Obama’s Twist of BP’s Arm Stirs Debate on Frequent Tactic

[Jeffersons Ghost]

Obama’s Twist of BP’s Arm Stirs Debate on Frequent Tactic
WASHINGTON — First there was General Motors, whose chief executive was summarily dismissed by the White House shortly before the government became the company’s majority shareholder. Chrysler was forced into a merger. At the banks that received government bailouts, executive pay was curbed; at insurance companies seeking to jack up premiums, scathing criticism led to rollbacks.

But President Obama’s successful move to force BP to establish a $20 billion compensation fund that the company will have no voice in allocating — just a down payment, the president insisted — may have been the most vivid example of what he recently called his determination to step in and do “what individuals couldn’t do and corporations wouldn’t do.”

With that display of raw arm-twisting, Mr. Obama reinvigorated a debate about the renewed reach of government power, or, alternatively, the power of government overreach. It is an argument that has come to define Mr. Obama’s first 18 months in office, and one that Mr. Obama clearly hopes to make a central issue in November’s midterm elections.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/18/us/18assess.html?hp

[rzemanfl]

1. I think "this Administration is all that stands between you and the

pitchforks" is a better description what happened.

[blindpig]

2. Newspeak

To portray these investor class robberies and extortions as victories of government for the people is laughable, and it is the investor class that is laughing all the way to the bank. A "display of raw arm twisting" , truly Orwellian. Expropriate without compensation, now that would would be suitable for the phrase.

[shraby]

3. If he hadn't got BP to create the escrow account, he would

have been labeled "ineffective" against BP. They just aren't going to give him a good word.

[spanone]

4. fuck the critics...damned if you do damned if you don't