Former Clinton Secretary of State and Obama advisor Robert Reich calls for government takeover of British Petroleum

As if the U.S. Government isn't running enough businesses, from banks, financial service companies, insurance companies, car companies, and other assorted and sundry formerly private sector businesses, now influential Democrat operative Robert Reich is calling for President Obama to simply takeover British Petroleum.

Never mind the fact that BP is a publicly owned multi-national corporation, which has stockholders spread all over the globe. Never mind that BP already has the manpower, knowledge, and equipment to best handle the situation in the gulf. Never mind that BP has EVERY incentive to solve the crisis as soon as possible, since the longer the oil gushes into the gulf, the larger BP's cleanup expenses will become, and the bigger and more numerous the payouts to affected gulf coast industries and citizens will be, not to mention the black mark upon BP's record that is likely to last for years, if not decades.

The nationalization of private industry is the kind of thinking going on in the modern Democrat/liberal/progressive mindset: If private business doesn't do what government wants, when government wants, then government should simply take over that business and run it themselves.

Reich is calling for the takeover of BP based on the precedents set by President Obama since his ascent to office. Says Reich:

"If the government can take over giant global insurer AIG and the auto giant General Motors and replace their CEOs, in order to keep them financially solvent, it should be able to put BP’s north American operations into temporary receivership in order to stop one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history."

The Obama administration has created a Federal monster, in that once government usurps the rights of private business and it's owners, whether it be individual, partnership, or a corporation with stockholders, government then wants to use their new found power with greater frequency (Bureaucrats, after all, by their very nature want to manage something). First, it was mismanaged and financially destitute business' that were deemed "too big to fail". The government takeover of banking and auto companies allowed the administration to effect political payoffs by transferring ownership to big time financial contributors and supportive labor unions. Now it's an oil company that isn't working fast enough for certain members of the U.S. government, and which is becoming a political liability to the Obama administration.

It wasn't very long ago, politically speaking, that it would have been unthinkable for the U.S. Government to simply take over massive sectors of private enterprise. I seriously doubt that if Robert Reich, as a Cabinet member, had suggested to then President Bill Clinton that the U.S. Government should nationalize an oil company, that he'd even be taken seriously. The public outcry if such a statement were made public "way back then" would have been enormous.

Yet here we are, in 2010, only two administrations later, and government takeovers are "old hat". So much so, that it hardly makes news when Obama advisor Robert Reich floats a "trial balloon" about further government takeovers, such as he did on June 1st.

The U.S. Constitution clearly defines the role of Federal government. Nowhere does that document allow the kind of abuse of power we've come to expect from Washington, D.C.

When does government begin to honor the Constitution, and put a check on it's own power? Fact is, at this point, with the Obama White House flush with victory on several controversial fronts, primarily through political manuevering, and despite the opposition of the majority of the American people on several major issues, including bailouts, takeovers, and socialized health care, there is no reason to believe that this administration will suddenly decide that "enough is enough".