Biden compares anti-Wall Street protests with tea party

Xinhua, October 7, 2011

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday compared the "Occupy Wall Street" protest with the tea party, saying both were out of people's frustration over an unfair system.

"The core (of the Occupy Wall Street protest) is the bargain has been breached with the American people. The core is the American people do not think the system is fair or on the level," Biden said in an interview at the Washington Ideas Forum.

He said that the protest on Wall Street has a lot in common with the tea party, which started with protest against the TARP, a federal program launched by the George W. Bush administration to bail out big financial institutions in 2008.

Both anti-Wall Street protesters and the tea partiers were protesting a system which is unfair and favors big corporations over the middle class, he added.

The "Occupy Wall Street" protest has entered the third week and spread to many other major cities across the country including Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Boston. Protesters were voicing anger about a wide range of issues like corporate greed, global warming and social inequality, among other grievances.

President Barack Obama said on Thursday that the anti-Wall Street protests were expression of frustration over the financial sector.

"I have seen it on TV and I think it expresses the frustration that the American people feel," Obama said at a White House press conference. "The protesters are giving voice to a more broad based frustration about how our financial system works."