Some Republicans consider BP deal a U.S. "shakedown"

[dank69]

Would you leftwing nuts stop using the small government argument about this oil spill. It sure gets old... pay attention: The feds gave the permit to BP, It is an multiple state disaster, the Unites States Code tasks the president with being responsible for the response. This is not the same thing as wanting the government to wipe your ass in the morning.

Look, you need to make the United States conducive to operating a business that will grow. You cannot have Obama's socialist utopia without a stong capitalistic foundation to support it all. Jobs cannot be created with stimulus money... they will not last and will cost way more in the long run. The ONLY way SUSTAINABLE jobs are created is when businesses NEED new employees. Having the government pay for companies to hire people only boosts numbers short term.

Strong economy equals better tax revenues to run the fiscally conservative government which we do not have.

So what do you do when companies that NEED new employees just hire them in India?

 

[heyheybooboo]

Thread: Some Republicans consider BP deal a U.S. "shakedown"

(while Republican governors along the Gulf Coast 'persuaded' BP to fund millions of dollars in media advertising promoting ""Our Coast Is Clear!"")




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[Atreus21]

I was talking about the politics of it, not the actual merits. Partisan politics means you exploit every issue for political gain. However, in this particular case, defending BP is not a political gain but rather a political loss. If this is partisan politics, and I think it is, it's not being very well played.

- wolf

Oh I see what you mean now.

 

[Mani]

Looks like it's working to me. I have people at work talking all the time and they are all saying all of this is Obama's fault.

Mission Accomplished for Republicans.

Anyone who assigns blame for the disaster is either an idiot, a blind partisan republican, or both. Obama may have received some legitimate flak for the response but now that the issue is somewhat contained, the pressure is shifting to BP's cleanup response.

 

[ayabe]

http://congress.blogs.foxnews.com/2...f-losing-his-position-over-shakedown-comment/

Don't think it is the default position otherwise they would not have smacked him down so hard.

Only because of the immense heat it brought down, he was just the point man speaking for the extreme right-wing position which for him has zero downside because he's in a completely gerrymandered district.

 

[Infohawk]

Some Republicans also think Obama is giving the Brits a pass. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/06/12/obama-britains-cameron-talk-oil-spill/

The hard-core partisans don't know what to think except that they want to blindly criticize Obama.

 

[ayabe]

Not the default conservative position?:

– PAT BUCHANAN: “Barton made a very courageous statement in my judgment. … To have anyone stand up and even indirectly defend [BP] and say that they were a victim of a shakedown shows some political courage.”

– INGRAHAM: “I think Joe Barton, before he apologized, had a legitimate point.”

– GINGRICH: “The president is directly engaged in extorting money from a company.”

TP


Good grief.

Edit - I hate to keep beating a dead horse, sorry no AVI but....

"Boehner's reaction to Barton's opening remarks in Thursday's House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing puts him at odds not only with the Texas Republican but also with the stated position of the Republican Study Committee, which put out a release Wednesday slamming the creation of the escrow fund as "Chicago-style shakedown politics."

Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) — chairman of the group of more than 100 conservative members — said in a statement Wednesday that BP's agreement to create an escrow account at the behest of the government was "borne out of this administration’s drive for greater power and control."
*********************************************

Nearly every R congressperson is a member of the Republican Study Committee....http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/38675.html

 

[rudder]

So what do you do when companies that NEED new employees just hire them in India?

Can you legislate morality? greedy ceo's and greedy stockholders make this decision. You and I have the option to not do business with them. Do most people really care enough to not buy a dell pc because of it? Will you go through your stock portfolio and take out all the companies that use helpdesk personnel in India?

Should we piss off other countries and make this practice illegal? Then they slap tariffs on our goods sold in their country.

This is not a simple black and white easy solution. But the thread is seriously getting offtrack.

 

[dank69]

Can you legislate morality? greedy ceo's and greedy stockholders make this decision. You and I have the option to not do business with them. Do most people really care enough to not buy a dell pc because of it? Will you go through your stock portfolio and take out all the companies that use helpdesk personnel in India?

Should we piss off other countries and make this practice illegal? Then they slap tariffs on our goods sold in their country.

This is not a simple black and white easy solution. But the thread is seriously getting offtrack.

