RUSH: And one other thing, ladies and gentlemen, replacing oil is not going to make energy cheaper. Oil is the cheapest form of energy, for what it provides, that we have. That’s what the market does. The market provides the cheapest and the most efficient of everything. Or it won’t survive. Eventually it’ll go kaput. It’s called competition. Oil does not have any competition right now, not any serious competition.

Great to have you back, Rush Limbaugh and the EIB Network, the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies. Telephone number if you want to be on the program, we will get to your calls in this hour, 800-282-2882.

So Obama’s in North Carolina, yeah, we’re gonna have alternative energy, gonna bring down energy costs. Nope, they’re gonna skyrocket. President Obama wants higher energy costs. Barack Obama wants higher gasoline prices. When it hit four dollars a gallon years ago Barack Hussein Obama said he was only unhappy about how fast the price got to four dollars. He was not unhappy that it did get to four dollars. His Nobel prize-winning energy secretary, a guy named
Steven Chu, said that they have no interest in lowering gas prices; they just want to get us off of oil. Not possible. That’s what the free market does, folks, it gives you the cheapest and most efficient of everything. If there were something better than oil it would have been found, it would have been invented. If it were cost sensible, if it was affordable, if it made sense to produce it. It doesn’t. Oil is it. It’s the beauty of free markets.

Free markets tell you what work. So whatever he comes up with as his alternative, A, there isn’t one, and, B, it’s simply a way to raise taxes and raise prices and raise costs. You say, “Why would he want to do that?” Well, to accept the answer to that you have to — (interruption) Yes, I am saying algae is not better than oil. That’s right, President Obama proposed algae as a substitute for oil a couple of weeks ago. Algae. Pond scum, for those of you in Rio Linda. Why would he want higher prices? Why does he want higher taxes? Well, you have to understand what he thinks of America to answer that and to believe the answer.

Basically Barack Obama’s a Democrat who wants this government getting bigger and bigger and bigger so it can control more and more and more, and the less money you have to spend, the easier you are to control. The less money you have to spend on discretionary items, the more dependent you will be on him and his party. And that’s the ultimate objective. They want to take your ambition away from you. They want to take your dreams away from you. They want to tell you your dreams are unrealistic. They want you to believe it’s outrageous that you think you should be able to accomplish that, whatever it is, or have that, whatever it is.

We need to live like the rest of the world. We need to find out what the rest of the world has had to go through ’cause of us, because to Barack Obama, folks, the United States is the problem in the world, not the solution. And in that he agrees with people like Hugo Chavez and Vladimir Putin, the old Soviet leadership, Fidel Castro. The United States is the problem. He genuinely believes that. You may find it hard to believe. “Rush, no president would never elect a –” we have, folks. It’s not even that hard to believe or understand. Just pay a little bit of attention, and if that’s too hard, listen to me, I’ll tell you. I have no interest in lying to you.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Obama in North Carolina, let’s go audio sound bites. Mount Holly, North Carolina, at the Daimler Mount Holly truck manufacturing plant. Here’s Obama speaking about the economy. We’ve got one, two, three, four, five Obama sound bites. Here’s the first…

OBAMA: This is not the first time we’ve seen gas prices spike. It’s been happening for years. Every year about this time gas starts spikin’ up, and everybody starts wonderin’, “How high is it gonna go?” And every year politicians s-s-start talking when gas prices go up. They get out on the campaign trail, and you and I both know: There are no quick fixes to this problem.

RUSH: And he’s no longer a “politician,” see. He’s no longer a politician. He’s president; he’s no longer a politician. So all these other underlings out there out there talking about the gas price — like he used to, by the way — they’re politicians. Oh, yeah! Obama led the Democrat Party catcalls for Bush to “do something” about rising gas prices. Now (paraphrased), “Well, this happens every year at this time. Everybody knows that. Gas starts spiking up and everybody starts wondering how high it’s gonna go, but it does that this time of year all the time.”

Here’s the next bite.

OBAMA: Listenin’ to them, you’d think, uhhh, there were. As a country that has 2% of the world’s oil reserves but uses 20% of the world’s oil… I’m gonna repeat that: We’ve got 2% of the world oil reserves; we use 20%.

RUSH: Stop the tape. Listen to me. While I have you, I really want you to hear this, ’cause that is a lie. Two percent of the reserves? Let me conduct a test. Seriously. Mr. Snerdley, when you hear the president say that the United States has 2% of the world’s oil reserves, what does that mean to you? (interruption) Mmmm. (interruption) No. You’re half right in what the incorrect definition is. Snerdley just told me that 2% of the world’s reserves means that we have 2% of the entire world’s oil supply in our strategic reserves. Most people think that when Obama says we have 2% of the world oil reserves, that that means of all the oil in the world, we have 2% of it.

