Boehner: Government--i.e. Taxpayers--Should Help Pay For Oil Spill.

They used to pretend that they were the party of personal responsibility, but no more....

John Boehner:

"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.

Boehner's statement followed comments last Friday by US Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue who said 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."

So today I asked Boehner, "Do you agree with Tom Donohue of the Chamber that the government and taxpayers should pitch in to clean up the oil spill?" The shorter answer is yes.

So, once again, the profits are obviously for the company to keep, but any potential losses are to be met by the taxpayer. We now have this strange notion of socialised losses.

These guys are simply never allowed to lose.

Huffington Post:

I feel like all perspective has been lost. It's like many of the politicians (again, mostly but not all Republicans) can't forget even for a millisecond the interests they truly represent (and those interests clearly don't include the best long-term interests of their constituents). Rather, in the case of Republicans like Boehner, priority number one is the corporate interests they always protect (the same ones they have looked out for in opposing health care reform and financial regulation). It's not surprising that when the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says "jump," Boehner starts hopping.

It's one thing to oppose policy for the wrong reasons, but when politicians defend BP after the oil disaster, we've crossed some kind of line.

The Republican tendency to always defend corporate interests is at it's most blatant here, with Boehner now demanding that we pay for BP's horrendous balls up.

The profits are theirs, but the losses must be socialised. It's simply indefensible.

Click here for full article.

Tags: Boehner, BP, Gulf Oil Spill