Just following your diversion here. Not sure why you brought it up in the first place. But there is an easy solution. If you are democrat, blame Bush. If you are republican, blame Obama. See? So easy a caveman can do it.

 

[theeedude]

I'd rather Obama shake BP down "Chicago style" than have taxpayers pay for cleaning up the mess BP created.

 

[werepossum]

I'd rather Obama shake BP down "Chicago style" than have taxpayers pay for cleaning up the mess BP created.

Agreed. The President has no legal authority to make BP put any money in escrow, but he can certainly tell them that he will use the authority he does have to make their corporate lives even more miserable in a hundred ways if they don't. Makes a lot of sense to me to get the money up front and start payouts as soon as possible rather than fighting it out in court for years afterward. BP may not end up as the responsible party when all is said and done, but they are responsible for the acts of their subcontractors. If it turns out that Halliburton or TransOcean ends up with the lion's share of the legal responsibility, I'm happy that it's going to be BP going after them instead of Mom and Pop shrimp boat owners, etc.

 

[Jhhnn]

Agreed. The President has no legal authority to make BP put any money in escrow, but he can certainly tell them that he will use the authority he does have to make their corporate lives even more miserable in a hundred ways if they don't. Makes a lot of sense to me to get the money up front and start payouts as soon as possible rather than fighting it out in court for years afterward. BP may not end up as the responsible party when all is said and done, but they are responsible for the acts of their subcontractors. If it turns out that Halliburton or TransOcean ends up with the lion's share of the legal responsibility, I'm happy that it's going to be BP going after them instead of Mom and Pop shrimp boat owners, etc.

Well said.

I think it's actually good for BP to put down some earnest money for the cleanup. They make the best out of a bad situation PR-wise, and they get to send claimants to Uncle Sam...

The rest of it from the rightwing?

They'll try to blame Obama for anything and everything, regardless. Their whole schtick is turning into a truly clueless self-parody...

 

[FuzzyBee]

Yup. Too bad that the reason they're backing off it isn't because it's wrong, but because it's bad politics, and their ideology would otherwise support it.

Interesting. Where does this article state this, or are you just making stuff up?

Surely someone as intellectual as you make yourself out to be wouldn't do that, eh?

 

[FuzzyBee]

The funny thing is that this mess is as much Obama's fault as Katrina was Bush's fault. Chew on that for a while.

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Agreed. The President has no legal authority to make BP put any money in escrow, but he can certainly tell them that he will use the authority he does have to make their corporate lives even more miserable in a hundred ways if they don't. Makes a lot of sense to me to get the money up front and start payouts as soon as possible rather than fighting it out in court for years afterward. BP may not end up as the responsible party when all is said and done, but they are responsible for the acts of their subcontractors. If it turns out that Halliburton or TransOcean ends up with the lion's share of the legal responsibility, I'm happy that it's going to be BP going after them instead of Mom and Pop shrimp boat owners, etc.

How about neither? That is the best option. I don't understand how anyone here can cheer the fact that a corporation was pushed into putting money into an account that the gov't can/will control. It's against everything that our nation was formed on.
It's done one thing though - it's shown everyone who the socialist thugs are(anyone cheering the pay czar being able to pay out corporate money)

 

[CADsortaGUY]

BP had every right to tell Obama to take a hike, and they won't pay a dime until forced by a court. They chose to pony up now as opposed to dragging it out for years and taking a giant well-deserved PR hit.

Shakedown not found.

Uhh... whatever - everyone with more than 2 functioning brain cells knows that if BP didn't pony up the $ that BHO and his moron lib mobs would be screeching all over the place. Blackmail by PR... yeah... no shakedown alright

 

[Throckmorton]

Uhh... whatever - everyone with more than 2 functioning brain cells knows that if BP didn't pony up the $ that BHO and his moron lib mobs would be screeching all over the place. Blackmail by PR... yeah... no shakedown alright

That's his point...

 

[Throckmorton]

How about neither? That is the best option. I don't understand how anyone here can cheer the fact that a corporation was pushed into putting money into an account that the gov't can/will control. It's against everything that our nation was formed on.
It's done one thing though - it's shown everyone who the socialist thugs are(anyone cheering the pay czar being able to pay out corporate money)

I don't know if you keep up with the news at all, but right now there is a huge oil leak in the Gulf that BP caused.

