Keith Hennesey lays out how easy it is to waive the Jones Act (he organized it twice during the Bush Administration) and let whatever ships want to help us with the oil spill help.
Jones Act waivers are in the news because of the Gulf oil spill. I would like to contribute to that discussion by sharing my experiences coordinating the Jones Act waivers for President Bush in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In 2005 I served as the Deputy at the White House National Economic Council.
Read it and this will make more sense.
At the heart of the issue with Obama’s administration is that he, and those he has placed in power, fundamentally don’t care about Americans. Obama cares about himself. And his staff and appointees care about precise causes or economic interests, and they just can’t seem to do anything well that isn’t in their area of focus. They are activists with agendas not managers with competence.
What incentive would an eco-kook who hates oil drilling have to stop this mess? And what skills would they bring to the table? Yet that is the sort of person the Administration put in charge of monitoring oil drilling. BP made a boo-boo, but in doing so they are highlighting just how foolish our government is.