Just in case you haven't been paying attention and weren't really sure which political party is on the side of the averaging working person, consider this.
When America's automakers needed a loan to stay out of bankruptcy, Republicans insisted that any measure loaning them money include a provision mandating pay cuts for union workers. The provision would have cut workers' pay to the same rate as the foreign auto companies pay their non-union workers.
That never happened, of course, because George Bush finally came out of his coma and decided to make the loan from the $350 billion set aside for aiding the nation's banks.
The banks, of course, did not have to agree to do anything in exchange for their federal money, not even agree to actually make loans with the money, let alone cut anybody's pay.
So of course, they took the completely logical step of giving themselves big bonuses. Demonstrating yet another way in which he is smarter than George Bush, President Obama said that's not happening on my watch and is set to impose a $500,000salary cap for workers at companies that take funds from the federal government in future bank bailouts.
So how did the Republicans react -- the same Republicans who wanted to cut autoworkers' pay to $14 an hour?
Well, they said it was un-American for government to tell business how much to pay their workers.
Yeah, I know. But here's part of the piece from Huffington Post:
"Because of their excesses, very bad things begin to happen, like the United States government telling a company what it can pay its employees. That's not a good thing in America," Kyl told the Huffington Post.
"What executives have done is troubling, but it's equally troubling to have government telling shareholders how much they can pay the executives," said Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL).
Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) said that he is "one of the chief defenders of Obama on the Republican side" for the president's efforts to reach across the aisle. But, said Inhofe, "as I was listening to him make those statements I thought, is this still America? Do we really tell people how to run [a business], and who to pay and how much to pay?"
That makes it pretty clear. Republicans want one standard for working people and another for their buddies the bankers.
3 comments:
Republican or Democrat you cannot deny... since Granholm has been in office, Michigan has been experiencing a steep economic decline.
RE-Investor, you seem to forget that Michigan has been losing jobs since 2000...
... not to mention that Governor Engler left behind a $1.8 billion deficit.
Kelster93, are you blaming Engler for the state of our State? You say Engler left behind a deficit, but are you denying that it's been downhill since then with Granholm in office?
You know, saying that a Democrat in office could have done better is NOT the same as saying that a Republican in office would have done better.
Post a Comment