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March 22, 2012 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:46
March 22, 2012, Thursday, Hour #2
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Greetings to you, music lovers, thrill seekers, conversationalists, all across the fruited plain, Rushland Bought trying to stay focused.
If you only knew.
Telephone number 800-282-2882, the email address, lrushbow at EIBnet.com.
I think I'm going to have to shut down my email address during the radio program.
No, I got...
You wouldn't believe this if I told you.
It's just, it's high school.
It's high school stuff.
I got a vendor refusing to show up at my house because there's somebody there they don't like.
I'm in the middle of doing my radio program, and I got a deal with a vendor refusing to show up because they think somebody at my house is a...
Never mind.
It's just, it's just mind-boggling.
And I'm not going to get distracted by any of this.
Again, the telephone number 800-282-2882, the email address, lrushbow at EIBNet.com.
Folks, we're in the middle here of a huge, giant, teachable moment.
I feel it necessary.
I'm not going to do it because I have more respect for you, but I feel it necessary just to replay the first hour.
This is so important what is happening today with Obama.
It is so crucial.
It is such a huge teachable moment.
If the nation could learn what you are learning today, we would be a long way toward defeating Obama in November.
Now, I'm not going to repeat the first hour, and I'm going to try not to repeat too much of it because you've got it.
You heard it.
Got to move on.
But my impulse is to keep saying it and saying it and saying it until everybody understands it.
And that would result in overkill and you eventually getting bored as, come on, we get it, move on.
But I feel such a compunction here to make sure that nobody leaves this program today not understanding what has happened with Obama today.
For example, you notice how the news media is trying to convince us there is nothing that Obama can do to lower the price of gas.
They've been saying this since the price of gas started going up.
There's nothing Obama can do.
Why would you think Obama could do anything about it?
Meanwhile, they constantly assure us that there is not one problem on earth that can't be solved by government.
No matter how big, no matter how small, no matter how personal, there's not your health care, your food, your water, your car, no matter what it is, they've got the answer.
No matter what the problem, Barack Obama and his government have the answer, except the gas price, nothing Obama can do.
We have a real problem, like high gasoline prices, and they tell us it's ridiculous to think the government can do anything about it.
And furthermore, they insult our intelligence by telling us that it's not that big a deal that the price of gasoline's high.
You're only being fooled by people like me and Republicans who are exploiting rising gasoline prices.
But it's really not a problem.
First time in history that the media has said rising gasoline prices are not a problem.
First time in history the media has not tried to exploit this itself to the detriment of a Republican president or any other Republican.
For the first time in history, at least in my life, the media is telling us that there's nothing Obama can do.
Bush could have done everything.
Bush could have if he wanted to, but Bush and Cheney, they were big oil guys, you see.
And Bush and Cheney, they wanted oil prices to go up because that's how they got rich, don't you see?
But Obama, oh, no, no, no.
Obama can't do anything about it.
Oh, big oil company, they're so much bigger and they're so mean and they hate you and they don't care what the price of gas.
They screw you just as soon as they get up in the morning.
And nothing Obama can do about it.
But you break a hangnail and you're going to have to go through Obama to get it fixed before too long.
Another laugh line from Obama's speech today.
I don't want the energy jobs of tomorrow going to other countries.
I want them here in the United States.
Well, then why did you block the Keystone pipeline, which could generate up to 200,000 jobs, Mr. President?
It's just, it's overwhelming the lies that are coming out of this administration and amplified by the media just today.
Is the U.S. not part of the global market?
They tell us domestic production of oil, it's not going to matter.
We just played you the soundbite.
Domestic price is not going to matter.
Domestic production?
No, no, no.
It's the speculators, Obama said.
Here, grab it.
Grab somebody 28.
Listen to this again.
He says the price of oil is set by a global market, and we're not part of the global market, apparently.
The price of oil will still be set by the global market.
And that means every time there's tensions that rise in the Middle East, which is what's happening right now, so will the price of gas.
The main reason the gas prices are high right now is because people are worried about what's happening with Iran.
It doesn't have to do with domestic oil production.
