The Banks Versus the People: Obama tells financial sector to shape up and pay back taxpayers - by Jim Kuhnhenn

President Barack Obama's biting criticism of big banks frames the problem as a struggle between jobless, suffering Americans and banks making big profits and paying "obscene" bonuses.

Obama's haves-versus-have-nots message was as explicit as any political message he has delivered as president. "If these companies are in good enough shape to afford massive bonuses, they are surely in good enough shape to afford paying back every penny to taxpayers," he declared. "We want our money back." To drive the point home, he also said: "My determination to achieve this goal is only heightened when I see reports of massive profits and obscene bonuses at some of the very firms who owe their continued existence to the American people, folks who have not been made whole and who continue to face real hardship in this recession."

Whether his plan stands a chance in Congress remains to be seen. House leaders and rank-and-file liberals cheered the bank tax. In the Senate, Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., also welcomed the plan. But Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, the chairman of the Senate tax-writing Finance Committee, was more cautious.

For more: Analysis: Obama playing banks against taxpayers - washingtonpost.com