Vice President Biden (I am always so tempted to call him just "Joe") sums it all up.

This "shakedown meme" is abhorrent from so-called conservatives who like to talk about personal responsibility and self-accountability. Of course the people most responsible for the destruction in the Gulf should be paying for it--and of course the American taxpayer should not be taking on this burden--

Hello? Conservatives? Am I wrong about all that?

But what Biden lays out is the larger issue of what people in politics should be in it for--and what I think always should be the reason--to help people and to represent the people and to always remember who you are working for, Joe Barton seems to think he's working for BP--well, if the goal of politics is to get bought and stay bought, Barton represented himself very well! But I like what this administration is trying to do and don't think they are at all ganging up on poor multi-national trillion-dollar oil-conglomerate BP--I just don't think several public servants, like Boehner and others, ever properly recognized how much resources these companies have got, which is why they, and I think many casual observers, have wanted to blame the government more for what isn't getting done, and BP less--

Long story short, BP misrepresented their readiness to respond to a spill of this nature, and I really think it would behoove the government to take a second look at who is being granted leasing-rights. I sincerely wish the government interfered and banned the use of Corexit, which is a highly toxic compound and which I think will interfere with the natural breakdown of the oil through bacterial and standard decomposition means. I think BP used Corexit at first, and manipulated the media the way they did--because they wanted to pretend the accident wasn't such a big deal because it would lay bare all the bullshit, slipshod, corner-cutting ways they've been doing business. That has to end, and I sincerely don't care if all the BP execs go begging and they have to auction off their office supplies--y'hear? What is more important to me, though, is that safety and environmental regulations get properly enforced, and that means are taken to prevent this kind of thing from happening again. I think this White House, the Obama Administration--does properly recognize that government has a specific regulatory role to play. I think people who bitch that more hasn't been done, or who think the government is being a "heavy" for wanting responsibility, are both full of it.

Government is a tool, and it does what it is equipped for. The government Obama inherited from Bush, in specifically the weak-ass regulatory arms of the MMS--wasn't much. He should see to it that it becomes stronger, and I think incentives need to be made for energy alternatives and I really think oil should be disincentivized--and yes, that means I'm willing to pay, too. I believe we can do cleaner and better as a species, and stop crapping where we eat--who's with me?