 

[CADsortaGUY]

I don't know if you keep up with the news at all, but right now there is a huge oil leak in the Gulf that BP caused.

I don't know if you care but there is a line that is being crossed by BHO and his merry band of leftist. Do you really want the gov't to be able to control corporate money? You do understand the precedent this is setting - no?

F'n libs - lose their last strand of logic when "crisis" strikes.

 

[CADsortaGUY]

That's his point...

No it wasn't. You can't read.

 

[Infohawk]

I don't know if you care but there is a line that is being crossed by BHO and his merry band of leftist. Do you really want the gov't to be able to control corporate money? You do understand the precedent this is setting - no?

F'n libs - lose their last strand of logic when "crisis" strikes.

Are you fine with everyone individually suing BP in state court?

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Are you fine with everyone individually suing BP in state court?

I can tell you I'm not "fine" with some BHO lackey "pay czar" metering out corporate monies. Our Federal gov't has exactly ZERO authority to do it.

 

[Jhhnn]

How about neither? That is the best option. I don't understand how anyone here can cheer the fact that a corporation was pushed into putting money into an account that the gov't can/will control. It's against everything that our nation was formed on.
It's done one thing though - it's shown everyone who the socialist thugs are(anyone cheering the pay czar being able to pay out corporate money)

Yeh, right, CSG. Entirely disingenuous on your part- which is no surprise.

I suppose you'd be a lot happier if BP chose to drag it out in court ad infinitum, pay nothing until 10 years down the road.

Righties squeal when cleanup isn't going fast enough, squeal when the govt spends a dime on it, squeal some more when the govt gets front money from BP for the mess they created. Maybe what they're really squealing about is the drubbing they took in the last general election, and about creating diversions from their own culpability in this and a lot of other problems, like overheating and crashing the economy, initiating the bank bailout, huge obstructionism in the normal running of the people's govt...

Where is all that "Drill, Baby, Drill!" enthusiasm, anyway? Seems to have disappeared along with a lot of their other catchy slogans, like "mission accomplished!" "free, freedom, and Liberty!", and my all time fave, "Ownership Society!" made possible by "cutting red tape!" with "Self regulated banking!"

Basically, what brought us this disaster was "Self regulated oil companies!" with mighty reductions in regulatory red tape...

 

[Infohawk]

I suppose you'd be a lot happier if BP chose to drag it out in court ad infinitum, pay nothing until 10 years down the road.

And that might not even be in BP's interest either. If the hundreds of thousands of people who have been injured by this mess sued BP, it would take thousands of new lawyers to handle the claims for BP. Something similar to what was suggested by the asbestos corporations might have been better for everyone besides the lawyers.

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Yeh, right, CSG. Entirely disingenuous on your part- which is no surprise.

I suppose you'd be a lot happier if BP chose to drag it out in court ad infinitum, pay nothing until 10 years down the road.

Righties squeal when cleanup isn't going fast enough, squeal when the govt spends a dime on it, squeal some more when the govt gets front money from BP for the mess they created. Maybe what they're really squealing about is the drubbing they took in the last general election, and about creating diversions from their own culpability in this and a lot of other problems, like overheating and crashing the economy, initiating the bank bailout, huge obstructionism in the normal running of the people's govt...

Where is all that "Drill, Baby, Drill!" enthusiasm, anyway? Seems to have disappeared along with a lot of their other catchy slogans, like "mission accomplished!" "free, freedom, and Liberty!", and my all time fave, "Ownership Society!" made possible by "cutting red tape!" with "Self regulated banking!"

Basically, what brought us this disaster was "Self regulated oil companies!" with mighty reductions in regulatory red tape...

No big surprise that you couldn't understand my post - logic seems to be lost you your types. You can keep trying to whine about dragging it out and courts but that isn't an argument as it's not happened yet in this case. You can think they would do it(and I might not disagree) but it has exactly zero to do with what I've posted. You should try to address what I post instead of trotting out the liberal talking points that do nothing but divert. The FACT of the matter is - the Feds have exactly ZERO authority to have a pay czar meter out corporate monies. We have systems in place for people to recover damages that doesn't involve the Fed gov't having control of corporate monies.