Lincoln Parked on Wall Street, Working Families Drive Halter Bid
One week from today, Arkansas voters will have a choice between two-term incumbent Sen. Blanche Lincoln and her long record of corporate coziness or Lt. Gov. Bill Halter and his progressive agenda based on the interests of working families.
The June 8 U.S. Senate Democratic primary run-off is firing up working families and union voters across the state. These are the same voters who mobilized and turned what was supposed to a Lincoln slam-dunk in the Senate primary to a near dead heat race and ultimate run-off election.
Lincoln lost working family support over her votes to send jobs overseas and support bad trade deals. She also has been strongly funded by corporate cash and reversed her support for the Employee Free Choice Act.
Wall Street Execs Get Grinch of the Year for Scrooging Workers
So many potential Grinches, but only one top Grinch spot to fill. So voters in the Jobs with Justice (JwJ) ninth annual Grinch of Year contest picked the entire lot of Wall Street executives whose unchecked corporate greed led to our nation’s economic disaster.
Each December, voters in the Grinch of the Year contest tap the CEO, corporation or politician who has done the most to “scrooge” workers. This year, in addition to greed-first CEOs, the field of Grinch candidates included anti-worker corporate lobbyist Richard Berman and soon to be out-of-office Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao. Popular write-in candidates included Blue Diamond Growers, American Airlines, United Airlines and that perennial favorite and 2002 winner, George W. Bush.
Over the years, especially under the Bush administration, the bank chiefs, hedge fund sorcerers and stock traders successfully lobbied for deregulation of the financial industry and, in turn, made record profits. But at a price. Millions of Americans lost good jobs and the nation’s economy is in the worst shape it’s been since the Depression. Now that the bottom has fallen out of the market, Wall Street is sending the bill to working people—the very ones who have been forced out of their homes, out of their jobs, out of their health care and out of their pensions by Wall Street’s greed.
