Republicans Reverse Spin on "Big Government"

Republicans, who have long denounced government spending and employed the rallying cry of "too much government intervention" to stir up public anger against the federal government, are changing their tune in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster. Republican lawmakers from Gulf states have started pushing for more federal resources and dollars to go to the recovery effort, and are denouncing the federal government for not getting involved sooner. Senator Richard Shelby (R-Alabama) asked the federal government to step up its work deploying booms to protect the coast from advancing oil. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama) said "the federal government does have a role" in responding to the crisis and inferred that federal regulators should have been more vigilant in overseeing drilling and preparing for such a disaster. Representative Mike Pence (R-Indiana) said the government should have deployed its resources sooner, instead of letting BP, a private company, be "in charge of the response for the first 12 days." The calls contradict conservatives' cries for limited government in the wake the 2008 financial meltdown.