CALLER: How you doing, Rush? And thanks for taking the call. Affordable energy is the absolute, I believe, only way back for this country.
RUSH: Yep.
CALLER: We cannot create jobs unless we go to the bottom of the job-creation ladder.RUSH: People have to get to work!
CALLER: You must have a manufacturer or a person with an idea to open up a little warehouse -- a plant, a garage, wherever -- and bring energy into that building, powerfully and inexpensively. But Obama knows that. And he knows if he gives us a 5¢ KW; a $1.50-a-gallon gas; a decent, decent way of bringing natural gas to our trucks; he knows he's finished. He knows their party is finished. There will be no need for food stamps. There will be no need for tax reform. We don't need anything, Rush, other than affordable energy. What is wrong with the electorate?
RUSH: No, I don't think the electorate's clueless. No, no, no. Don't be dumping on the electorate. I think the electorate is a little bit more clued in than we all thought. It's an interesting theory that you have, however, Michael. Thanks much for the call.
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RUSH: Now, what our last caller, Michael, was saying is an interesting point. Obama... Think of this, now. Obama knows that if he could get gasoline to $2.50 or kilowatt energy at 5¢, he'd be reelected in a slam-dunk. What's Obama doing? President Obama's out there saying, "I can't do anything about it. There's nothing we can do." Isn't that a striking contrast, by the way, from when George W. Bush was president, when a president could do anything? You had John Kerry demanding he go talk to the Saudis, "jawbone" them down to $75 a barely, whatever. "Bush coulda done it! He coulda done it! But he didn't want the oil price down," Obama and all the other Democrats said. "They don't want the oil price down. No, no, no. Because Cheney's with Halliburton and all those guys are making big money off Big Oil."
This is their constant lying and impugning of the intentions and the character of Republicans. Now Obama says, "I can't do anything about it. There's nothing a president can do," which is the true statement. But what Michael was saying is if Obama could get gas down to a buck-and-a-half or $2.50, or the price of energy (a kilowatt-hour or electricity down), if he could find a cheap way to get natural gas into automobiles and trucks, he would be reelected in a landslide. And he will not do it. Why? Because that empowers the free market. That empowers the private sector. Don't doubt me on this, because Michael's point was when gasoline costs $5 a gallon, more people need food stamps. When gasoline costs $6 a gallon, even more people need food stamps, and who's right there offering them? Obama.
In fact, who is advertising for new food stamp users? The regime. The Obama administration is actively seeking new food stamp users, because what Obama wants is a big government that he controls. When gasoline gets cheap, you have more freedom. You have less need for government. You're able to take care of more things yourself. That's not what Obama wants. That's Michael's point when he asks, "Where's the electorate? Why don't they see this?" I think they do. I think the electorate sees much more than we give them credit for.
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RUSH: Last night in Orlando, Florida, WFTV Eyeball News, the anchor Greg Warmoth interviewed Obama. He said, "Your opponents say that they can get gas prices down to two dollar, $1.50 range. What do you think Americans should be okay with gasoline price-wise?"
OBAMA: Well, first of all, nobody believes that. They know they're, you know, that's just politics. Our oil production right now is higher than at any time in the last eight years. We've seen more new rigs go up. We're opening up millions of acres to oil exploration, and so the issue here is not that we're not drilling enough. The problem is we only have 2% of the world's oil reserves and we use 20% of the world's oil. Obviously what we want to do is to get gas prices as low as we can, as quickly as we can, but the most important thing in order to do that is to reduce our demand on oil.
RUSH: I'll tell you, this is so convoluted. You just heard utter incompetence on parade. You just heard utter lack of qualification for the job. That answer alone. I don't care what the question was. Of course he's not gonna say what Americans ought to pay for gas. First he starts out bragging -- by the way, he's lying -- bragging about all the new oil that's been discovered, all this oil production. He doesn't like that, though. Here he is bragging about all this oil production going on, then he says the important thing is to reduce our demand on oil; the important thing is green energy. And then this convoluted 2% of the world's oil reserves, 20% of the world's oil, we are guilty, we're thieves, we're selfish. We ought not be stealing that much of the world's oil. We've gotta reduce it.
This answer, my friends, is utter incompetence. Now, some political strategerists might think it's brilliant. I'm telling you in the real world where people listen to the words other people say, that is senseless. There is irritation in this answer. There anger in this answer. There are outright contradictions. Our oil production right now is higher than any time -- he's bragging about it and then he ends up saying we gotta stop that. And it isn't true, by the way. Whatever oil production is taking place is happening in spite of him. He's the one who's not allowing drilling in any new places. He's the one that has a moratorium on drilling in the Gulf. He's the one who will not okay the Keystone pipeline. He's the one seeing to it that we have as little oil production as possible.But it's an election year, and he knows that you know enough to realize that more oil equals more supply equals cheaper prices for gasoline. But this is embarrassing, is what this is. To brag about all this production going on, and then to finish 30 seconds later by criticizing it, by ripping it to shreds. On the one hand, he beats his chest, what a great accomplishment it is, and then stabs himself in the back. He reaches around and stabs his own self in the back by suggesting it isn't good. Now, what kind of mind does this? What kind of mind takes credit for something that you hate and you end up criticizing what you're taking credit for in the same 30-second sound bite? Who in the world can do that? Last night in Des Moines, WHO-TV, Eyeball 13 news, Obama talking about gas prices.
