Government to the Rescue .... NOT!

The media is treating to us a ping-pong blame game for the failed clean up effort for the blown out BP rig. The pundits are engaged in the pointless question of what the government or BP should be doing about the clean up. The one quote that stands out to me is the Coast Guard chief's statement that his agency wouldn't know the first thing about a clean up effort.


So, I've just got to ask, isn't it government's core job to protect the public interest? Isn't it in the public's interest not to have oil fouled beaches, dead fisheries, and a ruined tourism business for Louisiana?

With all the billions that the government has reaped from taxes on oil company profits and lease payments on offshore oil rigs over the decades, and the certain knowledge that __it happens, wouldn't you think the government would have invested those billions of dollars into an environmental safety net that would protect our national coastlines from such disasters?

Once again I see in my mind's eye all those New Orleans school district buses lined up safely in their depot, without one single person's life-saving idea to use them to transport people out of the city, safely away from Hurricane Katrina.

Based on these two incidents, you realize that it's every man for themself because the government, robber and thief of your hard-earned money, is no guardian of your safety or your fundamental interests when __it happens. Make sure you're prepared for.... whatever. The government -- at all levels -- is not.

P.S. Peggy Noonan spelled out these same thoughts in more detail in her WSJ article a few days after my post.