It has to do with the oil markets looking and saying, you know what?
If something happens, there could be trouble.
And so we're going to price oil higher just in case.
Okay.
Then why are you in Oklahoma?
Then why do you care for people to think you are okaying the Keystone pipeline?
If we're not part of the global market, why does any of this matter?
The price is going to be set by a global market, but you say the amount of domestic oil won't change anything.
Is that like saying the domestic production of wheat doesn't matter?
The domestic production of steel will not affect world prices?
The domestic production of wool, domestic production of soybeans, domestic production of broccoli?
Does anything affect world prices that we do here?
Anybody believe this other than Obama, his political hacks in the media?
Such a teachable moment.
By the way, Bush and Cheney did drive the price of gasoline down to $1.83 when Obama took office.
And by the way, if the U.S. is not that great a factor in the world market, why are we doing this solar panel garbage?
And why are we doing wind?
Are we doing anything?
If the global market sets all this stuff and we're not part of it, we're looking at undiluted ignorance, arrogance, brazenness, prevarication that is getting too large to calculate and to keep track of.
Literally over the top.
I'm getting points.
Sometimes I think the truth is not powerful enough to stop these people.
That's a scary thought.
The truth is not powerful enough to stop these people.
The price of gasoline, nothing Obama can do about it, but he can do everything else.
From the Associated Press.
Unhappy public not sure who to blame for gas prices.
Really?
This unhappy public has been told for three and a half years that every problem they have can be solved by Barack Obama and his caring cabinet and czars and every other Democrat who has a big heart and compassion.
Why gas prices?
Why can they fix everything?
Health care, the kind of car you drive, everything.
They can't fix this.
Families canceling vacations.
Fishermen watching their profits burn up along with their boats gasoline.
Drivers buying only a few gallons of gas at a time because they can't afford to fill a tank.
From all corners of the country, Americans are irritated these days by record high fuel prices that have soared above $4.
Do you know that over half the country is paying above the national average?
I just saw that on Fox.
Over half the country is paying over the national average.
AP just told us, I just had the story in the last hour.
It doesn't matter.
Rising gas prices aren't as bad as you think right here.
AP, state control, right out of the Obama press office.
That's CNN.
I'm sorry, CNN did that one.
AP from all corners of the country.
Record high fuel prices soared above $4 a gallon some states could top $5 by summer.
The cost becoming a political issue just as the presidential campaign kicks into high gear.
Damn it, says AP.
And that's why the AP thought they had to write the news article to protect Obama.
Some are blaming Obama, says AP.
Some just cite the government, while others believe it's the work of big, greedy oil companies.
This is who they're writing this stuff for.
Third graders?
Big, greedy oil companies?
In an AP story?
And yet, as we will see, if you go through this whole story, and I'm not going to do that because it prints out the three pages, AP was unable to find a single person who blames Obama for this.
You know, they scoured America.
They couldn't find a single person that thought Obama was responsible.
How many man on the street television features did we see in 06, 07, and 08 about Bush being the reason for high gas prices and Bush not caring?
And how many times do we see John Kerry on TV demanding Bush go talk to the Saudi king?
And now AP can't find one person who blames Obama, yet they're wringing their hands.
They're fretting that the cost of gasoline is becoming a political issue just as the presidential campaign has kicked in.
And they assure us in this story.
By the way, in truth, there's not a lot the president and Congress can do short-term.
Push down gas prices.
They never once said that when Bush was in the White House.
Oh, they might have said it as a throwaway at the end of a story, but they never made it prominent like they make it prominent here with Obama.
Got to take a break.
I'm going to come back and get to your phone calls here on the EIB network right after this.
Don't go away.
Here's one other, before we get to the phones, one other little passage from the AP story, and there are really two despicable AP stories today.
Quote, among the things the government can do to bring prices down is reduce gasoline taxes or push to get more fuel-efficient cars on the road.
The first new fuel standards since 1990 are just now going into effect, and the U.S. auto fleet is now more efficient than ever.
So why is the price still going up?
I want you to think about something.
We have, as required by federal law, had more and more stringent fuel efficiency standards for 20 years.
