Hey kids!
Do you remember long, long ago, when there was this hole in the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, caused when an oil platform owned by BP....(wasn't it called the "Deepwater Horizon?).....burned down and which resulted in millions of barrels of crude oil spilling into the Gulf from April 22 to July 15, 2010? And do you remember the hundreds of millions of dollars lost by the tourist industry, and by the shrimpers, the fishermen, and hotels and restaurants the five state Gulf region? And how about the severe damage done to the fragile ecosystem of the Gulf, the extent of which is still not known nor will it be for years to come.
There was greed, thee was negligence, there was inaction, there was recklessness....there was BP, primarily responsible for the greatest ecological disaster in American history.
And then there was the sight of Rep. Joe Barton (TX- 6th District, R) apologizing to BP CEO Tony Hayward in a Congressional hearing in June, saying that the President of the United States was trying to shakedown BP.
Shortly after this apology to Tony Hayward, Joe Barton was forced to to apologize for his apology by the Republican leadership. You'd think after this completely mindless display by Barton that he'd become a pariah, and forced to take a "timeout", or get to the end of the line....no way.
Joe Barton remains the ranking minority member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and all indications are that if the Republicans gain control of the House it's Barton who would become chairman of the committee.
That's right, the man who defended BP after the Gulf Oil spill will be chairing a committee that is responsible for overseeing oil regulations and sale, and other commerce in the United States.
And in his role as chairman of this committee, one of the things at the top of his (and the Republican's) agenda would be to repeal the Health Care Bill of 2010., the law that is derisively called "Obamacare" by the Right Wing and their minions. The repeal of the Health Care Bill is a cornerstone of the GOP's new gimmick, it's Pledge To America....and Joe Barton, will be leading the fight to undue reforms that have been needed in this country since the end of the Second World War.
We've already seen that Barton would (and does) carry water for Big Oil, and his uncompromising opposition to healthcare reform further paints a picture of man who claims to be of the people, but really isn't.
More of Joe Barton's Greatest Hits......
On the repeal of energy efficiency standards (passed during the Bush Administration).
Barton among conservative congressmen who threatened to withhold funding to PBS when international versions SESAME STREET introduced an HIV positive character. They didn't want any such characters on the American version.
Barton on his opposition to the "speculative" Climate Change Bill.
You want a rerun of the Bush years?
Stay home on election day, and you could get it.
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