Republican Joe Barton Defends BP Oil

[Drake]

Thanks, Big Oil, for reminding us that you still have politicians under your thumb. And thank you, Republican party, for never failing to show us your true colors...

"I'm ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday. I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown -- in this case a $20 billion shakedown." Joe Barton

Yeah... how dare they be held accountable for the worst oil spill in US history. You know what's a tragedy? The lives ruined, the workers killed on the rig due to dangerous safety conditions, the wildlife wiped out, the lost revenue from tourism, the destroyed beaches, the contaminated wetlands, and a BP oil that had the audacity to deny that underwater oil plumes existed, attributed the illness of cleanup workers to food poisoning, and the CEO who told the families of those killed in the rig explosion that he'd like to "have his life back".

I think $20 billion is a very conservative and generous estimate, if you ask me.

You want to know why business has to be regulated? Because they become heartless monsters who would eat their own children if left unchecked. People who were banking on a holiday and another news story to draw fire from their factory explosion. There's your new world order. It's not in the White House. It's at an executive meeting where they are developing new lies to placate us as they destroy the Gulf.

I may sound like HW108, but unlike him, I need proof of a conspiracy. BP and Rep Joe Barton provided it live on camera.

[SoCo KungFu]

Whether its banks or BP or whatever...Republicons and Democraps are all the same...One's paying Kobe the other paying Labron. Only difference is who stinks it up this season...

[Hardwork108]

I may sound like HW108, but unlike him, I need proof of a conspiracy.

The proof is out there for those who choose to see it. Unfortunately, many do not choose to see it because the truth of the matter will crumble their perception of reality.......

By the way, Obama himself is a corporate ASSET!

[solo1]

Your right the big oil companies are the most evil companies on earth. How rich!! They are the target du jour for this jug earred moron in the White House.

Lets examine the oil companies: they spend billions in research and discovery, they spend billions in technology to draw crude out of the ground. They refine it into thousands of products. Then to be real awful people they set up the most efficient distribution network of any product on earth. You need it, they provide it and they do it at a pretty reasonable cost. They make billions in profits each and every year, year in and year out, but that pales to what the US gov TAKES from them in taxes.
Lets review: the US government does no drilling, does no refining, doesnt convert one drop of crude into a useable product, has no hand in the distribution of the product. Takes no risks in terms of capitol, lives, man hours, market risk, currency risk, or political risk. From the Tax foundation: in the last 25 years the oil companies have paid over 2.2 TRILLION in taxes that is 3 times what they made in profits in the same period. Oh yeah and add in another 160 billion on diesel. Billions of barrels of oil drawn and we have had a couple of spills, tragic in every case but no industry is 100% accident proof. Want to put them out of business, go for it. We can drive the abundance of solar cars etc then who will be the next government target of evil corporate profits, the solar panel makers? the hydrogen producers? since when did it become evil to make money? and if the profits of the oil companies are so obscene how is it not stomach churningly evil that the US government makes more money on a gallon of gas then the guys who made it?

[MasterKiller]

Europeans spend about $10 billion or so (USD equivalent) annually to subsidize fossil fuels. By contrast, American oil and gas industry receives anywhere between $15 billion and $35 billion a year in subsidies from taxpayers.

[Drake]

False dilemma logical fallacy. BP has ignored safety protocols, repeatedly deflected the blame to others, accused those of getting sick from the oil spill of having food poisoning, denied that the underwater oil plumes existed, and had a ridiculously out of date policy on safety and accident mitigation. Walruses in the Gulf? References who have been dead for years? Knowingly continuing operations AFTER the senior tech on the rig warned them of how unsafe it was? You want to defend that? Be my guest.

I didn't say ALL oil companies are evil. The Exxon Valdez spill occured because of a drunk ship captain, not criminal negigence from their CEO. I am saying that to apologize for holding them accountable for criminal negligence is tantamount to treason.


This isn't a small accident. This is a global disaster. Are you arguing just to be contrary? I don't think a single person in Congress, save Joe Barton, is defending BP.

