They are the same folks who created this toxic political environment we’re in today. The Republicans are responsible for instilling in the minds of Americans the fear of government, yet they turn around and are quick to blame the Obama Administration for not doing more to control and clean up the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
BP Oil Spill
This is all politics.
When President Obama took over back in 2009, he met an economy in shambles and was forced to take drastic steps to avoid another economic depression. Like the previous president who passed the $700 billion TARP bank bailout, president Obama and many economists saw the need for Stimulus package. The first major policy of this administration was a $787 Billion package geared at keeping the economy afloat.
The Republicans however, seized upon this moment and labeled the effort as a failure. They set out, and successfully scare Americans into thinking the effort was a waste of tax payers dollars. They managed to convince Americans that the stimulus efforts by the Obama administration was a bail-out of financial institutions.
Then, the auto industry began crumbling. An industry that employed tens of thousand of workers was failing right before our eyes. At a time when Americans were already loosing over 700,000 jobs per month, the new president and many economic advisers saw the need to save this industry. The president asked congress to come up with a package to help the auto dealers and in the process, avoid adding to the number of unemployed Americans.
The Republicans again, seized upon this venture to save jobs and labeled the effort a “government bailout ” and a “government take over of the auto industry.” Some even renamed GM, “Government Motors” and claimed that president Obama is “spending away our children’s future.” Americans at this point began buying in to the Republican scare tactic and the call for government to stop spending began.
And then came the Health Care Reform bill. An effort by the Obama Administration to fulfill a promise to the American people that goes back almost a century. A promise that many previous presidents had made but couldn’t deliver on – the promise to bring affordable insurance to the vast majority of Americans. The bill was signed into law and according to CBO, it will reduce the federal budget by almost $1.3 trillion over the next 20 years.
Republicans were not in favor. They saw another opportunity to continue the scare games and jumped on it like white on rice! The labeled this effort to provide Americans with health care as, “a government take over of health care!” They lied about its cost claiming trillions of dollars will be added to the deficit, and called the president a “socialist” for wanting to help American families get health coverage.
By this time the seed of fear was already planted. Due to the lies of the Republican party, the American people wanted small government and in some case, no government at all. This group of Americans who believed the GOP lies began demanding that they wanted their country back. The administration heard these cries and began trying to defend their positions. Democratic members of Congress and administration officials were frequent on radio and television talk shows, trying to dispel the damage already done by republicans. For some, this re-education effort worked. For many, it was already too late.
And then came the Oil Spill. Something that is totally the responsibility of BP started polluting the waters off the Gulf of Mexico and day after day, brought the spill closer and closer to the coastline of American states like Louisiana.
In an effort to comfort these Americans who’s had enough of government intervention and not create the impression yet another “government bailing out” this company, President Obama stated that BP was responsible for the oil spill and the cost of the clean up efforts. This was supposed to pacify the Republicans and show the scared ones that the administration was listening to the will of the people.
But the GOP wouldn’t have that.
As the spill nears the coastline, the same folks who spent the last 16 months of this administration scaring people into thinking that Obama was spending us into the black hole, is now questioning why the administration is not spending whatever is necessary to clean up BP’s mess.
Louisiana’s governor Bobby Jindal, who fell off the rader since botching a GOP response to President Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress back in February of 2009, has now become the most vocal republican calling for bigger government involvement in the BP’s oil spill and have criticize the administration for not stopping the leak.
In particular, Jindal calls out the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for not building a chain of protective sand barriers — or berms — off the coast to help block the oil. In reference to this, Jindal says;
“We are not waiting for them. We are going to build it ourselves.”
Calling for the federal government to take a bigger role in the cleanup efforts, Jindal went on to say;
“It is so much better for us. We don’t want oil on one inch of Louisiana’s coastline, but we’d much rather fight this oil off of a hard coast, off of an island, off of an island, off of a sandy beach on our coastal islands, rather than having to fight it inside in these wetlands.”
In a news confrence held in Venice Louisiana, Jindal continued;
We need more boom, more skimmers, more jack-up barges.
More than 100 miles of our shoreline has been impacted by the oil spill. That is more than the entire sea coastline of Mississippi and Alabama combined.
To Bobby Jindal and his GOP allys, President Obama can’t win for loosing. They’re playing a constant game of gotcha with the American people. If the Obama administration had taken control in the beginning of this spill, Jindal and the rest of the GOP would have jumped at the opportunity to criticize the administration of “bailing out BP,” or “spending our kids future.” The president choose the other road and now they claim the spill is “Obama’s responsibility” and the administration is “leaving it all up to BP” to fix the spill.
Mr. President, you can’t win with these Republicans. Stop trying to get everyone on your side. It is impossible to please this group. Do what’s best for the American people, regardless of the lies these republicans tell their followers. That’s what we elected you for, and we expect nothing less.
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