OBAMA: I think the American people understand that, you know, we don't have a silver bullet when it comes to gas prices, but they're hurting right now. You know, it's like a tax on your paycheck every time you fill up. And so what I've instructed my team to do, we're looking at every single thing we can do from relieving bottlenecks to try to see if we can impact internationally how the oil markets are operating. Ultimately, though, the single most important thing we can do is reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and the fact that we've reduced our dependence by about a million barrels a day, that over time is gonna have a big impact.
RUSH: Doesn't mean diddly-squat. Let's say that we have reduced our dependence. Doesn't mean we've reduced our usage. The two are not the same thing. This is embarrassing. Whatever happened to giving everybody a tire gauge and make sure your tires are properly inflated as a way of conserving gasoline and dealing with the high gas price? He said that in 2008. Why isn't that still used? No, he did, folks, don't doubt me. Obama said, it might have been 2009, I don't know when, 2007, 2008, a tire gauge, properly inflated tires, that's how you deal with high gas prices.
Another thing. Remember, now, I live in Realville. I'm the mayor. "Ultimately, though, the single most important thing we can do is reduce our dependence on foreign oil." Will somebody tell me two things: How do you reduce dependence on foreign oil when this president will not allow drilling anywhere new? Can't drill in ANWR in Alaska, cannot drill in the Gulf, cannot go get other supplies, cannot do the Keystone pipeline. How in the hell do we reduce our dependence when we cannot increase our own production because of him? The second question is, "the single most important thing we can do is reduce our dependence on foreign oil." Would somebody explain to me how that's gonna get gasoline prices down next week or next month? What does it have to do with anything? Nothing, is the answer. Reducing our dependence does not mean we are reducing our usage.
By the way, I'm gonna use his own words as proof he doesn't know what he's talking about. He's bragging here that we have reduced our dependence by a million barrels a day. How come the price isn't going down? The president here just said that the way to get the price down, the most important thing we can do is reduce our dependence. Then he says we've done good on that. We've reduced our dependence by a million barrels. Why is the price going up, Mr. President? Gas usage is way down. How has it lowered the price of gasoline? Dependence is way down, million barrels a day. How come the price is going up? You just said the single most important thing we can do is reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and that's gonna get the gas price down. How? Oh, my.
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RUSH: Now, on this oil drilling, I've gotta straighten some things out here. None of the current drilling for oil Obama was bragging about in that audio clip is due to him. All of the federal permits that have resulted in increased oil production are from President Bush. Obama has issued none. The rest of the drilling is taking place on private land that the federal government and Obama cannot stop. Folks, he has not been responsible for any new oil production at all. For example, during the Bush administration, more than 41,700 drilling permits were approved on federal lands, and it worked. The price of gasoline went down, and the Democrats in Congress fought Bush tooth and nail on this.Now, according to the Heritage Foundation, oil and gas production on federal lands under Obama is down by more than 40% compared to the ten years ago. He's lying. There's no other word for it. He's lying. He's taking credit for increased oil production he's got nothing to do with. It's happening on private land that he can't stop, and he would stop it if he could. Production of oil and gas on federal lands under Obama is down by more than 40%, compared to ten years ago. 2010 had the lowest number of onshore leases issued since 1984, and the Obama regime held only one offshore lease sale in 2011.
Now, we've got breaking news from the AP. And I'm gonna have to deal with this. "Federal Reserve Notes Better Economy After Seeing Strong Job Gains, Leaves Policy Unchanged." Really? The Fed notes better economy after strong job gains. See, we talked about this at the beginning of the program. That's the problem, folks. Where is the economic growth with all these new jobs?
Jon Hilsenrath, the Wall Street Journal, "Piecing Together the Job-Picture Puzzle -- Something about the U.S. economy isn't adding up," is how this thing starts out. Even the Wall Street Journal is befuddled. "At 8.3%, the unemployment rate has fallen 0.7 percentage point from a year earlier and is down 1.7 percentage points from a peak of 10% in October 2009. ... the number of people filing claims for government unemployment benefits has fallen. Yet the economy is barely growing. Many economists in the past few weeks have again reduced their estimates of growth. The economy by many estimates is on track to grow at an annual rate of less than 2% in the first three months of 2012. The economy expanded just 1.7% last year."