[Drake]

Does a judge have to have stolen a car and crashed it himself to know that someone broke the law?

[solo1]

20 billion is a shakedown. If Tony Hayward had the stones he would tell the "pigs feeding at the trough Congressmen" to shove it up their collective asses, walk out " Obama said hes in charge he can clean it up". Neat how the oil sucking barges arrived in La this morning only to be turned back by the Coast Guard under orders from Obama, huh? what?
BP if its smart is considering the following: bankrupt BP north america, shut it down and write off everything they have set up in the US. they can sell the infrastructure to anyone of ten oil companies of size. China and India cant get enough oil and will be only too happy to take up the slack and since our market for BP wont exist theyll porbably get it cheaper.
Walk away from the the gulf oil spill, walk away from the Obama adminstrations attempt to nationalize the industry, tell Obama and Congress to go screw themselves. Why? we financed each and every one of your campaigns and you have the unmitigated gall to berate Tony Hayward a man that has forgotten more about the industry then the collective intellect of every congress ever to sit will ever know. Grandstanding its the only thing Congress does well anymore. Not only will I buy BP products, Im going out of my way to support the company, know why? if they go under kiss the 20 bill goodbye, kiss the settlements of any kind goodbye, kiss the clean up good bye, kiss the re numeration to the injured parties goodbye cause if you honestly feel that Obama will be able to do anything to clean this up your deluding yourself. Never let a crisis go to waste.

Vote for Obama? thanks alot *******.

[Drake]

Bankrupting BP will not kill the oil industry. It will encourage other oil companies to review their safety policies, and those who drill responsibly will take the market share that was created as BP falters. NOBODY is buying BP, as evidenced by a 50% stock plummet.

You are equating making criminals pay for their destruction of the Gulf with an attack on the oil industry. You have a skewed sense of justice if you think that $20 billion is unfair. Louisiana is suffering, and now so are other gulf states. It's not over, either, with damage expected to be found up into the North Atlantic.

You are also inaccurate in assuming that this is a liberal move. Barton's own party demanded he apologize for his foolish remarks or be removed from his position. Republicans virtually unanimously, with the exception of ONE PERSON, slammed BP and fully support the so-called "shakedown".

This is not an attack on the oil industry. This is requiring, as stated BY LAW, that BP pay for the devastation is caused. Fmr Pres. Bush (v 1.0) did the same thing to Exxon after that spill. It's law, and it's right. You and Barton are the only ones who seem to object this.

[SanHeChuan]

So what you are saying is that when you do something wrong instead of trying to make it right you should run away?

Been in any hit and runs lately?

Companies are not evil because the are rich, but they do need to be held accountable for their actions, and they should be regulated to prevent them from cutting corners, etc...

[solo1]

Europeans spend about $10 billion or so (USD equivalent) annually to subsidize fossil fuels. By contrast, American oil and gas industry receives anywhere between $15 billion and $35 billion a year in subsidies from taxpayers.

Big deal: 15 billion to 35 billion in subsidies versus how much the gov takes in taxes is a pretty decent trade. In 2006 they paid 138 billion in taxes and get 25 billion back in subsides. So the US gov still takes 113 billion for doing nothing. In 2005 the bottom 75% of alll taxpayers in the US (100 mill of 130 mill) paid 130.9 billion in income taxes, in the same year US based oil companies paid 138 billion to the IRS. do that math.
WE pay the taxes on the gas, the fed, state and locals, then the oil companies pay taxes to the same entities, so the same product is taxed 6 times, you pay fed state, local, they pay fed, state local. the government doesnt create anything, doesnt produce any thing doesnt create profit, doesnt create jobs, it takes from those who do. So the government "subsidizes" the oil industry? the subsides are nothing more then a means to control them as the fed will "return" to them 18% of thier own money if they kowtow to the US congress. Why should the gov give a rats ass about 35 billion they didnt produce it. Besides it a drop in the bucket compare tothe trillion Obama just ****ed away and your okay with that?

