Paying damages for Gulf oil spill

Well, it's now universal -- everyone hates BP. There's so much hatred for BP that whatever is done to them will be justified. Kenneth Feinberg has been given the responsibility to pay claims out of the 20 billion dollars BP has given to the adminsitration to set up a claims fund. This doesn't prevent people from suing later.

Who will oversee Feinberg and the payment operation? What measures are being taken to prevent fraud, and what screening process will be set to up for hiring? This fund operation has all the markings of major screw-up, but, at least, for right now, it's not our tax dollars being spent.

There's a good possibility that fraudulent claims will eat up a good portion of the fund, and then the fund will need more BP money. At what point will BP try to stop the bleeding? Once the money starts flowing, it's going to be like the oil flow from the damaged pipes, it won't be plugged. Once the lawsuits start, they won't stop for a long, long time. Government is not good at this sort of thing, especially unique situations like the gulf disaster, and the people hired will not be hired on the basis of competence -- nepotism and political favors will be rampant.

The people sanctioning the claims will look at the fund as monopoly money since it's coming from BP, even though government does the same when it's our money. The claims payment operation will likely be a fiasco that's talked about for years. When competent oversight is finally forced on the operation, BP will not likely be standing, then taxpayers will be asked to pay for the clean-up -- the gulf clean-up and the clean-up of the claims operation.