The Arab Spring is a tremendous phenomenon. Since my last blog so much has happened. At first things moved so rapidly but now it is difficult to watch the standoff both in Libya and Syria. Obama's speech yesterday was a good one, I thought. Naturally today many pundits are criticizing him for what he didn't say. He left out Saudi Arabia, which is a real conundrum because of the origin of the 9/11 attackers. Our "interests" of course are the oil and the bulwark against Iran. Additionally we just sold them $16 billion worth of F-16 fighters. Just play nice now!!!

I recently finished a book called Deadly Spin by Wendell Potter. He is a former PR exec for CIGNA, a very large insurance company. After many years he became disillusioned by the policies (no pun intended) of the company that verged on the fraudulent. To maintain and improve the bottom line the greatest effort was devoted to denying claims. From way back I sensed that was the scheme they pursued. I only carry the compulsory auto insurance and the necessary home owner fire and damage coverage.

The book explains the great investment insurance companies make in influencing Congress to not pass legislation that will lessen their profitability. It was a remarkable achievement for Obama to get the stripped down version of his health care bill passed. Many millions of dollars were spent in bribes and lobbying to oppose it.

Unfortunately the Republican party seems intent on allowing the corporations to unduly influence legislation. That may be true of both parties, but the Republicans maintain the tax cuts that could be better used for revenue instead of attempting to slice and dice all the welfare type entitlements, namely Medicare and Medicaid. Why they are after the Social Security program doesn't make sense. The government has been using it as a piggy bank for years. The Trust is full of IOUs already. In any event S.S. is self funded. It is not a tax in the full sense of the word.

To make debt reduction the primary focus at this time is also counterproductive. The immediate need is for jobs. Stimulating the economy is the critical aim right now. All the cuts asked for would only exacerbate the unemployment problem. It was a great wake up call for the conservatives to see the results of the special election in upstate NY's 26 Congressional district. The Tea Party candidate got the least votes and the Republican was trounced by Hochul who hit on the Ryan proposal.

Obama gets a lot of flack for what he doesn't do but very insufficient credit for what he does do. To me he may be frustrating in the way he holds back but in the end he makes progress. I think the Republicans are frantic and in the process making fools of themselves. The mess Obama inherited was very serious and would have been catastrophic if not handled the way it was. Tax cuts in the time of expensive wars is the height of stupidity. So there you have it. In the time of economic depression Republicans insist on more tax cuts. More stupidity. What is need now is increasing revenue through closing loopholes and unwarranted subsidies. Corporate welfare at it's worst. The welfare of the people is the country's business as Teddy Roosevelt said. At one time there were intelligent Republicans.