Let BP pay and not the American tax payer.
Let BP pay and not the American tax payer.
You bet! And that's the "conservative principle" involved in this fiasco with BP's drilling. It's their damage and no one else's.
There are too many FReepers here who want BP to "get away with murder" (so to speak) and only pay "pennies on the dollar" for what damage they have cause to the U.S. and the US Taxpayer.
You'll hear it by those who post that BP is "only responsible for $75 million" and they say that you can't make BP responsible for any more than that. That's just another way of saying that BP should only pay "pennies on the dollar" ... that's all.
For example, if they are limited to just $75 million and not the complete bill for the damage they've caused -- then if the entire bill is a mere $1 BILLION (unlikely to be that low, but just saying...) -- BP would only pay 7.5 cents for every dollar of damage they caused. The US Taxpayer would "pick up for BP" the remaining 92.5 cents for every dollar of damage that BP caused... hoo-boy! what a deal for the US Taxpayer ... LOL ...
More likely, though -- if the damage adds up to $10 BILLION -- then BP would only pay 3/4 of one penny for every dollar of damage that it caused. That would leave the American Taxpayer the bill of 99.25 cents for every dollar of BP's damage ... Yeeoooow! ... talk about the American Taxpayer "getting it in the shorts!"... that's ridiculous.
Can you imagine having some accident that you caused and you only paying 3/4 of one penny for your damage for every dollar of damage -- while you get the American taxpayer to "foot your bill" of the rest -- for 99.25 cents per dollar of damage that you caused in the accident?
That's exactly what some posters seem to want BP to do ... what a sweet deal for BP!!
bttt
Better idea:
Let the Congressmen who passed the $75 million liability cap in the first place pay.