Harry Reid to extend govt waste.

Still our oil spills. I am so sad by the environmental disaster we have right now. Our government and BP need to figure this out.

It's awful. The environment is a precious resource. I cannot imagine how long this will take to fix if ever.
And just another example of gov't bureaus with conflicted mandates. Maximizing revenue and insuring safety. And how can we trust either BP or the gov't when they have a vested interest in blaming the other.

Rand Paul, Rand Paul, Rand Paul!

Libertarians would have made BP fully liable, Democrats & Republicans decided Oil companies should not be fully liable and permitted the tax payers to assume liability above a cap while allowing BP all the profits.
In this regard the libertarian position is superior. Govt role is to enforce laws, not to get in bed with oil companies. A gov't agency designed to promote maximum oil revenue of the oil industry and at the same time ensure safety, is a conflicted goal. No different than the Fed seeking to promote consumer safety and banking profits at the same time.

Rand Paul, Rand Paul, Rand Paul!

Ill take take a pass, but I'm sure he appreciates your support.

i have heard that such an inordinate quantity of crude has been released that the chemistry of the sea has been permanently altered.. two tragedies here, 1) the spill 2) the efforts being made to attempt one of the biggest cover-ups in history to american people. any "official" numbers you hear, multiply them by at least 100 to get a more realistic picture

The government's handling of this crisis has been atrocious. Job 1 should be on capping the well, limiting damage and figuring out how to clean it up. Issues of liability and finger pointing need to be tabled while everyone works toward a solution. I'd also be interested in hearing from non-politicians on what best practices should be to prevent a recurrence.

"Issues of liability and finger pointing need to be tabled while everyone works toward a solution."

Rand Paul, Rand Paul, Rand Paul!

agreed job #1 should be capping the well. but most important is to understand everything that went wrong here and present it to the people in a transparent way or it will just happen again.

Yes. But I suspect that we as a society would have our usual problem about agreeing on anything.

@columbiacounty: Yes. But I suspect that we as a society would have our usual problem about agreeing on anything.

Correct,
so...what we need is a magic politician:

"so...here's how we get started.

a politician stands up and says: there are no easy answers anymore. for a viable future, we need to have shared sacrifice. rather than try to figure out how and which programs to cut, lets start with a lengthy dialogue aimed at creating a process that is fair."

You certainly are in love with this concept.