"Our Children and Grandchildren are not merely statistics towards which we can be indifferent" JFK

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Nancy Pelosi thinks eliminating the oil company liability cap "is worth looking at", yet voted for the cap in 1990!

May 29 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congress should consider eliminating the cap on damages that companies such as BP Plc have to pay for harm from oil spills.

“There is a movement afoot in Congress for that,” Pelosi said in an interview yesterday on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt” airing this weekend. “Why have a cap?”

Pelosi had previously voiced support for a proposal to raise to $10 billion the existing $75 million cap for economic damages caused by each environmental disaster.

“You would hope that there would not be more than $10 billion of damage, but understand it is for each episode,” she said. Asked about eliminating the cap altogether, Pelosi, 70, said, “I think it’s worthy of looking at.”
Link to complete article on Ms. Hypocrite


Grandpa: Congressional hypocrisy levels remain elevated to record levels. Politicians are stumbling over themselves to announce the injustice of limiting liability of BP given the ecological devastation. BP has stated that they will pay all "legitimate claims" even if they exceed the $75 million liability cap. And BP's interpretation of legitimate is.....

We Americans can thank the 101st United States Congress for the liability cap as they passed the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 and it was signed into law in August 1990. Once again, our elected officials (a.k.a. pin heads) believe we are a country of idiots with no memories and no interest in history. Grandpa is here to guide them back in time.

The year was 1990 and sad to say, many of our current "pin heads" alleged they were "representing" children and grandchildren 20 years ago. Our President was George H. Bush and Dan Quayle sat in as co-pilot. Democrats held 55 of the 100 Senate seats while the same party occupied 261 of the 435 House of Representative seats.

The House of Representatives passed the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 by a huge margin and included in this act was limiting the liability of oil companies. The Senate opted for a voice vote knowing that it would be impossible for Grandpa to track down who voted yes.

The bill had 79 co-sponsors including: Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer and Barney Frank. The following, not a complete list of hypocrites voted aye:

Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, Henry Waxman, Charles Schumer, Jim Bunning (grandpa very disappointed), Peter DeFazio, Olympia Snowe, Barney Frank, Edolphus Towns, John "I've been in Congress since 1955" Dingell, Jr., Charles Rangel, Marcia Kaptur (grandpa very disappointed II) and Paul "since 1985 I appeared on CNBC 519 times" Kanjorski.

We all need to request a response from our Senate side of Hypocrisy Boulevard given the "voice vote" however a few noteworthy potential hypocrites still in the Senate 20 years later include:

John McCain, Chris Dodd, Joseph Lieberman, Joe "I got to be VP" Biden, Richard "hard working Americans have paid my salary since 1977" Luger, Chuck Grassley, Mitch McConnell, Carl "31 years" Levin, Max "35 years in Congress" Baucus, Harry Reid, Kent Conrad, Orrin "33 year club" Hatch, John Warner and Richard Shelby.

The next time you hear or read about a "pin head" pounding the table to raise the oil company liability cap, ask yourself where they were in 1990 and how did they vote? This Vigilant Grandpa will do what needs to be done to assure our children and grandchildren of an equitable and optimistic future. Be very very careful "pin heads" as grandpa is packing a very large hammer!

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