RUSH: Let’s go to the audio sound bites. Yesterday in St. Louis this is where of course Fort Marcy Airlines was forced down due to a mechanical — was on their way to North Carolina, didn’t make it there. So Obama had to go out there and do a conference call, I think, with the supporters that were supposed to be there in the North Carolina. But there’s no audience here. See what you think.
OBAMA: The first step is to offer immediate relief to families who are struggling right now while helping to jump-start economic growth and create jobs.
RUSH: Wait a minute, stop the tape. See, this is exactly what I was talking about. You have no intention of doing this. Immediate relief to families who are struggling right now while helping to jump-start economic growth? Where are you on lowering the price of gasoline? Where are you on oil drilling way offshore? That’s another thing. We need to change the lexicon here. All these politicians say, ‘We’re not going to drill offshore.’ What does offshore mean to people? Offshore means the little kiddies right there on the sand on the beach and they’ve got their little buckets and they’re building sand castles and they’re looking for sea shells, and their little toes and feet are in the water, and they’re having a fun time, skipping around, and within 30 yards will be an oil well. That’s not what offshore means. It’s way offshore. Most of these derricks will not even be seen by families at the beach. But this idea that he wants to help struggling families, the Democrat Party precisely does not want to do that, precisely at this time he’s talking about it. Here’s the rest of the bite.
OBAMA: Between a sluggish economy and four-dollar-a-gallon gas at the pump, the American people can’t wait another six months for help.
RUSH: Wait a minute. Whoa, whoa. Another six months — July, August, September, October — six months is close to the inauguration, what do you mean, they can’t wait? Can’t wait, what’s six months? Six months is his inauguration. Well, damn it, Obama, do something. Change your position on this, both sides of this issue or maybe more than two sides. Here’s the rest of the bite.
OBAMA: Instead of Washington gimmicks like a three-month gas tax holiday that will only pad oil company profits. We need to do what I called for months ago and pass a second stimulus package that provides energy rebate checks for working families, a fund to help families avoid foreclosure, and increased assistance for states that have been hard hit by the economic downturn.
RUSH: States that have been hard hit by the economic downturn, the governments. This is all total flummery, 100% BS. ‘Do what I called for months ago, pass a second stimulus package that provides energy rebate checks.’ No, sir. That’s as silly you say as lowering the federal gas tax. What’s the difference? Yesterday in St. Louis, after Fort Marcy Airlines forced down at Lambert Field, Obama said this.
OBAMA: If Senator McCain wants a debate about taxes in this campaign, then it is a debate I am happy to have, because if you’re a family making less than $250,000 a year, my plan will not raise your taxes.
RUSH: Yes, it will.
OBAMA: Not your income taxes, not your payroll taxes.
RUSH: Yes, it will.
OBAMA: Not your capital gains taxes.
RUSH: Yes.
OBAMA: Not any of your taxes.
RUSH: It will. Yes, it will.
(playing of Blazing Saddles spoof)
White comedian Paul Shanklin, covering the theme from the movie Blazing Saddles.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Speaking of energy, speaking of Obama, that latest sound bite that we just heard from Obama, we’ve gotta get energy prices down, and he’s gotta do it himself, he’s gotta do it before six months, the American people are suffering, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yet the party that runs Congress is standing in the way of virtually every plan that would increase the supply of oil, coal, what have you. From today’s TheHill.com: ‘House Democrats are in a bind on the focal point of their energy plan. Worried that a floor vote on any energy-related measure would trigger a Republican-forced vote on domestic drilling, the leadership has scrubbed the floor schedule of the energy legislation that it vowed to tackle after the Fourth of July recess.’
So you got more nervous Democrats here that are starting to support drilling, and Pelosi doesn’t want any drilling, so therefore Pelosi is stopping any energy legislation. So Obama can sit out there and talk all he wants about all these things that need to be done, but the Democrat Party in the House of Representatives is worried that a floor vote on any energy-related measure would trigger a Republican vote on domestic drilling, and they can’t have that, cannot have any drilling, cannot do any oil drilling, cannot do anything to advance the supply, cannot make us energy independent, cannot do it. How this party stands a chance is beyond me. Now, one of the problems that Pelosi has is that more and more Democrats are supporting the concept of drilling, and since she’s not going to allow that, she’s shutting down any of this legislation from ever getting to a vote. And get this, ‘Further complicating matters for Democrats is the growing number of pro-drilling Democrats who are becoming increasingly worried that voters might throw them in with their anti-drilling leadership.’
