Isn’t it amazing how quickly they find the checkbook when their entire position is at risk? What will it take for our own political leadership to figure out that the middle class and poor can no longer be drained to prop up the Wall Street elite? As long as we continue voting for the same old losers (and new losers) it will never happen. It’s not as though the Democrats have been active about fixing the decline of the middle class.

Saudi King Abdullah returned home on Wednesday after a three-month medical absence and unveiled benefits for Saudis worth some $37 billion in an apparent bid to insulate the world’s top oil exporter from an Arab protest wave. The king, who had been convalescing in Morocco after back surgery in New York in November, stood as he descended from the plane in a special lift. He then took to a wheelchair.

Not that it’s exactly the same, but remember how when Bush came into office and we didn’t have enough money to afford the Kyoto agreement? It was much too expensive. The next thing you know, we found a lot more money and invaded two countries while draining the budget.