Rubio Backs $20 Billion BP Fund
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| Marco Rubio addresses the Republican Faithful at Datz Deli |
TAMPA (2010-06-28) -
It's been an ongoing controvery - whether the Obama Administration should have forced BP to set up an independent compensation fund. It led to an apology to BP from Texas Congressman Joe Barton. But fellow Republican and U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio said he backs the $20 billion fund.
Rubio paid a campaign visit to the south Tampa deli Datz, where the smell of corned beef on rye mixed with the mustard of election-year politics. He told the crowd the policies of the Obama administration would lead to socialism and erode the traditional American work ethic. But he did back the president's dealings with BP.
"I think the $20 billion fund was appropriate," says Rubio. "It guarantees that there will be money available to pay losses that exist and to make sure that the company was on board. It was voluntary, the company decided to do it."
Rubio says he continues to support offshore drilling, as long as it can be determined to be safe. He says the government needs to figure out why the wellhead blowout took place and how to stop it from happening again.
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The Congressman's support of
The Congressman's support of the $20 billion fund is admirable. However, his statement regarding the voluntary nature of the company's action does seem to have the feel that the company was doing the right thing out of the goodness of their corporate heart. While the action was voluntary in the sense that it was not mandated by a court, it was hardly something that BP volunteered to do. They were under intense political and public pressure. The story in the June 17th issue of the Wall Street Journal describes the four-hour long negotiation session that took place at the White House prior to the company's agreement to set aside US assets to cover the fund. Further, the company tried unsuccessfully to get the administration to limit the demand of the size of the fund to $20 billion. In other words, BP may yet be on the hook for considerably more than that sum. So, yes, a court did not command them to establish the fund. But, they likely would not have set it up but for the pressure applied.
As for Congressman Rubio's comments about socialism, one is left to wonder if the Congressman took a civics class in school. Every time he makes this comment (which seems to be every time he speaks), he invariably fails to provide any evidence that he actually understands what socialism is, as a form of government. The federal government temporarily owning parts of (or even all of) individual corporations is hardly new (e.g., the FDIC has been rescuing banks by temporarily "owning" them for decades) and any implication that the new healthcare legislation is a government takeover has been completely discredited. And, in any case, neither action defines socialism. If you have another chance to interview Mr. Rubio, Steve, you might ask him to describe just what he thinks socialism is and how precisely the US under the Obama administration is headed toward that form of government.