Posted on 06/10/2010 5:48:50 AM PDT by shortstop
The economic ruin of the Gulf Coast isn't coming from the oil well.
It's coming from the Oval Office.
It's not BP, it's Obama.
Don't get me wrong. The ruptured oil well, and the incomprehensible amounts of crude flooding into the ocean, are horrific. This is a potential catastrophe, and the sight of fouled wetlands and helpless oil-covered birds is heartbreaking.
And it is a British Petroleum well that is doing that.
But right here and now, today, that's not what's putting the people of the Gulf Coast out of work. It's government dictate. Decisions made in Washington and imposed by the federal government.
The evening news tells us about the fisherman. Their boats sit idle at their morrings. People with bayou accents tell us about losing money every day they sit in port, about how if it goes on much longer they might have to simply go out of business.
That's all Obama. That is 100-percent federal government interference.
And that's just the beginning.
Because, no matter how much you and I like oysters and shrimp, fishing is not a big part of Louisiana's economy. While certainly huge to the individual fishermen and to the important industry they supply, commercial fishing comprises just 1 percent of Louisiana's gross domestic product.
Big, certainly, but not huge.
And not well liked by the environmentalists who have been brought into the Obama Administration. The environmentalist community has complained of supposed over fishing and has called for dramatic cutbacks in commercial fishing in the Gulf of Mexico.
Which ends up, coincidentally, being exactly what the president has imposed.
Because he is the one who has, with the wave of his magic pen, put the fishermen out of business. It is not oil which has sidelined the fishing fleet, it is a government ban. From the first days of the oil spill, the federal government has outlawed all commercial fishing in almost all of the Gulf of Mexico. There was an immediate shut down.
The fishing boats are in port because the Obama Administration has ordered them to be there.
The assumption of many is that the oil has forced them to stay home. That is not true.
While there is a lot of oil in the gulf, it is still -- amazingly -- randomly and remotely distributed across the gulf. While the map on the evening news shows a big black blob stretching continuously for hundreds of miles across the sea, the fact is that, even after a month and a half of this gusher, one can sail for days across the gulf without seeing any oil whatsoever.
That doesn't mean it's not an environmental disaster.
It just means that it's not everywhere.
And that means that vast stretches of the Gulf of Mexico are completely fishable. There is no need to order the boats into port. The water and the creatures in it are clean and edible.
If there are concerns, test the catch. If fishemen are concerned about submerged oil soiling their nets, then they can choose not to fish.
But to order them not to fish -- as the Obama Administration has done -- is unwarranted by the conditions and an unjustified use of federal power.
It is Barack Obama, not BP, who has idled the gulf's fishing fleet. It is Barack Obama, not BP, who has put those fishermen out of work.
But that, like I said, is just 1 percent.
The bigger White House attack on the gulf states' economy came last Friday.
That's when Barack Obama declared a six-month moratorium on new drilling and exploration in the Gulf of Mexico. After a little talk about how America needs to get off fossil fuels -- a passionate belief of his ilk -- he said that all new oil work in the gulf had to come to an immediate and complete stop.
That's 16 percent of Louisiana's gross domestic product.
And that doesn't include the diners that sell lunch to the oil workers or the automobile dealerships that sell them pick-ups. It doesn't include the parts suppliers or the helicopters that move workers to the platforms or the bankers who serve oil workers and their employers. All of that is on top of the basic 16 percent.
The largest part of the economy of Louisiana and the gulf states is oil.
And Barack Obama put that out of business for six months.
Which is like a 2-by-4 upside the head of the region's economy.
And that didn't come from BP, it came from the White House.
One well went wrong, and not since the battleship Maine has one mysterious explosion done more to impact American policy. One well went wrong, out of literally thousands in the gulf, and the president has turned the world upside down.
He ordered the fishing to stop. He ordered the drilling to stop.
And, in the name of an emergency, two of the environmental pipe dreams of his supporters have come true. The liberal, environmentalist agenda has been advanced.
And the economy of the gulf coast has been clobbered.
Not by the oil well, but by the president.
We’re hearing job loses in the energy sector in Houston of 25-75 thousand people. This will be as bad as the slump in the 80’s. If we were a blue state would Obummer be doing this?
....”never let a crisis go to waste”
He seems to be reversing course when it comes to the blame game. CNN and the locals got their marching orders when zero was down there.
Took the words out of my mouth !
and meanwhile obama party’s on.....
No, this is a catastrophe. And yes, it is BP's fault as well as the BO administration letting BP slide on its inspections.
But, hey, he's a democrat, so let's give him a free pass while he destroys the economy and Constitution.
This is right on the money. When the first reaction of the BO Misadministration is to shut down all other safely functioning drilling operations, stand in the way of cleanup operations, announce $400,000,000 grant to the terrorist state of Hamas which could have been better used to create sand burms along the Louisiana coastline, and use the entire spill to try to dredge up support for his confiscatory Cap and Trade, it is pretty obvious that he is the problem. When will the rest of America wake up????
Just sent these GDP facts to Jake Tapper of ABC News’ - he tweeted back that (quote) he did “not like my tone”...?
My communication to him was “Try reporting this...”
This is NOT a catastrophe, this is another shameful display of the American Media displaying its disgraceful distaste for the American PEOPLE.
Recently there were CATASTROPHIC floods in the American south. Where was Obama? Where was the media coverage? Where were the nightly views of ruined communities. Where was the 24/7 stories of homeless Americans, frantically trying to salvage..anything? Where were talking heads standing before homes and buildings flooded to the second story? Where were the “humanitarians” of the music industry putting on fund raising concerts to aid their “fellow” Americans? Where....where... where?
But now we have a veritable flood of TV time, platitudes and tears over the pictures of oil soaked birds. How many of those “wonderful” people who have rushed to the aid of the birds and pelicans, sped to the aid of their fellow PEOPLE, in their hour of disaster?
Boy, is something screwed up big time.
Great post!
And fits with my tag-line!
And who really benefits then? The Saudis must be partying like its 1999.
The failure to contain and cleanup is 100% Obama’s fault. If the person in charge was in the Gulf and not partying, bbqing, golfing and vacationing for 50 days, the spill and the damage to the enviroment and cost to cleanup would be as great.
Excellent point. In addition shutting down millions of timber jobs in the Northwest because of the lie about the spotted owl.
Shutting down salmon fishing along the west coast because of the poor fishes putting thousands of small business' out of business, and driving up costs for food.
And the most shameful, shutting down water to farmers in San Juanquin valley California, the bread basket of America for the 3 inch delta smelt.
The enviormentalists are commies, man is bad but some men (them) are good.
Hypersensitive girlie boy?
We are effecting the good relations of our allies. (Obama warns Brits: "you must send more troops to Afghanistan!)
Lyrics revised from Larry Platt's Pants on the Ground
Boots on the throat
Boots on the throat
Lookin' like a fool
With your boot on BP
Playin' like ya got
gold in your mouth
Hat turned sideways
Pants hitting the ground
Call yourself a cool cat
With your boot on BP
Kickin' some ass
With your pants hitting the ground..
“33 USC § 1321(c)(1)(A) provides:
The President shall, in accordance with the National Contingency Plan and any appropriate Area Contingency Plan, ensure effective and immediate removal of a discharge, and mitigation or prevention of a substantial threat of a discharge, of oil…”
Much more at the link.
Unfortunately that is entirely appropriate.
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