Even among really smart commentators not much is being said about the real cause of the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Everyone wants to blame BP, and they in fact should. Others, especially the right wing fanatics and the Republicans who like to spout their pearls of wisdom about less and smaller government, want to blame the Obama administration and the federal government for not doing enough. This really is just blowhard political rhetoric. Anything to make the Presidential Raghead and the progressives look bad.
The number of oil spills and their magnitude have been on the increase for several years. The cause is what we need to deal with, because this must be corrected in order to assure us that this won't continue to happen.
The cause is regulators who allowed the corporations to self regulate. Under Bush II government regulators who did their job of protecting the environment, the food supply for human consumption, kids toys, and fraud in the financial sector were fired. Career regulators in the FDA, OSHA, and even the legal system were strongly encouraged to let these companies make money. The Bush assumption was that companies as big as the Wall Street banks and British Petroleum would not dare endanger their assets by engaging in excessively risky behavior.
Under funding of the regulatory authorities, downright open and active encouragement telling the government regulators to leave these guys alone, deregulation, and industry self-regulation just about bankrupted the country. Many of the people who have lost their homes, savings, marriages, and jobs have actually found it necessary to formally go bankrupt.
Deregulation is the cause of all these crises, and this must be corrected. The Republicans will do everything they can to kill re-regulation. Screw these ignorant red neck bastards.
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