We had the catalytic converter.
We've had all kinds of limits on emissions.
We've had cars produced.
We've had little puddle jumpers out there that got hardly any gas mileage at all or get a lot of gas mileage and no power.
We've been doing it for a long, long time is my point.
It's not just that this idea that fuel efficiency standards that were implemented in 1990 are just now going into effect is a croc.
I'm sitting here and I'm recalling during the Clinton years, we did parodies here on them on Clinton and all of the new CAFE standards.
Now that's in the 90s.
Corporate average fleet something or other.
The CAFE standards.
And they were raised and they're raised every three or four years, meaning that every manufacturer of automobiles, when they combine the whole fleet of cars and trucks they manufacture, the average miles per gallon has got to be X.
And it goes up.
And it's been going on for 25 years.
And it's all been under the pretext of conservation and reducing dependence on foreign oil.
And none of that's happened, has it?
We still depend on foreign oil.
Despite manufacturers being told they got to build crap cars, we still have the price of gasoline going up, don't we?
Despite 25 years of fuel efficiency standards being mandated by the federal government onto manufacturers.
The U.S. auto fleet, now more efficient than ever, and yet the price of gas is still going up.
And we still depend on foreign oil as much as ever.
So what has it all been worth?
Well, Mr. Limbaugh, New Castrati interrupting, at least you can say, Mr. Limbaugh, the pollution has been reduced.
Oh, it has?
Then how come we still have a global warming threat, Mr. Neil Castrati?
If we've reduced emissions and we have made the air cleaner, then what's the threat?
If every one of these cockeyed liberal ideas has worked, then why do we still have the same exact problem, only worse in every respect?
And the answer is because their ideas don't work.
All they result in is crappier stuff.
Underperforming stuff.
Stuff that people really don't want.
Stuff that manufacturers, if left to their own devices, would not make.
That's where we end up.
And despite all that, we still have higher gas prices.
And despite all that, we still have global warming.
And despite all of that, we still have a huge dependency on foreign oil.
So where, I ask, is the magic of all these liberal solutions to these problems?
And the answer is every solution the liberals come up with for a problem makes that problem worse directly and also via unintended consequences like the breakup of the black family, which nobody wanted to happen, but it did.
Liberalism doesn't work and it makes me mad.
And that's bottom line.
All right, George in Billings, Montana, you're up first.
I appreciate your patience.
Welcome to the program.
Hey, Rush.
Hey, every joint on that Trans-Alaska pipeline was welded by a local out of Oklahoma.
And they did a lot of that in the winter, summer, over a couple of years above the Arctic Circle.
Some of it's below ground, some of it's above ground.
And they did a fantastic job, obviously, because we're around 25 years.
That's been online.
And I don't know of any joint failure on that.
And apparently Obama's down in Oklahoma now trying to explain to these craftsmen how they're incapable of building a pipeline across the sandhills in Nebraska.
Well, that's an excellent point.
You can't hear me.
It's an excellent point.
Obama is – can you tell me, when was the last pipeline rupture that created all kinds of havoc that we've got to really be careful now to do this Keystone thing because the pipeline ruptures, they happen all the time.
When was the last one, George?
George, are you there?
Hello.
Yeah, George, do you hear me?
Yes.
Okay.
Yes.
Anyway, earlier on in his presidency there, he went right to Canada and told them basically to stop mining the tar sands, which would be where the majority of this oil is coming from.
And I don't believe he wants to have it happen anyway.
No, he doesn't.
He stood in the way of it happening.
He's in Oklahoma today where it was happening despite him and taking credit for it.
Oklahoma to Texas, it's happening.
He couldn't stop it if he'd wanted to.
So the next best thing is to go take credit for it.
Because a poll from Gallup says 78% of the American people want the Keystone Pipeline.
My hope is that 78% of the American people know he's opposed to it and is the reason for it.
And I also hope that 78% of the American people understand that this dog and pony show going on today is a flat-out lie.
But you raise an interesting point about the welders.
If I'm not mistaken, welders are unionized people.
And he's out there criticizing pipelines generically because they break and rupture.