So what is all this talk that the Democrats have it sewn up and it’s a fait accompli that they’re going to pick up all these new seats in the House and the Senate? The reality is how these people want to vote, and she’s not going to allow it. ‘Further complicating matters for Democrats, is the growing number of pro-drilling Democrats who are becoming increasing –‘ they can read the polls. They can see what 60% of the American people want. So it still remains a gold mine for the Republicans here to exploit.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Frank in Old Forge, Pennsylvania, I’m glad you called, sir, nice to have you on the program.
CALLER: Rush, mega dittos from a proud conservative American.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: You’re welcome. I just saw a commercial here running in Pennsylvania, that showed McCain and Bush standing together and the Obama team is accusing them of wanting to drill for oil, and that that’s not a good idea because it will take seven years to get to market, that’s right on the commercial, and then it says Obama will fast track technology. Rush, Obama doesn’t want to do anything. He wants the votes and he wants to keep them hamstrung, how can we fool ’em today. But here’s the thing, Rush. The average American that changes tires, changes brakes, the mechanics that don’t have a college education, the little guy, from the cheap seats, they’re killing us, Rush.
RUSH: Wait a minute, people without a college education, that’s me. The little guy from the cheap seats, they’re killing us because they’re believing this stuff?
CALLER: They’re killing us because the cost of fuel that Americans drove 30 billion less miles. When that happens, we’re a consumption-based economy, you don’t wear out cars, you don’t wear out tires, you don’t wear out brakes.
RUSH: Wait a minute, wait a minute, you mean Obama is killing us.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: And his team.
RUSH: Absolutely.
CALLER: And the Democrats.
RUSH: They want this country in a state of decline for this election. This country is guilty, in their minds. This country has to pay a price for all that it has stolen from the rest of the world. The rest of the world is going to go to collective bunch of victims, victimized by the evil United States and oil companies and so forth. This stuff just frosts me I can’t tell you how much. And this specious argument that we’re against drilling ’cause it’s going to take seven or ten years, so are all of his so-called stupid-ass alternative ideas. They’re even further down the pike. Try 30 or 40 years before any of them come to any kind of meaningful fruition.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Todd in Harveys Lake, Pennsylvania, you’re next on the EIB Network. Hello, sir.
CALLER: Hey.
RUSH: Hey.
CALLER: You know, about two weeks ago I talked to a longtime friend, he’s the brother-in-law of my brother, and he works in the industry of selling equipment to oil companies.
RUSH: Oh, oh, selling equipment to oil companies. Like Halliburton does?
CALLER: Right. Exactly. So he’s at this big meeting in Houston last month, and he was talking to all the oilmen down there, and they said, ‘You know, we’d like to be pumping a whole lot more oil, but we can’t even fix the rigs that we have broke from Katrina because, you know, Congress won’t let us.’
RUSH: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. The oilmen down in Houston said that Congress will not let big oil companies fix the broken rigs?
CALLER: They said they have to buy permits. They have to get permits to be able to fix the oil producing rigs that are out there damaged.
RUSH: A thousand of them were damaged.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: I don’t know how many of them are still off-line. You’re making think a lot of people are still off-line.
CALLER: A lot of people are off-line, hundreds. And I backed it up this morning, I talked to a roughnecker that works out there on the offshore oil rigs right now. He said there’s hundreds and hundreds of them off-line. He says we are pumping right now 15 times more than we were five years ago, but we have hundreds of them off-line, and we’re drilling every day. And this guy hasn’t been off the rig since oil was a $125 a barrel. He just come off the first time today.
RUSH: He hasn’t been off the rig since it was 125 bucks?
CALLER: Yes, sir. He has been working nonstop.
RUSH: Now, I’m not sure I understood what you said here. The rigs that are off-line and can’t be repaired, is it other rigs that are producing more to compensate?
CALLER: Trying to compensate. Mostly he said it’s natural gas, like Boone Pickens was on this morning talking about natural gas and wind and everything else, and I almost bought it for a couple of minutes and then I decided, wait a minute, Boone, you’re up to no good, you want to sell them wind —
RUSH: Yeah, I saw that. Boone’s a big oilman.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: And he has a lot of credibility, automatic respect.