That’s not what that means. Folks, with new technology, we have more oil in the ground that we can get than they have in Saudi Arabia. That “2% of the world’s reserves” means 2% of what has been brought up, 2% of what has been produced, not 2% of the supply. This has been an out-and-out lie, and I don’t know how else to categorize it. He is purposely misstating this. This is a left-wing catcall for as long as I have been alive, and in this statistic is the implied guilt. “Look at us! We’ve got 2% of the world’s oil, and we use 20%, and it’s not fair. We are raping the other nations on this resource!”

That’s what that means. “A country that has 2% of the world’s oil reserves but uses 20% of the world’s oil,” means that we are raping the rest of the world. We are unfairly taking advantage, and that’s not the case. In the first place, 2% of the world’s reserves is a misleading statistic ’cause it isn’t true. The second thing that you would have to do is — I’m not gonna dispute that we use 20%, but what do we do with it? Are we hoarding it? Are we not sharing it? Is nobody else benefiting from our use of oil? Do you realize if every one of us… I’m gonna give you statistic I have used on this program before to illustrate my point here.

If every automobile were shut down today and not a single automobile was driven, we would still need five to six million barrels of oil a day to satisfy all the other products and services that derivatives of oil are used in. Even if we stop driving, we’d still need at least five to six million barrels a day. But, folks, this is not an evil country. And the president is trying to say that we have used more than our share, and that’s the justification for making us cut back. That’s the justification for high prices. That’s the justification for us having to drive smaller and smaller cars, and maybe not even drive cars at all but drive batteries — and maybe get on mass transit.

Bottom line is we have to cut ourselves down to size. Well, the fact of the matter is, we are a nation of greatness because we are good. We are an inherently good people and inherently good nation, and we do wonders for people around the world. We have liberated people from bondage and tyranny and slavery. We have rebuilt whole continents after destructive wars. We have provided disaster relief for people who’ve been wiped out. There’s no greater people on this planet than the American citizens. None greater! And I really resent this implication here that we are selfish, greedy, un-sharing exploiters.

But again, we have much more than 2% of the world’s reserves. “Reserves” only mean what’s been discovered. It only means what has been brought out of the ground. Not 2% of what’s in the ground, not 2% of the world supply. We have far more than 2% of the world’s supply! We have more oil in the ground — and this is not me saying it; this is several geological surveys and studies in many different publications. We have more oil in the ground than Saudi Arabia does. We just don’t have a president that wants to go get it. We don’t have a president who wants to allow it to be gotten.

Grab sound bite 29, take it back to the beginning. Let’s listen to the whole thing uninterrupted, if I can pull this off.

OBAMA: Listening to them, you would think there were… As a country that has 2% of the world’s oil reserves, but uses 20% of the world’s oil… I’m gonna repeat that. We’ve got 2% of the world oil reserves, we use 20%. What that means is, as much as we’re doing to increase oil production, we’re not gonna be able to just drill our way out of the problem of high gas prices. Anybody who tells you otherwise either doesn’t know what they’re talking about or they aren’t telling you the truth. Here is the truth.

RUSH: No, Mr. President, you are not the truth. And what you said here is not the truth. If we can’t drill ourselves out, why are we drilling at all? Why don’t you shut it all down if it’s so irrelevant and inconsequential? This is not an argument Obama can win if anybody will take it up with him. We’re either gonna drill for oil or we’re not. And if we’re gonna drill, we should drill for enough. But if we’re not, why do it at all? If we can’t affect the price of oil by drilling, that means we can’t affect the price of oil with supply, why are we messing with this?

But, again, folks, please, I apologize to you for focusing on this. I’m so mad I can’t see straight. Two percent of the world’s reserves, and yet we use 20%, and, boy, are we evil, we are selfish. See, we need to cut back and stop this. We need to stop taking other people’s oil. Well, of course we don’t. We buy it. It’s another thing. We’re not stealing it. We’re buying it from willing sellers. There’s nothing immoral whatsoever about us using 20% of the world’s oil, if we pay for it. Nothing immoral whatsoever, and I can’t tell you how I resent this man’s effort day in and day out to somehow say otherwise.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: How about this, folks. Two percent of the world’s population, and we won World War I; we won World War II. We have invented most of the medicines in the world. We feed a huge portion of the world. Our president has no appreciation for the people that he is supposed to govern or represent. He has contempt for this country.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I am still fuming over this 2% of the world’s population business using 20% of the world’s oil. I know I debunked the statistic. We have far more than 2% of the world’s reserves. But here’s the real thing. We are 2% of the world’s population, and look at the good that we have done. We are good people, sharing, compassionate, and generous. We won World War I. We fought a civil war to end slavery that cost us 500,000 of our citizens. We won World War II. We rebuilt Europe, and we didn’t destroy it. We’ve invented most of the medicines in the world. We feed a huge portion of the world. And we have a president who has no appreciation for the people of this country that he’s supposed to represent. Our achievements, our history, our traditions, sneered at. All corrupt, all unjust, all of our accomplishments illegitimate.