And, oh, no, that would leave that rotten, poisonous, toxic, deadly oil seeping into the ground and killing our snails.
What's that say for union people that put together the pipe?
What?
Just jackass, folks.
We're just dealing with a jackass.
Cafe standards, that's corporate average fuel economy.
And cheap, tiny cars had to have these cheap, tiny cars because we weren't going to have blood for oil.
The free flow of oil at market prices was never a reason for the U.S. to engage its military anyway.
Remember the First Iraq War, Gulf War I?
All the criticism of George H.W. Bush, blood for oil.
He was simply going to get hold of Iraq's oil fields as some kind of crime when it was never the purpose.
Heck, we didn't take any of the oil a second time around in Iraq.
And by all rights, it was ours.
But we didn't take it because we're being big people about it.
We're the nation's big kid on the block, and we've got enough.
And so we're going to go.
We'll do the dirty work of liberating Iraq and getting rid of Saddam Hussein.
And it will give the JICOMs the oil to show what big people we are.
And yet, the American left rips this country to shreds because everything we do is for oil.
Some kind of poison.
See, these cheap tiny cars, then we built dangerous tiny cars because of blood for oil.
Can't have blood for oil.
You can't do that.
And all this conservation, all these cafe standards, and all of these steps to reduce air pollution.
And yet the Democrats are running commercials with kids wearing inhalers walking through the Capitol because now global warming is so bad, they're getting asthma attacks from CO2 that they exhale.
So I'm just telling you, folks, it's a giant teachable moment.
The last 20 years, 25 years of liberal solutions to all these problems, and we've still got the problems.
We still have the same old problems, the same villains, the same old problems.
It's only worse.
And meanwhile, we're told the government can fix everything.
Just turn everything over to them.
Every aspect of your life.
And the gasoline price comes along.
Oh, no, no.
That's big oil.
You know, big, greedy oil companies.
Those rotten SOBs, if producing more domestic oil cannot impact rural prices, then guess what?
Conserving can't either.
And this is an argument, if you've been here for the entire 23-plus years, you know that we've made all this talk about conservation.
Yeah, it's wonderful.
Everybody's against waste.
But conservation is not a policy that leads to growth.
And growth is what prosperity is all about in this country.
Growth is where people's dreams reside.
Growth is where opportunity exists.
And without it, you have stagnation.
Conservation does not lead to growth.
It just doesn't.
But according to Obama, neither does domestic production of oil.
If domestic production of oil can't lower prices, then why and how in the heck does conservation do it?
There's not one thing Obama has said today that could stand up to even the most cursory logic examination or application.
Not one thing, folks.
Not one thing he has said stands up to the slightest application of logic.
Back to the phones.
Who's that?
Jay in Springfield, Illinois.
Great to have you on the program.
Hi.
Hey, Rush.
Hey, I just want to make three points about gas real quick, and I'll try to make them brief.
First of all, 2008 summer, when gas was $146 a barrel, I mean, crude oil was, gas was $4.25.
Now it's $107 a barrel.
Gas is basically $4.25.
That's weird.
Then, like the thing you talked about earlier, about the early 80s comment or poll said people were driving way more now than what they did in the early 80s.
Well, I had a license in the early 80s rush, and I know you did too.
And believe me, nobody I know is driving more now in 2012 than what they were in the early 80s, except people might be driving a little bit farther to find a job and go to work every day.
But people drove a lot more back then.
But my main point was, well, I told your screener, the thing with the pipeline scam he's pulling down there in Oklahoma.
The guys that are running for the Republican ticket right now, they're the candidates trying to go up against him in November.
They need to not be just listening to you on the radio and letting you put the information out there.
They need to get on the bandwagon and get up there at the podium, and they need to say to the American people what's going on about the phony scam with the pipeline, which in my nickname is the Okie-Dokie pipeline now, not the Keystone pipeline.
And that way, all the propaganda and all the stuff you've been talking about for the last hour or two, they can actually put it out there because they just keep talking and arguing about, oh, the Keystone Pipeline, yes, Keystone Pipeline, no.
