Corporate America Never Had It So Good (Literally)

To hear the Republicans tell it, American business is afraid to start hiring or lending money. They’re plagued by uncertainty (John Boehner’s favorite word these days). They’re trembling in anticipation of what the allegedly socialist-anti-business Obama may due to their bottom line.

Well, so far their bottom line doesn’t seem to be suffering much: American corporations just logged the best quarter ever in terms of profits—$1.66 trillion.

Members of the GOP and their corporate and industrial sponsors have sold a good many Americans a bill of goods. They’ve got folks believing that the new administration hasn’t helped the economy much; in fact, the measures taken by the new administration have pulled the economy back from the edge of a cliff, where it was teetering precariously on the brink of depression.

American business deserves no sympathy. American industry gets away with murder (sometimes literally, as in the case of Massey Energy) and takes advantage of countless loopholes available to avoid paying taxes.

It’s the nature of business, which is amoral by nature, to avoid oversight and seek to maximize profits. It’s the duty of a democratic government—and the citizens who shape that government through their votes—to ensure that business acts responsibly.

From billions in bonuses to the geniuses at bailed-out banks to the tragedy caused by BP in the Gulf of Mexico, the past year has provided numerous examples of why business bears watchin.’

The myth of the self-regulating market is busted; businesses themselves, however, have never done better. They have much to be thankful for this holiday season.

It’s time that knee-jerk Republicans quit buying into phony doomsday scenarios about how bad things are economically and start thinking about how to make things better for real flesh-and-blood American people.