Roundup

TPMDC Sunday Roundup

Eric Kleefeld | May 30, 2010, 1:09PM

Browner Points Finger At BP
Appearing on Face The Nation, White House energy adviser Carol Browner placed the blame on BP for early inaccurate estimates of the size of the Gulf Coast oil spill. "It's important to understand that BP has a financial interest in what those flow rates are. They will ultimately pay a fine based on those rates," said Browner. When asked whether she thought the company lied about initial estimates, Browner replied: "The very, very first estimates came from BP. They had the footage of the plume. The government then did satellite imagery and we realized that those figures were not accurate."

BP's Dudley: Those Weren't Our Estimates
Also on Face The Nation, BP Managing Director Bob Dudley defended the company's performance. "The estimates from the well rates have never been BP estimates. They've been through the unified command center. The best way to estimate those early rates were from satellite picture," said Dudley. He later added: "The current estimates by the government are between 12 and 19,000 barrels a day. The precision on these estimates has always been low. We have designed the spill response for much, much higher rates."

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Barack Obama

TPMDC Saturday Roundup

Eric Kleefeld | October 3, 2009, 1:10PM

Obama: Small Businesses Need Health Care Reform
In this weekend's YouTube address, President Obama pitched the Democratic health care proposals as being good for small businesses:

"Altogether, they create roughly half of all new jobs. And right now, they are paying up to 18 percent more for the very same insurance plans as larger businesses because they have higher administrative costs and less bargaining power," said Obama. "Many have been forced to cut benefits or drop coverage. Some have shed jobs or shut their doors entirely. And recent studies show that if we fail to act now, employers will pay six percent more to insure their employees next year - and more than twice as much over the next decade."

GOP Address Blasts Obama And Pelosi's "Job-Killing Agenda"
In this weekend's Republican address, Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI) called upon PResident Obama and Speaker Nancy Pelosi to "put aside their job-killing agenda" and work with the GOP:

"All told, our economy has lost roughly 3 million private-sector jobs since President Obama and Speaker Nancy Pelosi's trillion-dollar 'stimulus' plan became law," said Miller, later adding: "It didn't have to be this way."

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