BP, Government and the legal case

The sad part of this is that this country allowed Exxon/Mobil to get away with paying only a fraction of what they were suppose to pay. Now, I am sure that BP lawyers are already looking at that case, and contacting Exxon to see how they got out of paying hundreds of millions. BP will get the normal slap on the wrist, a large public fine, that will be reduced on December 24 of some year, so no one sees it (like the Exxon case), and drilling will continue as if nothing happened. What Americans need to understand is that this country is now run by the corporations, not the people. Until we stand up, and force the corporations out of our political system, corruption like this will continue. AND IT WILL BE OUR FAULT!!!!

You mean like when congress went after Bill Gates and he basically ignored them? That should have told us all something right then. As for BP. Lets be honest...it has to be cleaned up. Our government will do it. BP will pay out....but probly ALL the costs. We tax payers will end up eating the cost of some of it. What we have right now is NOT capitalism...it is corporatism. There is a BIG difference between the two. Corporations own our government right now. Bought and paid for. That needs to be stopped. Got any ideas on how to do it that Washington will actually listen to? I would love to stop corporations, and lobbyists from being involved in our government. But our elected officials seem to be in no rush to kick them out. They love their money tooo much.

Well, the current issue, that business is ready and willing to pay. The US Government is trying to make it worse than it is, but BP has said from the beginning they will pay claims from fishing boats and any body directly affected. They have also been meeting any and all demands immediately trying to fix the problem. Now the scenario you say of course is possible. I wouldnt be at all surprised if the Government went bankrupt even though they have the power to change the laws to suit them.

i think the government IS run by big business but in this instance BP is going to pay big time and there's no way getting out of it. wall street is another matter.

It has already happened. Look at what happened when California passed the clean air act auto companies complied and produced electric cars just long enough to fight it and threaten the state with so many legal actions it would have driven the state bankrupt and they finally backed down from the automotive/oil industry and all the cars leases pulled and were shredded and scrapped. Big business is out of control in this country have usurped the rights of the individuals.

Hi, Urban! I can't tell you how easily I see this sort of thing occurring, and all of us virtually going down with the ship. Off-shore drilling has just been approved off Florida, where I live, and it's truly frightening! Our beautiful coastline could be so easily destroyed. Even now, we're expecting quite a bit of trouble from the oil spill that's still quite far away. When I heard President Obama say that the whole thing is BP's fault, and BP will have to pay for it, I thought immediately what a huge cost this battle would require. The economy is already a mess. Newscasters have been telling us to expect gas prices to soar, and seafood has become prohibitively expensive in the past week or so. Add court costs, attorney costs, etc., and the idea of a bankrupt nation full of poverty-stricken Americans is not at all unrealistic!

The response time shouldn't have taken so long and why was the plan produced by the federal agencies not followed immediately? Blame it on BP, fine but let's not forget the federal government also lies at fault. Why was the government not prepared for this? http://blog.al.com/live/2010/05/fire_boom_oil_spill_raines.html