Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Letter to the Editor:

Two lawmakers’ comments about BP were callous

Rep. Michele Bachmann had this to say about BP: “They shouldn’t have to be fleeced and made chumps to have to pay for perpetual unemployment and all the rest — they’ve got to be legitimate claims. The other thing we have to remember is that Obama loves to make evil whatever company it is that he wants to get more power from. He makes them evil, and what we’ve got to ask ourselves is: Do we really want to be paying

$9 for a gallon of gas? Because that could be the final result of this.”

Rep. Joe Barton said the following during a committee hearing last week: “I think that it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation is subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown, in this case a $20 billion shakedown.”

Barton added, “I apologize. I do not want to live in a country where any time a citizen or a corporation does something that is legitimately wrong is subject to some sort of political pressure.”

Shortly after making this statement, due to political pressure, Barton apologized for his apology to BP.

Those members of Congress mentioned above were more concerned with the $20 billion escrow account than the 11 dead oil rig employees.

What more does the public need to understand about how deep Republicans are in bed with corporations? Do these right-wing politicians expect us to bail out all companies that make major errors?

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