It is so so tempting to blame President Obama for the Gulf oil spill or at least the federal government’s poor response. He certainly holds some responsibility and his record as president and his constant finger pointing,* including in this crisis, make him a tempting target.
Give it up. Pointing at Obama is weak and completely beside the point. Whatever Obama’s failures may or may not be, the Gulf oil spill is ‘We the People’s Katrina,’ not just President Obama’s.
Folks, I have been ranting for more than a year now for smaller government and much greater self-reliance. I have a lot of reasons for this belief, the biggest being that the government does not have your back because the government can not look after you. We the People can not and should not depend on government. That job is yours, if for no other reason than you are the only person/entity capable of doing that job.
Peggy Noonan captured part of this brilliantly in her Wall Street Journal column today:
“Even though the federal government in our time has continually taken on new missions and responsibilities, the more it took on, the less it seemed capable of performing even its most essential jobs. Conservatives got this point—they know it without being told—but liberals and progressives did not. They thought Katrina was the result only of George W. Bush’s incompetence and conservatives’ failure to “believe in government.” But Mr. Obama was supposed to be competent.”
Government is not able to fully protect you; they cannot guarantee protection of the waters where you earn your living fishing, stop hurricanes and floods, they cannot guarantee the safety of your finances for retirement nor your health care. Note further the number of us sending our kids to public schools that are now in serious financial trouble. I wish I had those taxes I paid back. Government is highly fallible.
Government is made up of humans and bureaucratic systems both of which are more apt to fail the more we grow dependent on them (see Gulf oil spill for evidence). Also note that President Obama has no magical powers that he can use to take over BP and fix this mess. James Carville has a beautiful quote in which he wants Obama to tell BP to “I’m your Daddy.” This is utter nonsense. The President is doing all that he can to stop this leak. He is only human and he is only the president.
We the People have failed by believing government has power and ability that it does not have, no matter the regulations, government inspectors, and government response. Hard to avoid in something this big and distant but keep it in mind as government continues to grow – under both parties.
Do not depend on government to take care of you, and most important, quit teaching our youth to be dependent on government.
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NOTE: New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman said recently that he would like us “to be China for a day,” so that we could “authorize the right solutions.” I wonder if Friedman remembers the Sichuan earthquake? The collapsed schools? The poor response and the punishment of critics? If Friedman ever gets his wish, prepare for one hell of a bad day.
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* “For years, there has been a scandalously close relationship between oil companies and the agency that regulates them.” WhiteHouse.gov. This statement from Obama is certainly true, but even his biggest supporters no longer believe him because he points fingers on everything.
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…so if government were smaller, BP, a multinational corporation, woudl magically have taken better available precautions to the detriment of its bottom line? Even now, they’re lobbying in Canada to remove the requirement to drill relief wells ahead of time to minimize the time needed to get accidents under control. No, the Bush administration systematically dismantled and made ineffectual our regulatory agencies, and now we’re supposed to believe government doesn’t work. It doesn’t work because business interests ran away with it. Please let me know how reduced regulations would cause fewer disasters like this or improved response to it.
There were plenty of regulations in place to prevent this disaster. Those regulations were not followed. They were, as reports showed last week, deliberately ignored. The reasons why will be debated for years and the questions will never be fully resolved to anyone’s satisfaction.
There appears to have been some laws in place to cap damages from a spill. I don’t know which administration and which political parties are responsible for that law but that certainly falls under the category of government excess. If you or your business damages someone else’s property or livelihood you should pay. We should demand personal responsibility from everyone, not just welfare queens.
The point of the above is that government is limited in its ability to protect us. We have placed far too much faith and power in government’s hands, yet as the spill shows, even with the vast laws and bureaucracies in place the government failed to prevent this spill. Yet that was the government’s job and that is a role government is suited for. They can not do what they are suited to do yet they attempt even that which they are not at all suited for – managing health care spending, education, funding the arts, picking business winners, managing the economy, foreign aid, etc. etc, etc.
By the way, is there a way to flag spam? You’re getting more of it.
“Do not depend on government to take care of you, and most important, quit teaching our youth to be dependent on government.” Good advice, but I also teach my children than sometimes you have to be a tough ##### . I don’t think Obama can micromanage solutions to this problem but the government rules/regulations/lack of leadership are preventing those who are capable, from doing so. Louisiana does not have time for BP to play public relations games and they need to proceed in their own interests. They don’t need a daddy to take care of them but they better start acting like a mommy and nip to nip the turf nonsense in the bud.
Are there people capable of containing this disaster who are being prevented from doing it? I haven’t heard that. I don’t think there’s anything demonstrated to stop a spill of this kind but relief wells, which could have been drilled sooner,before the accident, but nothing but government regulation could have caused this to be done. We should only depend on government to do what only it can do, but this clearly falls into that category. In this instance we can and should hold government accountable, but the attitude that government can’t do anything works against that goal–the only solution is to dismantle the regulations, let the corporations have their way, and get our shrimp from Thailand in exchange for cheap oil.
I have seen reports via the CNN news ticker yesterday and today that teams from UAE are prepared to help. What’s with that and why aren’t they here? I am told they are quite expert in these areas.
Lynn,
The major time loss factors include:
Containment has been twarfted by regulations and lack of co-ordinated response:
“Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser, along with Jindal and other parish leaders, said the White House’s first priority should be granting an emergency permit to skip federal environmental reviews and allow coastal parishes to follow their 3-week-old plan to place dredged sand as berms between barrier islands so oil won’t get into delicate marshes, something that wouldn’t require any change in BP’s role.”
Debate over the employment the Oil Pollution Act.
Unused equipment for clean-up:
“Jindal said 143,000 feet of boom sat in staging areas while oil damaged 65 miles of Louisiana coastline. It has been 20 days since the state asked for 5 million feet of hard boom, but only 786,185 feet of hard boom has been delivered so far, he said.”
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/frustration_mounting_over_bp_d.html
Bigger government/smaller government – it is still just people. Would it be easier to manage a smaller government? Would it be easier to be successful with a more limited focus? I tend to think so.
Super-Duper site! I am loving it!! Will come back again – taking you feeds also, Thanks.