America's two major political parties are increasingly split over the burgeoning 'Occupy Wall Street' protests which have spread across the country and are now in their third week.
Republicans have attacked the protests, while several high-profile Democrats have sympathised with the broadly anti-corporate protests.
Paul Broun, a Tea Party Republican, said the protests amounted to an 'attack upon freedom', according to America's ABC News.
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'This (is an) attack upon business, attack upon industry, attack upon freedom – and I think that's what this is all about', Broun said.
Labor unions are joining the protest to 'subvert that anger into a political power', ABC reported him as saying, with the aim of reelecting a president whose 'policies are just ignorant and incompetent' on the economy.
With low approval ratings and a self-professed 'underdog' status for the upcoming presidential election, President Obama is looking to push through a jobs package and a plan to reduce the deficit with a greater emphasis on taxing the wealthy.
When asked about the protests last week, he did not back away.
'The protesters are giving voice to a more broad-based frustration about how our financial system works', Obama said.
And on Sunday, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said 'I support the message to the establishment...change has to happen.'
'We cannot continue in a way that does not - that is not relevant to their lives. People are angry', she said.
On the Republican right, Michelle Bachman hinted an accusation that the Democrats were in some way linked to the protests, but then said people should direct their anger at the Democrat administration.
'I don't how spontaneous these protests were but it seems to me that their anger should be directed at the White House, because Barack Obama's policies have put us in one of the worst tailspins economically that we have.'
Republican Eric Cantor has gone further in attacking activists, saying he was 'increasingly concerned' at the notion of people backing 'Americans against Americans.'
Demonstrations in New York are in their third week, while on the streets of the capital, protesters on the street were far from united in backing the Democrats.
'We don't need huge corporations, just jobs. But the government is all about Exxon and Wall Street', Lana Ferree, a science teacher, told AFP.
'Our focus is on the economy, corporate corruption of our political system, and the negative effects of corporate personhood,' Occupy DC says on its website.
Salesman Anthony Allen was marching with a banner which simply read 'Welcome to the American Autumn', in reference to the Arab Spring.
'I voted for Obama but he sold us a bag of goods that he's nowhere near delivering', Allen said.
