EQUIPO NIZKOR |
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11jun10
Obama fights critics on spill response: report
President Barack Obama accused opponents in Congress of having double standards after they criticized his government for not taking greater control of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill response, according to Politico, a news organization that covers U.S. politics and government.
"I think it's fair to say, if six months ago, before this spill had happened, I had gone up to Congress and I had said we need to crack down a lot harder on oil companies and we need to spend more money on technology to respond in case of a catastrophic spill, there are folks up there, who will not be named, who would have said this is classic, big-government overregulation and wasteful spending," Obama said in an interview with Politico.
Obama, who has faced criticism for not doing more to stop the gushing BP deep sea well, made the comments as lawmakers gear up for another round of hearings featuring oil company executives. Obama will meet with BP CEO Tony Hayward in Washington on Wednesday.
"Some of the same folks who have been hollering and saying 'Do something' are the same folks who, just two or three months ago, were suggesting that government needs to stop doing so much," Obama said in the interview.
"Some of the same people who are saying the president needs to show leadership and solve this problem are some of the same folks who, just a few months ago, were saying this guy is trying to engineer a takeover of our society through the federal government that is going to restrict our freedoms."
[Source: Reuters, Washington, 11Jun10]
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