Open Line Friday Callers on Oil Prices and Immigration

RUSH: To the phones. Going to go to Illinois. Joe, it’s nice to have you, sir, on Open Line Friday.

CALLER: Hi. We actually remind people: Back in the summer of 2008 when oil was hitting $150 a barrel, and then Bush lifted the executive ban on oil drilling, and there were contracts issued. Suddenly the price dropped from $150 a barrel all the way down to $30 a barrel when Obama was sworn into office. Bush basically stuck it to the oil spectators. He broke the back by opening up oil drilling. Then, Obama gets in office. He breaks the contracts, he reinstates the ban and the price goes back from $30 a barrel up to $84 a barrel last night. That’s like a 300% increase in the cost of oil, and if your job is dependent upon energy…

RUSH: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. It didn’t jump from $30 to $84 last night.

CALLER: No. It was $30 when Obama was sworn in.

RUSH: Yeah. Okay.

CALLER: Okay.

RUSH: No, no, no. Wait. It never got down to 30, did it?

CALLER: Thirty-two, 33.

RUSH: Thirty-three, okay.

CALLER: I’m ball-parking it. But it was right there. It plummeted down to about $30. Obama reinstates the ban. The supply of oil dries up and suddenly the speculators are having happy days once again. Well, now we’ve got expensive gas, expensive oil, and if your job depends on cheap oil, guess what? You’re in trouble. This is precisely what the law of supply and demand is all about and people just aren’t paying attention to it.

RUSH: Well, but it’s interesting. I had the story yesterday that oil inventories and gasoline inventories are way up which is why yesterday and the day before the price of oil was below $80, and people were trying to figure out in the media asked, ‘Why are these inventories up?’ Well, in the case of gasoline and oil, of course, you got more unemployed people who are not driving to work and not driving as much.

CALLER: Yep.

RUSH: That’s why there’s a surplus right now. Inventories are up. So the price going up. I haven’t seen the price go up to $84 today but I will trust that you’re right.

CALLER: It was $84, like, yesterday or the day before.

RUSH: All right.

CALLER: So it’s right in that neighborhood. Don’t hold me to being accurate one or two dollars, but, yeah. That’s what happened. It almost tripled in cost from the time that Obama got into office to now.

RUSH: Imagine that! Imagine that! Imagine that! And Obama was going to make things easier for everybody. I’m glad you called, Joe. Thanks for your patience and hanging on. I’ll check the barrel-of-oil price right here during the break.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: We had a call also about oil. The oil price is 78 bucks. I just checked it. The barrel price of oil right now $78; it’s not $84. I thought it was under $80. It dropped to 80 a couple days ago and then went below 80, and that’s when I had the story about the rising gasoline inventories and oil inventories overall. It’s because in this country there’s just less of it being used. (interruption) What? (interruption) Mmm-hmm. Mmm-hmm. Well, I know. When it was on its way up to $150, the media was all over it, but we had a Republican in the White House then, Snerdley. It could get up to $120 a barrel today and they still wouldn’t talk much about it with Obama there. It would have to get up to $140, $150 again.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here’s Sherry in Port Byron, Illinois. Great to have you with us on the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. I just love your satirical wit. I have to thank you so much for what you do.

RUSH: Well, thank you very much.

CALLER: Yes. My issue I want to discuss on Open Line Friday today is illegal immigration, and the smoke and mirrors that the Obama administration has put up — and I know George Bush didn’t deal with illegal immigration. But if people think about it just briefly, the primary catalyst for uncontrolled health care costs is due to illegal immigration. If you really wanted to fix health care, if the Democrats really wanted to reform health care they would look at that bleeding artery of illegal immigration and stop it. Also national security: While we’re looking to the skies, who knows what could come across our borders. The third point is: I think that the GOP needs to beat this drum relentlessly before the time comes that the Dems try to shove amnesty down our throats. I think we need to start making this point very clear and very out there, that illegal immigration is a huge threat.

RUSH: Wait, wait, wait, wait! Whoa, whoa, whoa! Whoa, wait a minute.

CALLER: Okay.

RUSH: I don’t understand. Have we gone back to the summer of 2007 here?

CALLER: (giggles)

RUSH: The Republicans stopped it. We stopped it! We stopped it! Right now we gotta stop health care, Sherry. I’m sorry, but we gotta stop it. The whole amnesty business, they’re going to come back and try for it again. But, Sherry, you gotta understand something: They’re governing against the will of the people. Only 35% support health care, and they’re still trying to ram it down our throats. They’re going to do the same with cap and trade. They’re going to do the same with amnesty. It’s going to happen. We going to have to keep fighting and fighting and fighting, and we’re going to have to retake the Republican Party. These elections… Well, next Tuesday is a big one, but in November they’re going to be huge. That’s the clearest way that we’re going to be able to stop this, because the Democrat Party is flipping us off. They are flipping us the bird. They know exactly how we feel about health care, and so does Obama. I’ve never seen this before. I’ve never seen a federal government so in the face of its constituents. The Democrat Party is actually governing against the will of its own constituents, in addition to people that don’t vote for them. It’s breathtaking to behold. I did a whole monologue on this earlier in the hour. You have to trust that when this amnesty comes up again, and it will, that there’s going to be just as much energy opposing it then as there was in the summer of 2007 or 2008 or whenever it was. All these years are running together.