Private industry is always more efficient than slow and lazy government workers, right? The Republicans are always so right about everything. BP has been released from the shackles of government tyranny and is showing everyone how glorious modern capitalism really can be. Let's join Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post and give BP a round of applause. And a group hug while we're at it.
The reefs that David Walter makes for anglers to drop into the Gulf of Mexico are fake, but his frustration as he tries to win compensation from BP for lost income is real.Well, there will always be a complainer here or there. Except for the others.
State regulators stopped issuing permits for the reefs on May 4 because of the oil spill, effectively killing off $350,000 in Walter's expected business. It sent him into a labyrinth of archived invoices and documents lost by BP. Finally, an offer came: $5,000.
"I said that's not fair because if you say that, then I have to go out of business and I lose everything," said Walter, whose company is based in Alabama.
Fishermen, property owners and businesspeople who have filed damage claims with BP are angrily complaining of delays, excessive paperwork and skimpy payments that have put them on the verge of going under as the financial and environmental toll of the seven-week-old disaster grows.
Shrimpers, oystermen, seafood businesses, out-of-work drilling crews and the tourism industry all are lining up to get paid back the billions of dollars washed away by the slick, and tempers have flared as locals direct outrage at BP over what they see as a tangle of red tape.Some kids are so selfish. Why do kids whose parents businesses that have been ruined and are left with nothing because of BP hate capitalism? Thank goodness people like John Boehner and David Vitter are around to help protect BP.
"Every day we call the adjuster eight or 10 times. There's no answer, no answering machine," said Regina Shipp, who has filed $33,000 in claims for lost business at her restaurant in Alabama. "If BP doesn't pay us within two months, we'll be out of business. We've got two kids."
