This White House has “vilified industries,” complains the Chamber of Commerce. America is burdened with “an anti-business president,” moans The Weekly Standard.

Would that all presidents were this anti-business: according to the St. Louis Federal Reserve, corporate profits hit $1.37 trillion in the first quarter—an all-time high. Businesses are sitting on about $2 trillion in cash reserves. Business spending jumped 20 percent last quarter, and is up by 13 percent against 2009. The Obama administration has dropped taxes for small businesses and big ones alike. Maybe the president could be anti-me for a while. I could use the money.

Ezra Klein, Newsweek

It doesn’t matter how much Obama does for business, or how well business is doing. Republicans have proven that they care nothing about truth, facts or the American people — so as long as conservative voters will buy their lies, they’ll keep spinning Obama as anti-business. This is all a given; the perplexing part is how to get conservative voters to actually look at the facts.

As Ezra Klein stated, “corporate profits hit $1.37 trillion in the first quarter — an all-time high.” Business is doing fine and the GDP continues to rise, but average Americans see no improvement. It’s a jobless recovery, and it’s being sustained by Republican obstruction and subterfuge.

The Republican message is that, although business is sitting on a ton of money, $2 trillion according to Klein — they will not hire until there is more certainty about the future. There’s much truth in this statement, but it falls short of telling the “whole truth,” which includes the fact that it’s the Republicans who are creating the uncertainty, and they’re doing so for their own selfish gains.

They could work with the President toward real solutions, but instead they block anything that can help anyone except the upper 2%.  The vast majority of Republicans have voted against extending unemployment benefits, against providing aid to prevent teacher layoffs, against funding COBRA benefits for the unemployed, against providing stimulus to the economy . . . all in the name of fiscal accountability. Yet those same elected officials support extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich, a move that all economists agree will increase the deficit and do very little to stimulate anything but the further concentration of wealth in America.

Conservative voters would be well served to understand that you can support business without completely sacrificing the wellbeing of The People. Being pro-business does not require solidarity with the Republicans who consistently show their total devotion to profits over people. Republican unity against increasing the liability limits for the disaster in the Gulf, against reforming the Wall Street casino, against disclosure of campaign donations . . . against anything that might reduce corporate profits, is not pro-business — it’s pro-mega-business.

Since the Wall Street thieves and gamblers brought down the economy, there have only been 3 initiatives to gain strong Republican support: bailout the banks, cut taxes for the rich, and fund the Military Industrial Complex. If this is where your priorities are, then by all means vote Republican, but do so knowing that you’re supporting only the biggest businesses and the most wealthy people. The real truth is that both parties are pro-business, but the Republicans stand alone in being anti-American-People — well, really only 98% of the people.

Instead, the Massey Energy CEO, widely considered to be the most arrogant and dangerous man in a dangerous and dying industry, lectured the assembled throng about global poverty, preventable disease, the national debt, highway deaths, physics, the relationship between facts and happiness — and oh, yes, the need for the federal government to get off his back.

Dan Froomkin, Huffington Post

What strikes me about this article isn’t how self-centered Mr. Blankenship is, but how we as a country have allowed men like him to rise to the top. Is he really any worse than the CEOs of many large corporations?

Blankenship’s selfish arrogance isn’t unique — it’s becoming the standard for the rich and affluent in America. Where it was once unfashionable to be solely focused on profits, it’s now a badge of success. The more a corporation can squeeze profit from its operations, the higher the rewards to the CEO. Never mind that they have to ignore safety, or even cause the death of employees, that’s how the game is played.

Wealth is the ultimate goal; scoring is done through profits; the playbook requires exploitation of people and planet, and the only rules are whatever they can get away with. This is how success is achieved in 21st Century America.

Corners were cut at Upper Big Branch and 29 people died. The same business practices took the lives of 11 people on the Deepwater Horizon and caused indeterminable loss to the ecosystems of the Gulf. The profiteers on Wall Street economically raped the American middle class, destroying the economy and putting 8 million people out of work. In each case the exploitation was rewarded.

This will remain the American way until we finally come together and adopt a system that recognizes the value of a person by what’s in their heart — not what’s in their bank account.

“This BP oil spill is typical” of what happens when private industry is allowed to draw revenue on what should be a public good, Stone said.

“We shouldn’t make this kind of profit on oil or on health or on war or on prisons. All these industries should be public industries.”

Raphael G. Slatter, Huffington Post

I share Oliver Stone’s general sentiment. He’s right that, “We shouldn’t make this kind of profit on oil or on health or on war or on prisons. All these industries should be public industries.” In fact, the general rule should be that all non-discretionary industries are held publicly.

The free market does work, but its central thesis is based on the balance of supply and demand. And this “natural” balance is obviously lost when consumers have no real choice. Industries that are required for life in the modern age are ripe for abuse on the supply side, because demand is essentially fixed. Energy, healthcare, defense, and law enforcement all fit this paradigm, as does education.

Though it may sound corny, whenever I contemplate this situation, one of the Governator’s movies comes to mind — Total Recall. In that movie, business operatives run a colony on Mars, where they’ve constructed domed cities and they control the supply of air. It begs the question: what would be the market price for the oxygen we breathe?

Of course, Stone’s idea to nationalize oil is about far fetched as my Mars example (maybe more so). But there is another path that might actually be doable: don’t try to nationalize oil — make it obsolete. This could be accomplished through massive public investment in alternative energy. And oddly enough, it’s the right path for The People and the planet — imagine that!