CALLER: I understand that. You know, but I’m going to tell you this, you know, Boone Pickens, he might be an oilman, and he might be doing a lot of things, and he might have a good hand on this natural gas thing, but, you know what? Here, Rush, we have all these windmills that have just been putting up, we got 88 more going down the road here that are going to go on the mountain.
RUSH: Wait a minute. Wait, wait a second. In Harveys Lake, Pennsylvania, you’ve got these windmills going up?
CALLER: They’re on the mountain like on —
RUSH: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. I just wanted to make sure you’re talking about Pennsylvania and not Texas.
CALLER: Right, Pennsylvania.
RUSH: Okay.
CALLER: So now, here’s the thing. Our electric companies here said, ‘Well, this is going to help and we are going to be able to get your electricity a lot cheaper.’ Our electricity almost doubled after they were finished.
RUSH: Isn’t that always the case? They always tell us X is going to be cheaper, or here’s the total cost for Medicare, and we go bankrupt.
CALLER: Well, this is what it is. Now we’re not just paying for electricity, but now we’re paying for the product that bills electric. So what are the electric companies doing? Now they’re going to make millions on top of millions. Same thing with Boone Pickens. He’s going to make money off his natural gas because he has a great idea, he’s going to try to sell this —
RUSH: Well, natural gas, you know oil people. Natural gas is where oil is.
CALLER: Right. Absolutely. And the thing is, if you have hundreds of rigs in the oil fields, in the offshore oil rigs, and I remember, I was down there in the eighties, I was a cook on an oil rig, and I’m going to tell you something, you go out there, I was 150 miles offshore, and I was in 50 feet of water. And they were drilling, directional drilling, and I was on a tender rig.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: And these guys, my father was down there with me, he was on a platform that was a producing rig. And when the lights go on at night and it’s a calm sea, for miles you can see nothing but rigs. There are hundreds of rigs that are not producing, and it’s cheaper for them to just put another rig up. This is what the guy said to me. He said, for the price for the permit, it’s cheaper for them to put a new rig out there and —
RUSH: Look, it’s not that I don’t believe you. Please don’t take it personally. But this is fascinating. I’m going to look into it. Our crack research staff here, all two of us, are going to look into this. We’re going to look into this. If Congress is standing in the way of this, I don’t know, I guess these are federal waters, if they won’t grant a permit.
CALLER: I have no idea why —
RUSH: I’m going to find out about this out there.
CALLER: — but there’s another piece of this I want to tell you.
RUSH: What’s that?
CALLER: In Canada where out west where they’re doing all these rigs and stuff —
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: — they have mobile refineries that they build anywhere.
RUSH: Well, yeah, but, see, most of Canada is desolate. Most of the population centers in Canada, I mean they’ve got a lot of wilderness out there.
CALLER: I understand that, but what I’m saying —
RUSH: And nobody wants a refinery where they live.
CALLER: I understand that, but, see, here’s the thing. Now, you have a place where you can put a refinery, they’re talking three, four, five years to build one, or two or three years to build one.
RUSH: Try 30. You talk about permits and then you’ve —
CALLER: Exactly.
RUSH: — got the environmentalist wackos trying to shut down the whole process, and then they’ll chain themselves to the property and make you kill them in order to build a refinery. I’m telling you something out there, Todd, we’ve got a serious situation that we’re dealing with here on all this.
CALLER: There’s no doubt. My grandfather was still alive, and he was a devout right wing, I mean he was a Christian, he was right-handed all the way.
RUSH: He was an American, then.
CALLER: Oh, definitely.
RUSH: All right.
CALLER: Fifth grade education, justice of the peace for 24 years. My father served in Vietnam, got the Bronze Star, our family is true blue American, I don’t have to go on with the patriot nonsense like Barack Islama had to do, but the whole thing comes out to we’re in a lot of trouble basically because we have a bunch of liberals thinking they know what they’re doing.
RUSH: No kidding!
CALLER: They’re all running around with their little Indian outfits on trying to scalp everybody and they’re not doing a damn thing.
RUSH: Yes, they are. They’re doing exactly what they want to do. They obstruct. I saw something. We had the news yesterday that Obama has a total of 143 days experience in the Senate before he started running for president. John Kerry, the haughty John Kerry, who served in Vietnam, served fewer days in Vietnam than Obama served in the Senate. Now, most people are getting 12 and 18-month tours over there. Kerry was, I’m going to find it, 130 some odd days and then he got injured, Purple Hearts and shipped home. And I did not know that. This I did not know. Look, Todd, I’m glad you called.