Just imagine if Rand Paul were getting his way right now, and the federal gov't was being all laissez-faire and relying on BP's good conscience and victim's legal claims to resolve the spill. Imagine if Obama had let "the market" solve the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, i.e. imagine he had done nothing.
Horrific.
This is a teachable moment, folks. We're seeing that, left unto themselves, big corporations have no interest in the public interest. They are simply not set up that way. There is no mechanism or incentive for them to think that way; that's not their job. That's government's job.
Ironically, Obama's pressuring BP to set up a $20 billion fund for victims of its spill has helped BP's stock. Investors hate uncertainty, and now the future of BP looks more certain. It never would have occurred to BP to set up this fund on its own, if it could have done the "smart" thing and dragged this case out in court for years or even decades and delayed any hit to its corporate bottom line.
Obama's hardline move on BP is exactly what government is supposed to do; whatever it can, within the limits of the law, to protect its citizens' interests.
By Joshua Holland
June 25, 2010 | AlterNet
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