BP is deserving of no apology. The real apology should be to the American people.
What is the real “shakedown” are the actions taken by the Obama Administration in order to milk whatever they can get from the oil spill aftermath. While they are happily having speeches cloaked in actions toward BP when in reality are a push for pending legislation, the actions that they are supposedly forcing against BP are already occurring. The same amount of money, $20 billion, is already pre-arranged as a start for BP to pay for the effects of the tragedy to an “independent” party. Further, they have especially recently accepted liability which will result in many costly civil cases. Before the fund, $100 Billion has already been paid to workers that were unemployed by the ban on offshore drilling which by the way, Obama placed on our nation in a time of already consistent recession and overseas oil reliance.
While liberal political strategist James Carville may have Obama’s response “a little old-school Chicago politics,” the president is running a country, not a mafia. Not a penny of the $20 billion escrow fund has anything to do with environmental objectives such as cleaning the oil or the animals covered in the black liquid. It is common knowledge that getting the oil out of the water is the only way fishermen can return to work and the wildlife and other factors resulting in the spill can begin to clear up.
While seafood companies and fishermen are going bankrupt, Obama is “negotiating” a fund that doesn’t even target environmental cleanup. We also have to examine the structure of the fund. The deal made is that $3 billion will be paid in the third quarter of this year, $2 billion in the forth and $1.25 billion after while the Government has a lien on $10 billion of BP’s assets. As a result, the government will be first in line if the company claims bankruptcy.
In a sense, BP was sent a life raft cloaked by a “fund” which makes Obama look good to the public while southern states still drown in black gold. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a BP fan. This horrific event has been a lesson to them immensely, and we are finding day after day more errors, misrepresentations, and I see if done correctly this will not happen again. However, it is not something that should be used in any way other than a lesson to them and the Government, not an avenue of pitching legislation and showing a stronghold on companies.
Almost immediately, Vice President Biden attacked Barton for his statements and while a retort is necessary, politicians in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. He is the second in command of an administration who has ignored the need for available overseas assistance when we are a nation that always assists internationally as well as one that waited for the crisis to go away for days before really fully responding and once it occurred, pointed fingers the same way everyone else already was via the legislative halls. America to Biden: Where’s our apology?
Heather Bachman is the New Policy Director of Frontiers of Freedom. She produces The GOP Girl and Heather on the Hill Radio Shows for From the Right Radio.