The ChiCom economy is growing at 9%, by the way. "And since the final months of 2009, when unemployment peaked, the economy has expanded at a pretty paltry 2.5% annual rate. How can an economy that is growing so slowly produce such big declines in unemployment?" Now, in this stack I have three news stories, three pieces so far that indicate that there is something not right here or very odd in the economic numbers, the job numbers. The people with skin in the game who own businesses, employ people, invest in the private sector say, "Wait a minute, there's no growth, where are all these jobs coming from?" Folks, we're down two million jobs in the universe of jobs since Obama was elected. There is no job growth. That's the myth.
Everybody is believing that there's job growth. Yeah, job growth from what baseline? Job growth from Obama's peak of unemployment? Maybe. But job growth from a baseline of zero? No! We're still in a huge net loss of jobs, over two million. That's why there's no economic growth, because these job numbers are incomplete, misleading, statistically stacked against reality. It's not hard to understand. It may take guts to say it. It may take courage to point out the truth about the jobs numbers. But it is what it is. There isn't job growth and anybody who understands basic math knows this.
Okay. I promised. He-he-he. It's time to fulfill. Back to the phones. Placerville, California. Hi, Gail. Thanks so much for waiting, and hello.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. My point is about energy. But before I get started, I wanted to tell you, you are God's gift to women, you and my wonderful husband, Ron.
RUSH: Thank you. Thank you very much.
CALLER: Thanks. Well, regarding energy, it's dawned on me that the Democrats want us to depend on solar, wind, water, and biofuel. But at the same time they're telling us that global warming can cause global cooling, and that drastic climate change is coming. So if all of that is true, well, the earth has always had an ongoing history of climate change, the Democrats have an energy policy pushing us to depend on the energy that depends on the climate, and the climate is changing. You can end up with solar panels where it starts to continually snow. Wind turbines where the wind diminishes. You can have biofuels where you can't grow crops, and hydroelectric where there's nothing but drought. So they can't really have it both ways, but with oil, natural gas, and nuclear, you don't have that problem.
RUSH: Right. What you have just rather brilliantly and eloquently illustrated is the abject failure of a command-and-control economy by smart elites who haven't one day's experience in the private sector. Folks, if you're new to the program, something else you need to know. There's nobody in the Obama administration, none of his czars, none of his advisers, who've ever really run a business or created jobs. They don't know what they're talking about. There are people that hang around the faculty lounge at their universities and theorize all day about how perfect they could make life if only they, the smartest people in the world, were in charge of it. Only they could make everybody happy, everybody equal, everything fair. No discrimination. And they theorize on all this, how to make it happen.They don't realize the weather is changeable. They don't realize that the wind may stop blowing. They don't realize the clouds may cover the sun someday. They also don't realize that none of that stuff is practical anyway. As I say, until you can get a jet plane off the ground with these alternative fuels, don't talk to me. It's an utter waste of discussion. Now, there may be an alternative fuel down the pike someday that does all this, and if there is, I'm very confident suggesting that some bright entrepreneur in some basement in the private sector is going to invent it and not because some president demands that he do it, or not because some president throws money at him. He's gonna do it because he's passionate, creative, brilliant, and has freedom.
Obama talks about natural gas. Do you realize, folks, that you only get natural gas when you drill for oil? Or, better stated, you have to drill for natural gas. Natural gas is a fossil fuel. Obama talks about it as though it's some brilliant, clean, revolutionary new fuel. But you gotta drill to get it. It's down there in pockets in the rock, in the shale. It's hidden down there. And most often natural gas is found in oil fields. Ahem. Just is.
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RUSH: Ken in Cleveland. Welcome, sir, to the EIB Network. Hi.
CALLER: Professor Limbaugh!
RUSH: Sir!
CALLER: Hey, two quick points. I hope that gasoline prices go up to $6 a gallon by November, and I think that would put the nail in the coffin to prevent Obama from being elected.
RUSH: That's possible. It's possible. I understand your thinking on this.
CALLER: Okay. The second comment I have is on Obama wants Catholic churches and hospitals to provide contraceptives? Where is the separation of church and state on this issue?
RUSH: Well, that's the point. To Obama, it doesn't exist. That's why the whole point is! Obama mandating the churches provide these things violates the First Amendment, the so-called separation of church and state. But it's religious freedom that we're talking about here. That's the whole point. That's what the Sandra Fluke testimony was all about was to take the focus off of Obama violating the Constitution and shift it into a war on women by the Republicans, by somehow denying women their birth control pills. That's not at all what this was about. The real congressional hearing (the one that Fluke was not allowed to testify at because she's not an expert) was about Obama's violating the Constitution by mandating churches provide these things or insurance companies when they have a moral or conscientious objection.
That's a great question, Kent, and I'm glad that you asked it again.
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