You wouldn’t think it was possible considering the anti-government rhetoric coming from certain members of Congress, but in the aftermath of the BP oil spill, many of them have changed their tune and now believe that government actually does have its uses.
I was watching with interest as the “government can’t do anything right” crowd in Congress have been falling over themselves on TV trying to point out how little the administration has done in response to the oil-spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
Never mind that many of these same individuals defended the meager response of the previous administration to the natural—as opposed to man-made—hurricane Katrina disaster. Or the fact that our current incumbent, Jim Sensenbrenner, like so many of his colleagues, voted against government funding for repair, housing, food, or anything else for the victims.
Shameless flip-flopping aside, let’s take a minute to personalize the disaster in the Gulf and imagine what might happen if a large tanker truck of oil was driving by your house and, through negligence or carelessness, happened to spill its entire payload onto your back yard.
My guess is that most people would demand that the responsible party clean up the spill, and I would assume that the company responsible for the spill would agree to make reasonable efforts to clean it up. Not only would the company be facing a serious public relations disaster if it didn’t act, but it would also have a strong financial interest in making amends.
One thing I am confident would not happen in this scenario is the property owner immediately demanding that the government take care of the problem. That would be both illogical and premature. If the cleanup was taking too long or was not done properly, then the government would certainly have an interest in intervening. But no one would expect the government to be first in line to accept responsibility for the cleanup.
This is exactly what has happened in the Gulf. The administration expected BP to take appropriate responsibility for cleaning up its mess, and now that it has become clear that their efforts are ineffectual, the government is stepping in. Yet the “we need more government” converts in Congress are saying that the administration should have done more.
More? Maybe they’re suggesting that the federal government take part ownership of BP? Or that the EPA should be expanded? Or that federal efforts should trump the states’ rights to protect their own coastline? What would the response from members of the “I was against more government before I was for it” Congressional caucus have been if the administration had stepped in with command-and-control efforts like these from the very beginning?
I highly doubt they would have given President Obama three cheers and an “A” for effort.
To hear folks like aspiring-Congressman Rand Paul talk about it, we shouldn’t even place any blame on BP at all. Accidents happen. That oil slick in your back yard? Things are tough all over! Just put on your boots when you mow your lawn.