What is Happening?

The GOP is always in favor of big government when it's in the interest of the GOP. When was the last time a Republican did anything but spend us deeper into debt?

Just because someone is a republican does not mean that they are conservative. There are many in the republican party that are just as much for big government socialism as the commiecrats are. We call them RINOs.

The reason they are turning to the Federal Government is that is what the rules state. Before they can burn the oil they must have permission from the EPA to burn. The permission was delayed for several days. The test burn was cut short because the environmentalist objected to the burn. Why did it take the government so long to respond to this threat? From some reports it seems that the EPA and other officials had too many Earth Day Events to attend to pay any attention to the oil spill.

Can you spell H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-T-E? I was very interested to read the following from the article to which you linked: An analysis of data from the nonpartisan Tax Foundation by Washington Post database specialist Dan Keating found that people in states that voted Republican were by far the biggest beneficiaries of federal spending. In states that voted strongly Republican, people received an average of $1.50 back from the federal government for every dollar they paid in federal taxes. In moderately Republican states, the amount was $1.19. In moderately Democratic states, people received on average of 99 cents in federal funds for each dollar they paid in taxes. In strongly Democratic states, people got back just 86 cents on the tax dollar. (End of excerpt) Fascinating! Do you suppose most of the tea partiers from red states are aware that they actually get more of their tax dollars back than us blue staters who actually realize there is a place for government? I'll bet they believe they're getting cheated when that couldn't be further from the truth...lol! I'm not in favor of "big government" but there are some things government can and should do, such as protecting the people from big corporations! Annie

First off, the GOP IS in favor of big government, I wouldn't dispute that for a second. THIS however, is not a big government issue. As Bobmu pointed out, they NEED governmental approval to burn the oil. Also, this is not as simple as a BP problem. This is a problem affecting water, wildlife, and people that have nothing to do with BP. It is a disaster and it needs to be cleaned up by a properly trained disaster team. Only the federal government has access to the resources necessary to deal with this mess. Therefore it should be cleaned up and BP should be billed for it.

Ok...I am not a republican but I am still going to jump in on this. The republican party has lost it way. It used to be the party that stood for limited federal government, fiscal responsibility and free market. But they sold out. Now they sound just like the Democratic party. The two parties are the now just two sides of the same coin. Neither understands fiscal responisibility. Neither really wants to limit the federal government. It is a sad state of affairs...but it is the truth. If you want small government, free market or limited federal power...look to third parties...you won't find it in the two major parties anymore.