Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), in a statement, said today that BP’s corporate culture prioritized cost cutting over safety, an attempt to counter the preliminary conclusions released by commission staff today. The findings came as a recent ProPublica/Frontline investigation documented significant safety lapses throughout BP’s recent history.

Here’s his statement:

When the culture of a company favors risk-taking and cutting corners above other concerns, systemic failures like this oil spill disaster result without direct decisions being made or tradeoffs being considered.

What is fully evident, from BP’s pipeline spill in Alaska and the Texas city refinery disaster, to the Deepwater Horizon well failure, is that BP has a long and sordid history of cutting costs and pushing the limits in search of higher profits.

Davenport said the House bill does include some pilot programs that would test changing these incentives, which could be expanded if they turn out to be successful. But the basic reimbursement system, in which doctors get paid for every appointment or procedure they perform, rather than a set fee for providing care, would not necessarily change.

President Obama has said that the current system “rewards the quantity of care rather than the quality of care,” and most experts agree that this leads to unnecessary and potentially harmful medical practice, while encouraging the spiraling of health care costs. So why isn’t this a bigger emphasis in the bill?

The House bill, said Davenport, does make some changes, such as “increasing payment for primary care providers in Medicaid,” and “creating bonus payments for primary care providers in Medicare in certain underserved areas.” In other words, give doctors incentives to be primary care physicians rather than specialists, and to go where medical help is needed. But that still doesn’t address the incentives for specialists.

Already, the law requires doctors to disclose any financial interests they have in other health care facilities they’re referring patients to.  But what about a surgeon who recommends surgery when it’s not necessary or even likely to help?

Congress, of course, is understandably reluctant to wade into that sensitive territory, because the anti-health care reform movement will immediately attack anyone who suggests such measures for stepping between doctors and patients, or “rationing” medical care in some supposedly socialist fashion. HMOs already do this sort of “rationing,” and often not well, given that their incentive is simply to cut costs and increase profits. But a provision in the health reform bill that addresses the problem of doctor’s incentives at a deeper level across the health system would likely go a long way toward bringing down the cost of good medical care.

Now let’s see if anyone in Congress is willing to stand up to the clamoring obstructionists and actually offer a serious cost-cutting proposal.

The state also picked up the tab for the first family’s travel expenses when accompanying Palin on state business — and at least once when Palin’s husband, Todd, traveled alone.

First, the most glaring item:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a “per diem” allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business…

She wrote some form of “Lodging — own residence” or “Lodging — Wasilla residence” more than 30 times at the same time she took a per diem, according to the reports. In two dozen undated amendments to the reports, the governor deleted the reference to staying in her home but still charged the per diem.

My job requires me to travel frequently, and I have some experience with claiming travel expenses. I often expense taxicabs to or from airports and the occasional hotel room. However, if I tried to claim, say, my apartment or meals I’ve had here in Phoenix as travel expenses, I would probably find myself unemployed very quickly.

But wait, there’s more. According to The Post, Alaska was billed more than $43,000 for travel by Palin’s husband and children. Palin’s spokeswoman, Sharon Leighow, defended the practice:

“As a matter of protocol, the governor and the first family are expected to attend community events across the state,” she said. “It’s absolutely reasonable that the first family participates in community events.”

The state finance director, Kim Garnero, said Alaska law exempts the governor’s office from elaborate travel regulations. Said Leighow: “The governor is entitled to a per diem, and she claims it…”

Asked Monday about the official policy on charging for children’s travel expenses, Garnero said: “We cover the expenses of anyone who’s conducting state business. I can’t imagine kids could be doing that.”

But Leighow said many of the hundreds of invitations Palin receives include requests for her to bring her family, placing the definition of “state business” with the party extending the invitation.

To be fair, Palin has greatly reduced her travel expenses compared to those of her predecessor, Gov. Frank Murkowski, who used the executive jet the state sold under Palin. However, The Post reports other governors have been more conservative with their per diem charges.

In the past, per diem claims by Alaska state officials have carried political risks. In 1988, the head of the state Commerce Dept. was pilloried for collecting a per diem charge of $50 while staying in his Anchorage home, according to local news accounts. The commissioner, the late Tony Smith, resigned amid a series of controversies.

“It was quite the little scandal,” said Tony Knowles, the Democratic governor from 1994 to 2000. “I gave a direction to all my commissioners if they were ever in their house, whether it was Juneau or elsewhere, they were not to get a per diem because, clearly, it is and it looks like a scam — you pay yourself to live at home,” he said.

Knowles, whose children were school-age at the start of his first term, said that his wife sometimes accompanied him to conferences overseas but that he could “count on one hand” the number of times his children accompanied him.

“And the policy was not to reimburse for family travel on commercial airlines, because there is no direct public benefit to schlepping kids around the state,” he said.

The article does not accuse Palin of wrongdoing. But, if she collected a per diem for 312 nights spent at her home, that’s more than half her total time as governor.

Some things are just basic cost of living. If regular, non-governing people couldn’t get away with it in their own lives, a governor who postures herself as a waste-cutting reformer should probably pay for her own expenses at home as well.