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June 16, 2010
Item #3: No Tears for BP
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at June 16, 2010 4:50 AM
Normally, when a corporation is being used as a whipping boy by the Obama Regime's Propaganda Machine, one's reaction is instinctive sympathy. We know that to Obama and his minions, corporations are not seen as providers of goods, services, and jobs... but are all corrupt exploiters of the working class and despoilers of the environment. However, BP is undeserving of sympathy because until everything went south with the Deepwater Horizon spill, they were very much in bed with the progressive Democrats.
The (John) Kerry-BP alliance for an energy bill that included a cap-and-trade scheme for greenhouse gases pokes a hole in a favorite claim of President Obama and his allies in the media -- that BP's lobbyists have fought fiercely to be left alone. Lobbying records show that BP is no free-market crusader, but instead a close friend of big government whenever it serves the company's bottom line.
While BP has resisted some government interventions, it has lobbied for tax hikes, greenhouse gas restraints, the stimulus bill, the Wall Street bailout, and subsidies for oil pipelines, solar panels, natural gas and biofuels.
The executives of BP had a very cozy relationship with the environmental left, and planned to reap big dividends as the Government forced taxpayers' money to be directed into their corporate coffers. But then came the spill, and now BP is the topic of anti-capitalist rants like this one from Massachusetts Communist Ed Markey.
"I think we have to put the victims at the top of the list and the shareholders and the bondholders down below them. And I don't think there will be any debate about that. And if there is a shareholder that actually holds that position, then if you kick them in the heart, you break your toe. It is there (sic) company, they invested in it and unfortunately they did so not in good times, but in as bad times as well."
i.e. Screw the pension funds, and screw all the little people who hold BP stock. But, by all means, bail out the people who took out mortgages they couldn't afford, bail out the people who charged up massive credit card debt, and bail out the people who ran up six figure student loan debt getting useless women's studies degrees. But if people make investments in creating jobs and industry? Screw 'em!
