Jim Dandy: I like Bachman and I'd have to see exactly what she said. But I believe she said that the actions the Obama administration took (and is taking) are outside their constitutional powers. Barton, I believed, was misunderstood. He isn't saying that BP isn't at fault nor shouldn't be held responsible. He is saying that the President and lawmakers are vilifying BP and forcing them to set up a fund and this before a full investigation. It's political grandstanding on the part of Obama IMO.

For the record, I believe that BP hurried the drilling and KNOWINGLY put the operation at risk. And I also believe that when confronted with a potential problem, BP management IGNORED the warnings and soon after all hell broke loose (and 11 people died etc). Is BP at fault? I think it's clear from preliminaries that they are 100% at fault. Should they be held accountable for the LEAK? Yes. 100%. Should they be 100% accountable for the cleanup?

no

It's also the job of the US government to protect our shores. Obama totally blew the cleanup. Obama ignored the problem initially. Why did Obama REFUSE foreign help? Why did Obama wait nearly TWO MONTHS before there was any meaningful response? Why did Obama put a 6 month moratorium on further drilling? How many people did he put out of a job with that stupid decision? And because of Obama's failure to handle the cleanup effectively (his Job -yes BP's job too but the cleanup falls in his lap - that's where the buck stops) many more people will be out of jobs - all thanks to Obama's incompetence. Time will show all these things to be the case. Obama is now back-peddling and trying to shift blame and deflect. It's transparent.

BTW, NONE of that 20 Billion can be caimed by people who's income is affected by the lack of cleanup. The man in charge of the 20 Billion just said that on the tube. Why? Because you can't penalize BP for the government's failure to act. And it's completely clear that Obama failed to act in a timely and efficient way. Other countries, who offered help, have expertise and needed equipment for such cleanups. Obama will have to answer as to why he turned them all away. That's just ONE example of how Obama screwed up big time with regard to this cleanup.