Big Oil Bailout?
by digby
Does that sound insane to you in this environment in which the congress is refusing to extend unemployment benefits? Me too. But John Boehner is actually pushing it:
Congressional Democrats and the White House are toying with different ways to force BP to cover the costs of damages from the Gulf oil spill. But they face stiff opposition from industry...and it seems leading Republicans. In response to a question from TPMDC, House Minority Leader John Boehner backed Tom Donohue, President of the Chamber of Commerce, in saying taxpayers should help pick up the tab.
"I think the people responsible in the oil spill--BP and the federal government--should take full responsibility for what's happening there," Boehner said at his weekly press conference this morning.
On Friday, Donohue made clear that he opposes efforts to stick BP, a member of the Chamber, with the bill. "It is generally not the practice of this country to change the laws after the game," he said. "Everybody is going to contribute to this clean up. We are all going to have to do it. We are going to have to get the money from the government and from the companies and we will figure out a way to do that."
One very clever thing about this is the fact that they are framing this spill as being the equal fault of BP and the Federal government, which means it's all the fault of an oil company and the Democrats.
The article says that Democrats will jump all over this, and one would certainly hope so. Unfortunately, I would bet some big money that quite a few Dems will join in and give it some bipartisan cover. Mary Landrieu certainly will.
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