Not an excuse. See previous posts. The cost-cutting decisions were made before Bush and Obama set by the regulatory agency.

Many people assumed that they were the right decisions, but cost-cutting in engineering decisions are based on statistics and the next one may be the "exception that proves...." and is a killer!

Obama, Bush and their predecessors must base their decisions on the advice of the regulatory agencies in charge- they are not engineers or food safety or whatever specialists.

If advice from the agencies that set and enforce the regulations is wrong, administrators get blamed when something occurs, but the howl from the public that the administrator is to blame is useless and clueless.