I think that’s how he was educated. I think that’s just how he was raised. I think that’s what he was taught to believe. He was taught in the inherent flaws of this country. But if we only have 2% of the world’s oil, shouldn’t we be importing 98% of what we use? Does it make sense to you, Brian? If we have 2% of the world’s oil, shouldn’t we be importing 98% of what we use? But we import right around 50%. How does that happen? See, that’s how he’s framing the issue. I mean go and look for the stuff. Prior to March 3rd of 1938 Saudi Arabia had 0% of the world’s oil. You know why? There aren’t any known reserves there until it was discovered. A guy named Rockefeller and then a guy named Getty. March 3rd, 1938, oil discovered in Saudi Arabia. So before that, there wasn’t any. But there was. It just hadn’t been discovered and brought out of the ground.

Such purposeful misrepresentations to make this country look greedy and selfish and bad. We deserve better than this. We deserve a president better than this. We deserve leadership better than this. Much better. I’ll tell you, this guy, he’s over there, he’s in North Carolina today, and people have talked about Obama, what a cool customer he is. And I’ve always thought he’s not cool; he’s cold, ruthless and cold.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Doug, in Warsaw, New York, it’s great having you on the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Hi, Rush! Thank you. Thanks for keeping the pressure on this insane energy policy that the administration pushes on the craziness that there’s some imaginary new energy source waiting in the wings to replace the oil that the country functions on.

RUSH: There’s no such thing!

CALLER: No.

RUSH: There is no replacement or substitute for oil.

CALLER: No. The only mode of land-based power there’s ever been is the horse, the steam engine, and the diesel engine that run the economy of this nation and the world. And the insanity of believing that we’re just gonna allow it to dry up and stop is just unbelievable. If the American people had any idea that when they go into Walmart that that food on those shelves, that comes from the diesel engine… That doesn’t magically appear, and you don’t just quantitatively ease yourself a new supply of it. When the oil isn’t there to produce it, you’re out.

RUSH: Isn’t it disconcerting that you have to explain that to people?

CALLER: It’s amazing!

RUSH: Isn’t that something that people ought to just intrinsically understand?

CALLER: Well, 2% of the population are in agriculture and the rest go to Walmart, and they don’t understand it any longer what it takes to make it run. You have your EPA. They’re so busy trying to regulate the diesel engine into mothballs and out of existence, I don’t think they understand what it takes to make it run. I mean, an awful lot of trucking fleets are trying to run older engines so they don’t go bankrupt trying to run the latest technologies. It’s insane. That’s what makes the country run. You stop those engines, people will not eat. It’s a simple equation. If they stop, you don’t eat.

RUSH: Well, you know, you’re reminding me of something here, too, Doug. We’re not running out of oil! This whole crazy push to somehow find the new oil? We’re not running out of oil. The estimates of the world’s total amount of oil have increased faster than oil’s been taken from the ground. There’s more oil than anybody knew. It may be finite. Some people argue it’s still being made. Others say it’s purely fossils and there’s gonna be an end to it someday, but it’s not imminent. It isn’t imminent. This push away from oil, folks, you’ve got to be suspicious of this.

It makes no sense! There is no reason to abandon oil. Gosh, the benefits economically in terms of liberty, the things that we’ve been able to do and accomplish because of the discovery of oil and the technology of refining it? This is a totally unnecessary commitment to get rid of it. There’s nothing good about it. There is nothing cleaner that can accomplish the smallest percentage of what you can accomplish with oil. And, by the way, we’re getting better at cleaning up our messes. They’ve equated oil now with pollution, global warming, climate destruction and all that.

All of it is lies. All of it is just another spoke coming out of the wheel of liberalism that seeks to take everybody’s liberty away and transfer it to the government. Oil’s not even toxic. It’s natural! Oil is organic. It’s as organic as anything is. It’s amazing how this substance has been demonized, but the fact that it has is all you need to know. Look at everything the American left and the Democrat Party demonizes. Practically everything in the private sector — every business, every industry — they demonize it. It’s striking to see this.

“Regardless of the financial condition of their state, voters in TuesdayÂ’s Republican primaries considered the economy the top issue influencing their choice. And even though the debate in the last few weeks has often involved other issues — like contraception, or women in combat,” how silly, “there was very little evidence of a gender gap among the leading candidates in several of the major states in play on Tuesday, and very few voters mentioned abortion as a deciding factor,” or contraception. It’s not an issue. It’s totally manufactured. In exit polls in seven of ten states voting yesterday, 75% said economic issues are their top concern. For 75% of the people in 70% of the states, the economy is the top concern for them. And Obama knows it, and that’s why this mythical war on women has been invented. It’s not even real. It’s to distract everybody from his utter failure to grow this economy.