All these people that are the electorate out there that really aren't informed and they're going to probably vote for Obama or don't know which way to vote, they'll just think, well, he's doing his part to help.
No, he's not.
Well, you raise a good point.
I would love.
Look, the candidates are out there talking about the Keystone Pipeline generically, which is fine, but now there's really something to go after Obama on.
He just did this today, so it may be asking a bit much to have them out there on television.
But maybe not either.
I'm not running for anything.
If I were, if I were, and I would think I would have had been handed a golden opportunity on a silver platter today, I would have called a press conference and I would have nailed everything Obama said today, and I would have done my best to embarrass him with this and not let him get away with it.
But you're like every caller that I've had asked me this question 23 years.
Why don't the Republicans, I have no idea.
No clue.
Now, I know that Newt has been hitting Obama pretty hard over his energy policies.
And done a pretty good job of it.
And maybe this today will inspire these guys at some point to come forward.
It's an opportunity waiting to happen for either Santorum or Romney to make a big deal out of this.
So it's an interesting question.
But your point about driving less today or not driving less today than the 1980s, let me give you another.
This will be shocking if you don't know this already.
Demand for gasoline in this country is actually down a little bit because of the price.
People aren't driving as much.
But do you know that for the first time, and I don't know how long it is, it's a long time, it's many, many years, we are exporting gasoline.
Despite no new refinery capacity since 1979, we are exporting gasoline that we refine.
We are exporting it for sale.
We are not using every drop of gasoline that we refine.
The demand is not such that there isn't enough of it, and that's why the price is going up.
We are exporting gasoline.
I know some of you are probably scratching your head.
That can't be true.
Why would we be exporting?
Because it's a saleable commodity and there are buyers for it.
You know, the Iranians do not have a refinery.
They have to import every drop of gasoline.
They've got a pretty good supply of domestic oil, but they have to export it and then re-import gasoline because they don't have a refinery.
No, no, I don't know that we're selling any gasoline to the Iranians with sanctions.
No, no, I'm saying that we're a net exporter now of gasoline, which is an indication that the demand is down.
But there is no shortage.
There is no interruption in the supply of crude anywhere.
There's no need to release oil from the strategic reserves.
There's no emergency.
That's another crass political move that will not lower, in real terms, the price of gasoline.
It's just mind-boggling to watch all this.
It really is painful.
Painful to watch all this, painful to hear the President of the United States say such outrageously untrue things.
It's the first time since 1949 that we're exporting gasoline.
First time since 1949, shipments abroad of petroleum products exceeded imports by 500,000 barrels a day.
That's how much we are exporting right now.
No, this is why I have been saying it.
More drilling doesn't cut gas price.
It's a story.
And it's a fact check from the AP.
AP is not a fact-check story.
More U.S. drilling did not drop the gas price.
It's the political cure-all for high gas prices.
Drill here, drill now.
But more U.S. drilling has not changed how deeply the gas pump drills into your wallet, according to math and history.
A statistical analysis of 36 years of monthly inflation-adjusted gasoline prices and U.S. domestic oil production to the AP shows no statistical correlation between how much oil comes out of U.S. wells and the price of the pump.
Now, once again, I find myself near speechless here.
This is a raw, naked assertion of flat-out excrement.
This is BS of the highest order.
Therefore, as I said earlier, we may as well not produce steel, may as well not produce wheat, corn, you name it, it doesn't matter.
U.S. production of these items has no effect on the prices.
Right here, AP, more drilling didn't drop the gasoline price.
Isn't it as simple as saying, okay, take the U.S. share of produced oil, take that off the market, what would happen to price?
Are they trying to tell us that the amount of oil we produce and put on the global market is so insignificant that it wouldn't have mattered?
Boy, I remember during the Bush administration, we got to $3 a gallon, and there was a conspiracy going on.
And the media had stopped everything to try to get to the bottom of it.
Who was responsible for this?
$3 a gallon gasoline.
Now, here we are in the golden era of the Obama regime and $5 a gallon.
Hey, it's just the market at work.
And it's really not as bad as you think.
But at $3 a gallon, if they could have put Bush in jail for it, along with Karl Rove, they would have.
