Democrats and Wall Street

From Glenn Greenwald at Salon:

There was more or less a conscious decision in the early 1990s that the Party would transform itself into a servant of Wall Street and corporatism. It became the party of Robert Rubin and Larry Summers as it presided over massive de-regulation of the financial industry. And in response, the corporate money poured into the Party’s coffers and hasn’t stopped pouring in. Recall this December, 2008 New York Times article on key Party fundraiser Chuck Schumer — entitled “A Champion of Wall Street Reaps Benefits” — detailing the New York Senator’s loyalty to the banking industry and how crucial it has been in building and sustaining Democratic Party power in Washington.

From the cited NYT article:

In the last two-year election cycle, he helped raise more than $120 million for the Democrats’ Senate campaign committee, drawing nearly four times as much money from Wall Street as the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Back to Greenwald:

Wall Street has thrived under the Obama administration, and even in those areas where the White House had full authority and the ability to help ordinary Americans — such as the HAMP fund to aid defaulting homeowners — they displayed overwhelming indifference. Not only did President Obama propose large cuts to Social Security and Medicare, he has been assuring Washington insiders such as GOP Sen. Tom Coburn that he intends even larger ones if re-elected.

Romney‘s assembled W.‘s economic and foreign policy advisers. It seems either way we turn we’re screwed.

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