[Drake]

The oil spill is the size of Colorado. President Obama is the LEAST of our worries.

[1bad65]

Actually Obama is making it worse. Several European companies offered to help, but Obama said "No". He said "no" because it would have involved him waiving the Jones Act, which requires all vessels working in U.S. waters to be American-built, and American-crewed. The Jones Act is union backed, of course.

"Crucial offers to help clean up BP’s oil spill came “from Belgian, Dutch, and Norwegian firms that . . . possess some of the world’s most advanced oil skimming ships.” But the Obama administration didn’t accept their help, because doing so would require it to do something past presidents have routinely done: waive rules imposed by the Jones Act, a law backed by unions.

“The BP clean-up effort in the Gulf of Mexico is hampered by the Jones Act. This is a piece of 1920s protectionist legislation, that requires all vessels working in U.S. waters to be American-built, and American-crewed. So" the U.S. Coast Guard "can’t accept, and therefore don’t ask for, the assistance of high-tech European vessels specifically designed for the task in hand.”

The law itself permits the president to waive these requirements, and such waivers were “granted, promptly, by the Bush administration,” in the aftermath of hurricanes and other emergencies. But Obama refused to do so after the spill, notes David Warren in the Ottawa Citizen. Instead, Obama rejected a Dutch offer to help clean up the spill, noted Voice of America News:

"The Obama administration declined the Dutch offer partly because of the Jones Act, which restricts foreign ships from certain activities in U.S. waters. During the Hurricane Katrina crisis five years ago, the Bush administration waived the Jones Act in order to facilitate some foreign assistance, but such a waiver was not given in this case.""

Source:
http://www.examiner.com/x-7812-DC-SC...nes-Act-waiver

Notice the evil, stupid, racist Bush accepted foreign help, but the compassionate, intelligent, liberal Obama said no to international help. So, who cares more about the victims?

[1bad65]

The oil spill is the size of Colorado. President Obama is the LEAST of our worries.

Actually he has done 2 things to make it worse.

1) Did not allow Louisian to construct barrier islands

2) Refused international help

[solo1]

So what you are saying is that when you do something wrong instead of trying to make it right you should run away?

Been in any hit and runs lately?

Companies are not evil because the are rich, but they do need to be held accountable for their actions, and they should be regulated to prevent them from cutting corners, etc...

Cutting corners? how? regulated ? they pay the most taxes of any industry in the world thats not regulation? The deepwater horizon was built by the south koreans (gonna sue them too?) , owned by transocean and LEASED by BP. Cost 350 million to build, double that today and a million a day to support it. Your aware it floats and has some the most advanced machinery known to mankind to keep it level and operating in the worst weather, its lines go down over a mileyour going to make that kind of investment in a piece of state of the art machinery and your gonna cut corners? surely you jest.
And BP is not being held accountable for thier actions? Hayward has made it clear that they will pay any bill, settle any claim and spend as much money as they have to to make it right and clean up the area, And what pray tell has Obama and his gang done? Lets review: news released today (check drudge) that the Obama adminstration wrote bailout TARP checks totaling 54 million to CASINO owners, next up threatens to "kick someones ass" (like to see him try that to any member of this forum) today had the US coast guard, a branch of the US military turn back oil sucking barges from the Louisiana coastline. But look the other way, that action has nothing to do with Bobby Jindal being a republican does it? has nothing to do with Jindal wanting to build barriers weeks ago to stop this did it? god forbid the governor have a plan and show up the POTUS who had to play golf that day. The nose picker in chief drops this gem the other night, that the reason the oil companies have to drill so far off shore and so deep is because there is no more oil, no Obama you friggin jack tard they have to take those kinds of risks because brain dead liberal eco nuts like you wont let them drill on land or closer to the coast line, or Anwar, or wyoming, or North dakota anywhere on federal land. Now i ask you since we both agree that the spill is tragic, would you prefer it be in the gulf of mexico where it is now on the beaches of five states or on an acre of land in Alaska where the leak could have been capped using methods devised 100 years ago?