“But did he have an alternate suggestion other than every impacted person having to sue for damages?”
Ever heard of a “class-action” lawsuit? This would have moved into that realm very quickly, but now BP has a legal OUT or sorts! Hey, go through those guys - not us!
This was a shakedown, Obamao now has ANOTHER slush fund and BP has been given an out because this third party gets to decide who gets what and when! They can simply tell people who go to sue them that they need to file a claim with the slush fund group. This could give BP YEARS of coverage which means they can keep deflecting their total monetary responsibilities through this slush fund!!!
Not to mention, the President does NOT have the authority to demand this kind of action from a company! PERIOD! End of story! He can request and he can suggest, but to come out and flatly state that he DEMANDED this, means it was an illegal shakedown! Extortion using the US Presidency as the backbone!
Obamao embarrassed the United States more from this one action than all his other bowing and groveling and gift giving combined!!
“Obamao embarrassed the United States more from this one action than all his other bowing and groveling and gift giving combined!!”
We OFFICIALLY became a Banana Republic on June 16th, 2010!
Yep. And what do the people do for the 8 or 10 years BP can drag it out in court?
This was a shakedown...
This was the biggest PR gift to BP that Obama could have given them. BP is off the hook now. It's ponied up the money and Obama has appointed his relief czar so now the government owns it. Any delay in payment, any bureacracy, any red tape, any delays or fraud or overlooked victim is now due to government incompetence and not any evil corporate intent on BPs part. They can sit back and say, correctly, "We provided the money that the government demanded. If it isn't getting to the right people and the right places then it's not our fault." Sooner or later Obama will run out of things he can blame them for.