Obama & fiscal crisis of the states ($12 trillion for financial industry, $30 billion for states)

Better to help the financial industry than waste it on the states who might spend it on education or similarly pointless stuff.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/oct2009/pers-o17.shtml

The class character of the Obama administration is clearly indicated by one statistic: President Obama has made available more than $12 trillion in cash infusions, loans and guarantees to the financial industry, but for state governments that are facing massive budget deficits, Obama has thus far provided only one quarter of 1 percent of that amount in federal stimulus funds—about $30 billion.

The administration has refused to provide emergency aid to the states, including some of the largest in the country, such as California and Pennsylvania, which are on the brink of default. The White House is sitting by while states across the country lay off workers and slash spending on education, health care and other essential social programs.

The crisis confronting state governments is unprecedented. States that imposed large-scale layoffs, unpaid furloughs and wage cuts, closed offices for days at a time and slashed services in order to balance their budgets for the recently ended fiscal year are once again piling up deficits.

Tax collections gathered from April through June fell by 16.6 percent, breaking records dating back 50 years, according to a report released this week by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government. Forty-nine states saw revenues decline in the quarter, 36 by double digits.

Preliminary data suggest that tax revenue for July and August likely fell by 8 percent, about the same as the decline for the fiscal year ending in July.

Most states approved their budgets for next year at the end of July. Little more than two months later, at least 18 face unanticipated operating deficits that will necessitate further cuts in state services.

The states’ budget crisis is caused, in large measure, by the impoverishment of the American working class. Layoffs and wage cuts have driven states’ income tax collections down by 27.5 percent from the previous year. Stressed workers have, unsurprisingly, spent less on consumer goods, thus reducing sales tax receipts by 9.5 percent, according to the Rockefeller Institute.

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The banks do.

then the same lobbying-for-special-perks companies benefiting from every drop of government subsidy and bailout can pay back the national debt.