A Perspective on Obama's Meeting with BP

The basic idea behind BP's maneuver to try to get a bill through congress to cap the total amounts they're liable for, in an oil disaster - and the recent moves by a Republican Senator to try to get the Federal Government to clean up their mess - is pretty simple: liberalism.

The fact that stealth liberalism is coming from the Republican party is no surprise. But what's even more interesting is what happens when the executive decision comes into play.

Inside 30 minutes, Obama forced BP to pony up 20 billion dollars. Thats billion with a "B". He forced them to cover 100 million dollars in lost wages, immediately. And the Republicans that were in the room with BP went away with their mouths open and their wallets out.

That was pretty damned cool. The only people that should be paying for the big, unholy mess in the Gulf of Mexico... are the people who caused the mess. No one else. Now, all we need is something short of a miracle to help keep the oil in place long enough not to destroy half the gulf coast when hurricane season takes the 60,000 barrels of oil that have been pumped into the Gulf... per day... and washes it ashore.

Free markets are pretty cool, aren't they? If you screw up. You pay for it. Skin in the game. The single biggest motivating factor that anyone could ever have. In BP's case... 20 billion dollars worth of it. And if we're lucky - it will be just enough.