Will Orange Julius Bail Out BP?

It certainly looks like John Boehner wants the American taxpayer to subsidize the clean-up effort in the Gulf.  Brian Beutler reports:

"I think the people responsible in the oil spill--BP and the federal government--should take full responsibility for what's happening there," Boehner said at his weekly press conference this morning.

Boehner's statement followed comments last Friday by US Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue who said he opposes efforts to stick BP, a member of the Chamber, with the bill. "It is generally not the practice of this country to change the laws after the game," he said. "Everybody is going to contribute to this clean up. We are all going to have to do it. We are going to have to get the money from the government and from the companies and we will figure out a way to do that."

So today I asked Boehner, "Do you agree with Tom Donohue of the Chamber that the government and taxpayers should pitch in to clean up the oil spill?" The shorter answer is yes.

Really?  I wonder how the Tea Party candidates are going to view sticking the American taxpayer with the clean up bill.  I'd like to ask them if they agree with their party's House leader.

And hey look, Orange Julius is already walking this one back as far as he can now that somebody in his press office figured out what he said.

John Boehner spokesman Michael Steel emails to say Boehner does not believe that the government should be on the hook for the cost of the oil spill.
"Boehner made a general statement about who is responsible for the spill, and the federal government oversight was clearly lacking, but he has said repeatedly that BP is responsible for the cost of the cleanup," Steele writes, pointing me to a Boehner statement from May 3, several days after the spill began.

"The White House must ensure that BP bears the entire financial burden to clean up this disaster. Not a dime of taxpayer money should be used to clean up their mess."

And yet Orange Julius's first instinct is to saddle the American taxpayer with another bailout for their corporate buddies.  That shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to them for the last several decades.  He also doesn't believe that BP's liability post-cleanup for everyone that this spill has affected should be more than $75 million...which is what BP's worldwide operations take in in about an hour or so considering the grossed over $200 billion last year in revenues.

Keep going there, OJ.