Who cares if President Obama’s “order” for BP to establish an escrow account cuts into their profits?

You should, if you want BP to actually pay the bill. Contrary to some people’s assumptions, BP is not a bottomless pit of wealth from which an endless amount of personal claims and government containment and cleanup costs can be paid. If the bill presented to BP is presented up-front, without time for BP to actually find cash to pay it, the result could be forcing BP into bankruptcy. If that happens, no one is getting paid by BP any more. More seriously (and completely ignored by the demonization campaign against BP), a BP bankruptcy would destroy thousands of jobs in the very same region of the country that we’re all supposed to be trying to help.

And quoting BP’s profits from the past doesn’t mean that that money is just sitting around as cash, ready to pay out. Most profits are reinvested, and a very small proportion is retained as liquid capital. Moreover, BP has lost a huge proportion of its overall market value and its ability to raise liquid capital because of its dramatic stock market decline.

In short, those demonizing BP and targeting it for punitive sanctions in the tens or hundreds of billions risk killing the goose that laid the oily egg before that goose can spit out any gold ones.