If you guess Barack Hussein Obama, take a shot of tequila (via Jammie Wearing Fool). Open Secrets posted this story back on the 30th
During the 2008 election cycle, individuals and political action committees associated with BP — a Center for Responsive Politics’ “heavy hitter” — contributed half a million dollars to federal candidates. About 40 percent of these donations went to Democrats. The top recipient of BP-related donations during the 2008 cycle was President Barack Obama himself, who collected $71,000.
As JMF mentions, do you think Obama will return the money as he goes on his demonization bender against BP? Will the media call for the return of the money? Will anyone on the Left whine about Obama being a big oil man, like they would if Bush was president? Yeah, right, on all three.
Obama was also the top recipient of Exxon Mobile money in 2008. And Chevron. Hmm.
Meanwhile, we always wonder if Democrats have ever read the Constitution. For these three, that would be a big “NO!” BP has stated that they will pay all “legitimate claims” for the spill. One problem: the law limits their exposure to $75 million dollars
….$75 million wouldn’t go very far considering the amount of economic losses that may be experienced by the fishing and tourism industries alone, sectors responsible for billions of dollars of annual economic activity.
So several Senate Democrats have introduced legislation that would raise that cap to $10 billion.
An excerpt from a statement by Senators Robert Menendez (D-N.J), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Bill Nelson (D-FL.) said
Article 1 Section 9: No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.
Now, don’t misunderstand: I want BP to pay all they should pay, if the suits have merit. I’ve said many times that I am an environmentalist, and this “spill” will cause serious damage for a long time to come. It may have been an accident, but, they are still responsible. And, if they are wise, they will ignore the $75 million cap and pay out, with a fixed smile on their faces, all legitimate claims at reasonable rates. But, Democrats cannot simply change a law retroactively. If anything, they should pass a law that says that BP cannot raise the price of their goods to offset any costs of the spill.
DRILL BABY DRILL !! teach which administration approved the drill plan ? Companies give to whomever they believe will win
And 75 million is not enough please tell us who passed and signed THAT bill
ohhhh!!! the dems only got 40% of the money I wonder who got the rest?? Maybe the party that pased the 75 million limit ?
Teach: “If anything, they should pass a law that says that BP cannot raise the price of their goods to offset any costs of the spill.”
I have to disagree with ya here Teach. Doesn’t that go against the grain of Capitalism? That is like saying, “go ahead and pass that tax and trade”, and then “pass a law saying companies can’t pass on the costs of the tax.”
That is wrong. For as long as I can recall we conservatives have been fighting against increased taxation because companies just pass that tax on to the customers.
If you say that this spill is an accident, then why unduly harm the company? Now, if it was negligence, then sure add on that fine and clean up costs. But they have to be able to recoup the costs somehow. If they charge too much, their products won’t be purchased as often or as much as their competitors. That will be their choice and the customer’s choice.
Sorry Teach, you are wrong on the facts on this one as far as the $76 million liability.
The actual law is 33 U.S.C. § 2704(a)(3) and can be found here: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/33/usc_sec_33_00002704—-000-.html and says “(3) for an offshore facility except a deepwater port, the total of all removal costs plus $75,000,000; and …”
Assuming that BP cannot prove that this was an act of a third party, they are on the hook for the entire amount of the cleanup PLUS up to a $75 million dollar fine to the Feds.
BP still faces exposure from lawsuits at the STATE level.
This is actually good policy because if the Feds were able to go after a company without caps on the liability, the company would go under without any money getting to the people that were harmed. The Feds would keep it all and put it into some other plan of theirs.
The way that this is set up seems fair and reasonable. The BP is held accountable for the for the costs of the cleanup, a $75 million dollar fine, plus whatever suits arise from the local level.
Maybe the party that pased the 75 million limit ?
33 U.S.C. § 2704(a)(3) was passed in 1991 after the Exxon Valdez accident.
The party in control of Congress at that time was the Democrats.
Sucks to be you, eh?