachutes than by providing nylon umbrellas for the ordinary citizen.

Republican BS on Auto-Bailout

When the Wall Street bailout came up in the Senate on October 1, 2008, 29 Republican Senators voted for the bailout. The Republican Senators voting "yea" included conservative Republicans Coburn, Chambliss, and Corker. All of them are now saying that they can't vote for a bailout of the automakers because there aren't enough guarantees that the bailout will lead to the United States car companies changing their ways.

Well, here is a question: what demands did these conservative hacks demand of the Wall Street firms? What guarantees did the demand of any bank getting TARP funds? Why all of a sudden do they want guarantees from the car companies?

Let's see, what is the difference between car companies and banks? Could it be that car companies are unionized and banks are not? Could it be that car companies employ blue-collar workers and banks employ white-collar workers? Could it be that a lot of Republican contributors work for banks?
We think it is all that and more.

This is just another example of Republican bs. If the auto bailout bill is defeated and if GM goes under, then the GOP will be responsible for America's swelling unemployment rolls.

Reader Submission: Holiday Bailout Song Video Clip

A reader sent us a link to this video clip. Check it out, it is pretty funny.

Billions for Wall Street, Nothing for Auto-Makers? The Double Standard of Hank Paulson

So, what's with this? The Bush Administration and the Federal Reserve Board are willing to spend trillions on bailing out financial institutions, but won't bail out the auto-makers. Senators and Representatives are demanding a detailed plan from the auto industry on how it would spend any Federal money, yet, as far as we can tell, neither the Treasury Department or the Federal Reserve are demanding the same thing from companies like AIG, which reportedly got 150 billion or Citigroup, which apparently is getting 20 billion.

Representatives and Senators from Michigan are calling this policy of billions for banks, but nothing for manufactuers a "double standard" and it is hard to argue with them. Further, while businesses rant and rail against the United Auto Workers and assert that worker greed is responsible for the automakers' problems, not a word is said about the fact that these financial institutions are all going under and none of them are unionized.

Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor under Clinton, in an article posted on Talking Points Memo, said that the reason why banks are getting bailed out is that the people who run Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board come from the financial services sector of our economy. This is how Reich puts it in his article:

Nonetheless, Citi is about to be bailed out while GM is allowed to languish. That's because Wall Street's self-serving view of the unique role of financial institutions is mirrored in the two agencies that run the American economy -- the Treasury and the Fed. Their job, as they see it, is to keep the financial economy "sound," by which they mean keeping Wall Street's own investors and creditors reasonably happy.

As Reich points out, however, manufactuers support local communities all across this nation. This is a quote from Reich's article:

So why save Citi and not GM? It's not at all clear. In fact, there may be more reason to do the reverse. GM has a far greater impact on jobs and communities. Add parts suppliers and their employees, and the number of middle-class and blue-collar jobs dependent on GM is many multiples that of Citi. And the potential social costs of GM's demise, or even major shrinkage, is much larger than Citi's -- including everything from unemployment insurance to lost tax revenues to families suddenly without health insurance to entire communities whose infrastructure and housing may become nearly worthless.

We question whether Paulson understands the importance of manufactuers to the rest of the economy. Senator Levin from Michigan said on Monday that he plans to ask Paulson to outline the effect on the country if GM goes under. If Levin gets a response from Paulson, it will be interesting to see what he says.

Are Republicans Trying to Bust the UAW?

This is Senator Jon Kyl, (R-AZ). Jon-Boy is John McCain's Senatorial colleague. He is a Senator who supported bailing out the financial institutions that helped get us into the sub-prime mortgage mess and whose collapse would supposedly have triggered a very bad recession if not a depression. (You can see how Jon-Boy voted on that bill here.)

Jon-Boy was on a talking heads show on Sunday, and announced that he opposes helping out with Federal money the American auto industry. This is a quote from an AP article: Added Kyl, the Senate's second-ranking Republican: "Just giving them $25 billion doesn't change anything. It just puts off for six months or so the day of reckoning."

So, let's see if we understand Jon's position: Using 750 billion dollars of taxpayer money to bail out Wall Street is good, but using 25 billion to help save up to 2.3 million American jobs is bad. Does that make any sense to you, because it sure doesn't to us.

Unless, of course, the aim here is to destroy the UAW, which has long been a thorn in the sides of Republicans in particular and conservatives in general. If the Big Three domestic automakers are put out of business, or even forced into bankruptcy, the UAW will be severely crippled. A major political ally of the Democratic Party will be wounded and the American labor movement, which is, perhaps, on the verge of gaining some political ground come January, will be damaged. We'd say that's a big reason for ol' Jon-Boy to decide that it's okay to help bankers, but not auto-makers.

Republicans Will Provide Billions to Wall Street But Not Extend Unemployment Benefits

According to the website ProPublica, whose motto is "Journalism in the public interest", Republicans are blocking efforts to extend unemployment benefits to the jobless. This week, it is estimated that 800,000 workers who run out of unemployment benefits. Although bills have been introduced in both houses to extend such benefits by 13 weeks, Republican leaders wouldn't agree to add this to the bail-out bill.

Here is a quote from the article:

A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Jim Manley, told ProPublica yesterday that Senate Republicans had "balked" at an attempt to attach an unemployment-benefits extension to the Wall Street rescue.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) spokesman, Don Stewart, said any extension bill "would be subject to debate and amendments."

What that last part means is that the bill would be subject to the Senate Rules which allow 40 Senators to threaten to filibuster legislation, thus requiring a cloture vote to cut off debate. In the 1950s and 60s Southern Senators used this trick to deprive African-Americans of their rights. Now, Republicans use this tactic to deprive the unemployed of more aid.

Republicans: Billions for their friends on Wall Street, nothing for the unemployed of Main Street.

Lehman Brothers New York Office to Get 2.5 Billion in Bonuses?

A British newspaper is reporting that the employees of the London office of the now bankrupt Lehman Brothers are outraged that the New York office employees will share in 2.5 billion, yes, that's right, billion, in bonuses. Since there are reportedly 10,000 employees in the New York office, the 2.5 billion averages out to $250,000.00 per employee. Not bad pay for driving your company into bankruptcy.

This is from the article:

Lehman Brothers’ British staff reacted with fury when told that colleagues at Lehman’s New York office were expected to share in a $2.5 billion bonus bonanza while they would be paid just until the end of the month.

This is the kind of stuff that drives ordinary mortals crazy about the so-called "Masters of the Universe" who run Wall Street. They apparently can run their businesses, and perhaps the country, into the ground, but they walk away with millions of dollars in payouts.

As the Telegraph article notes, "It looks like those that will suffer the most from the Lehman Brothers collapse are those at the bottom of the corporate chain while many of those at the top will be looked after."

No surprise there. The pigs always make sure their pork is protected.