DOWNLOADS: (533)

PLAYS: (461)

Embed

Haley Barbour backtracked from his previous statement that the $20 billion escrow account would make it less likely that BP will pay for everything in regards to the damages from the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Now that he's found out the money will only go out in payments of $5 billion a year, he's much less worried his campaign donor will go out of business any time soon.

GREGORY: Governor, you--Governor Barbour, you've been concerned about the idea of this escrow fund, this $20 billion fund. Why?

BARBOUR: Right. Well, I thought that they were talking about taking $20 billion from BP all at once, and my fear was if you took $20 billion from them all at once, put it in an escrow account, then they wouldn't have the working capital to generate the revenue to pay us. I think the president was smart, and I congratulate him and BP that they reached an agreement. Instead of $20 billion taken out of that working capital all at once, it's actually going to be $5 billion this year, $5 billion the next year, $5 billion the following year and $5 billion the fourth year. That makes sure--as Mary Landrieu says, we want to make sure that BP stays in business, generates the revenues that will pay what they owe the states and our citizens. And I think the--I don't know if it's a compromise or not--the agreement they worked out not to do all the $20 billion, put it in an escrow account all at once, means that we're much more likely to get everything paid by BP, who, by the way, is supposed to pay everything.

I'm still wondering when Barbour will admit that there is a need for the fund in his state and that the oil has washed up on the shores of Mississippi as well.

DOWNLOADS: (339)

PLAYS: (171)

Embed

As Think Progress noted, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour seemed to be a lot more concerned for BP's profits than leaving taxpayers on the hook for the damage that's been done by the giant oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico.

Barbour Is Concerned That Escrow Account Will Cut Into BP’s Profits: ‘It Bothers Me’:

Sticking with the “Obama is a socialist” meme, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) called the account a “redistribution of wealth fund.” Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) also thinks it is a bad idea. Although he noted on Fox News last night that BP is “saying that they have the ability to pay and that they will pay,” Barbour expressed concern that BP will lose some profits.

...It’s unclear why Barbour is so worried about BP not having enough funds for the account. The company made $163 billion in profits from 2001 through 2009 and nearly $6 billion in the first quarter of 2010 alone. As the Washington Post noted, in the early days of the spill, BP paid $17.5 million per day while the company made on average $93 million per day in the first quarter.

Actually to the contrary, they made it very clear why Barbour is defending BP.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (411)

PLAYS: (622)

Embed

Well it appears Gov. Haley Barbour (R-BP) is still living on a river named Denial and refusing to admit the potential damage to Mississippi's coast line from the Deepwater Horizon disaster. John King asks Barbour if his perspective on the risk to his state has changed now that the government has admitted the amount of oil pouring into the Gulf is probably twice as much as originally estimated. (And John King fails here since that number would be more like forty to a hundred times more than we were originally told by BP and the government. They said it was one thousand barrels John, then five thousand and they're still not telling us the truth.)

Barbour: Well of course it changes the scope because there's a lot more oil. Now as I understand it the numbers they put out yesterday were the total flow did not include the 15,000 barrels that's being captured by their cap, whatever they call it, but yeah, it means that much more oil's in the Gulf and it means that there's that much more that has to either be dispersed, burned, skimmed or whatever.

And it also means that there's a higher likelihood that it will get to Mississippi. We have not had any of oil onto Mississippi's beaches. We had one intrusion on one of the barrier islands. It came up one day and washed out the next day and left no uhh... you couldn't even tell it had even been there.

Washed away huh? Just like magic. Can't even tell it was there. Good grief who does this goober think he's kidding? He goes onto repeat the line about how the biggest economic damage to his state has been caused by the news scaring all the tourists away and of course tries to give more cover to his good buddies in the oil industry.

DOWNLOADS: (940)

PLAYS: (1882)

Embed

Gov. Haley Barbour was still living in a state called denial during his appearance on Fox News Sunday when he proclaimed that the media was doing more damage than the oil disaster to Mississippi.

"Well, the truth is, Chris, we have had virtually no oil," Barbour told Fox News' Chris Wallace Sunday.

..."The average viewer to this show thinks that the whole coast from Florida to Texas is ankle-deep in oil," he said.

"Our tourist season has been hurt by the misperception of what is going on down here. The Mississippi Gulf Coast is beautiful. As I tell people, the coast is clear. Come on down!"

They may not be "ankle-deep in oil" yet, but it looks like Waveland, Mississippi is ankle-deep in dead fish. I'm sure Haley will just tell us this is naturally occurring as well.

h/t Think Progress who has The pictures BP doesn’t want you to see: Round 2.

Click here for full size image.

DOWNLOADS: (1427)

PLAYS: (1232)

Embed

I caught this on Hardball as well and was focused on Matthews touting tort reform as a solution to health care costs, which is nothing but a distraction and right wing talking point as Daphne Eviatar does a nice job of summing up here. Digby took note of why allowing the likes of Haley Barbour to tout Mississippi as a model for health care reform is absolutely ridiculous.

The state is a disaster when it comes to health care on every front. But they have reduced their premiums and now nobody can expect restitution if a drunk doctor cuts off the wrong limb, so everything's just ducky in Haley's world. In fact the whole country should "experiment" with Mississippi's great successes.

In case you were wondering, number one is Vermont, followed by Hawaii and Iowa. If Barbour and his buddies were willing to take the lead of the states that actually deliver pretty good health care his words wouldn't ring so hollow. But all he cares about is destroying trial lawyers on behalf of his rich friends and throwing poor people off Medicaid. I don't think that's a serious solution to the problem so there's no reason to listen to anything he or any other Republican says on this subject.

Lots of stats and more over at Digby's place. So much for that "librul" media huh?

Transcript via Nexis Lexis below the fold.

Continue reading »