Obama: Let’s make BP pay for lost wages as a result of my drilling moratorium (UPDATE: O: Let’s blame GOP, in part, for oil spill)
Can you believe this clown?
The Obama administration’s latest anti-BP volley is a call on the oil giant to pay up big time — not just for economic damages from the Gulf spill but also for lost wages of workers idled by the president’s drilling moratorium.
From a public relations perspective, it may be a satisfying stick-it-to-’em approach to a company that’s become Public Enemy No. 1.
But legally, it’s on a lot shakier footing, experts say.
Even lawyers pursuing claims against BP on behalf of Gulf businesses said they doubted there was any way to force BP to pay for the suspension of offshore drilling.
“The interesting question is whether or not Obama imposing a moratorium on drilling, which is a function of the U.S. government’s regulatory ability, is related to the BP oil spill” closely enough that BP would be liable, said Scott Bickford of Martzell & Bickford, a New Orleans firm involved in the spill litigation. “Ultimately, the answer to that question is probably no. That’s how I see it, even as a lawyer bringing these cases.”
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said at a Senate hearing on Wednesday that the government was asking BP to pay the wages of oil workers put out of work by a federal moratorium on deep-water drilling.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs backed Salazar, saying that BP should be forced to ante up since it “caused” the six-month moratorium President Barack Obama ordered because of concerns about the safety of offshore wells.
At the White House briefing Thursday, Gibbs was pressed to explain why economic damage caused by the moratorium should be considered BP’s fault.
“Part of the problem is not knowing what caused the disaster at the Deepwater Horizon well and believing that pausing what was happening is a result of the disaster by BP,” Gibbs said.
More from the WSJ:
White House officials said Thursday they might ask Congress for new laws to force BP PLC to compensate a broad range of people affected by the oil spill, including oil workers idled by the government’s moratorium on deepwater drilling.
President Barack Obama, after a meeting with congressional leaders, said Congress must “update the laws to make sure that the people in the Gulf, the fishermen, the hotel owners, families who are dependent for their livelihoods in the Gulf, that they are all made whole.”
But there was disagreement in the legal community about whether the White House could hold BP liable for all the costs of the Gulf spill, including the lost salaries of workers laid off following the government’s moratorium on deepwater drilling.
Meanwhile, the White House backed off an earlier suggestion that it could try to stop the oil giant from paying a multibillion dollar dividend to shareholders.
Under current laws, experts said making BP liable for the lost wages could be difficult, though not impossible.
Since when did it become BP’s responsibility to pay for OBAMA’s drilling moratorium decision? Here’s a suggestion for the WH: If you want to prevent more lost wages in light of the BP oil spill, take Sarah Palin’s advice and drill, baby, drill!
Freaking Socialist idiots, all.
Update – 10:00 pm: It gets even more comical:
President Barack Obama said Friday that some members of Congress should share the blame for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
In an exclusive one-on-one interview with POLITICO, the president said: “I think it’s fair to say, if six months ago, before this spill had happened, I had gone up to Congress and I had said we need to crack down a lot harder on oil companies and we need to spend more money on technology to respond in case of a catastrophic spill, there are folks up there, who will not be named, who would have said this is classic, big-government overregulation and wasteful spending.”
The president also implied that anti-big government types such as Tea Party activists were being hypocritical on the issue.
“Some of the same folks who have been hollering and saying ‘do something’ are the same folks who, just two or three months ago, were suggesting that government needs to stop doing so much,” Obama said. “Some of the same people who are saying the president needs to show leadership and solve this problem are some of the same folks who, just a few months ago, were saying this guy is trying to engineer a takeover of our society through the federal government that is going to restrict our freedoms.”
This guy simply cannot handle criticism of any kind, nor does he know how to put any criticism in context. What a disgrace to the office of the Presidency.