On the February 16 Cashin’ In, host Eric Bolling opened a discussion about union protests of spending cuts by “asking” if “big labor (is) a big reason we’ll never fix our spending problem?” He directed the question to self-styled “Capitalist Pig” Jonathan Hoenig, whom Bolling surely knew would start the union bashing. 

Sure enough, Hoenig said, “Unions destroyed the steel industry, the automobile industry, the public education, and literally now they’re bankrupting government as well. …The nerve of Richard Trumka and the unions to demand jobs. I mean, where do they get off with that? …So many of them have nothing to do with actually protecting individual rights. They’re educators, library workers, researchers, they should be cut, we need to be cut, and unions need to take a back seat and put this actually put this country first for once.”

Wayne Rogers said unions are a constituency but they’re “not representing the country, and they’re certainly not representing the public.”

Julie Roginsky was the lone voice out of six people with a different opinion. She said, “The growth in federal government has increased at the slowest rate under this President than since the Korean War.”

Wayne Rogers laughed. Tracy Byrnes called the unions “selfish.” She added, “Unions are asking for more, well you know what? You can’t get more.”

Before Roginsky could object, Hoenig got another chance to bash. Unions “have a monopoly, and they have zero accountability unlike the private sector. Unions destroy wealth, they force higher than normal wages, they basically cause the enterprise to go bankrupt. The most highly unemployed states here in the United States are also the most heavily unionized states,” he said.

The camera caught panelist (and Bolling’s “White Hizzy” pal) Sandra Smith smiling with approval.

When Roginsky finally got a chance to speak again, she said, “You will bash the unions, you will want to cut from everywhere as long as you keep your carried interest safe and as long as you keep… those same loopholes Mitt Romney talked about closing, Republicans don’t want to close anymore.”

Inadvertently proving her point, Bolling quickly changed the subject.

Later, after she reiterated it, Hoenig pretty much revealed what’s really at the heart of this and almost every economic argument on Fox. The rich deserve more and everybody else needs to help them out: "The fact of the matter is, the private sector, Julie, is actually productive. They create jobs. Union jobs, specifically those in government …create nothing.”

As Think Progress pointed out, unions gave us the weekends, end child labor, won employer based health coverage, and led the fight for family leave. Maybe Hoenig, Rogers, Byrnes and Smith should give all that up if they hate unions so much.