If they could have rounded up all the executives at ExxonMobil, Rex Tillerson and the boy, they would have done it, and they would have put them in jail.
Now, everybody knows that gasoline prices are subject to many factors.
There's speculators who look into the future.
But if more oil production doesn't drive down the price of gas, why does everybody beg the Saudis to pump more whenever prices start to go up?
Would somebody answer that really simple, logical question?
36 years of drilling for oil in America is irrelevant.
Somebody explained to me why we practically run and bow down and beg King Abdullah to drill for more or pump more oil.
Why do we do that?
Why did John Kerry make a big deal in 2004 in challenging George W. Bush?
Get over there and make a deal with the Saudis.
That's what I'm going to do when I'm president.
I'm going to make a deal.
I'm going to go over there and I'm going to tell them what for.
And I'm going to make sure they're going to, they're going to, I'm going to be a president.
They're going to listen to and they're going to respect.
And I'm going to tell them to start pumping and pumping and they'll do it when I'm president.
Well, what does it matter?
If more oil from domestic sources doesn't matter, why does it matter when it comes from Saudi Arabia?
Now, in this AP fact check, there's this little item that's buried deep.
Only people like your host have the patience and commitment to ferret out.
If drilling activity rises around the globe for a sustained period of time, gasoline prices can fall as that new supply eventually finds its way to market.
But the U.S. can't do it alone, oil analysts.
That just contradicts every claim they made in their fact-checking article before they get to this.
So they've got a huge piece.
More drilling didn't drop the gas price.
More drilling won't drop the gas price.
And then, buried in the story, if drilling activity rises around the globe for a sustained period, gasoline prices can fall.
Well, which is it, AP?
Either drilling affects prices or it doesn't.
They're being honest with you, Mr. Limbaugh.
You think the world had to do it at the same time?
Every oil...
So now you want to support the world drilling for oil, but just not us?
Look at the pretzels these people twist themselves into.
It takes a rare person to be able to keep track of all this.
He's a rare person indeed to be able to untangle this intricately woven web of deceit and lies spun every day by these people.
And that person is your host, the all-knowing, all-caring, all-sensing, all-feeling, all-everything, Maha Rushi.
Who's next?
Kevin in Buffalo.
I'm glad you waited, sir.
Welcome to the program.
How's it going, Rush?
Good.
Thank you, sir.
I work with 798 out of Oklahoma.
It's what we call a nationwide local.
And I can honestly say this Keystone thing has been ridiculous.
And I'm really happy that people have finally started talking about it.
I mean, making it a major issue.
Because, I mean, this has been something that really controlled how I work for probably the last year, year and a half.
And wait a minute.
You live in Buffalo?
Yes.
You live in Buffalo.
You work for a local 798.
For those of you in Rio Linda, that's a union.
And it's a pipe welders union.
And you would be working today if he would have approved the whole pipeline.
That's what you said?
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
All of us would be.
See, this is another thing.
The unions, I'm glad you called, Kevin, because one of the unreported aspects of this story is that one of Obama's primary electoral blocs, the unions, are the ones losing these jobs.
I mean, it's been estimated that the Keystone Pipeline over, what is it, eight to 10 years would create up to 200,000 jobs.
The minimum number it is said to create would be 20,000.
So we've got a range of between 20,000 and 200,000 jobs.
And that would be union people in large part.
Kevin is properly pointing out here that Obama's reluctance to do the Keystone Pipeline is resulting in them not having jobs, but they're torn because they've got to vote for Obama and they've got to give money to Obama because Obama's looking out for them.
See, Obama is going to take much better care of them than the Republicans ever would.
The local 798s of Pipeliners Union, they lay the pipe for the oil pipelines, and they're not working.
Except, Kevin, you may not have heard the news.
Obama's in Oklahoma today.
He approved the Keystone Pipeline.
Now, it's all over the news that he approved the Keystone Pipeline today.
Well, here we go again.
Fast as three hours in media.
And the first two are total luck and plate.
However, there are other items out there in the news, and we're going to get to them when we come back.
So sit tight and be patient.
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