RUSH: The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the attack on Saudi Arabia\u2019s oil infrastructure last weekend took about half of the kingdom\u2019s production capacity. That\u2019s not insignificant. Half of the Saudi production capacity? I read it was 5% of the supply. But 50% of the production capacity, that\u2019s a different thing.<\/p>\n
But guess what? In the immediate aftermath everybody thought that the market would plummet in panic and that the price of oil would skyrocket to over a hundred dollars a barrel. Guess what? That didn\u2019t happen. Do you know why? There\u2019s a very, very simple, logical economic reason for this.<\/p>\n
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Markets recognize that Saudi Arabia and other members of OPEC are gonna have to curtail their production one way or the other to make room for the explosion of U.S. oil production. Because if they don\u2019t, prices are gonna collapse. See, the United States, because of fracking, we\u2019re now independent. We don\u2019t need to import any oil from anywhere, Saudis, anywhere else.<\/p>\n
Now, we\u2019re still vested in their defense. Their oil is still needed around the world at market prices. The free flow of oil at market prices is the number one factor in a stable economy in this country and most of the western democracies. You might not like hearing that, but it is. It\u2019s why when Saddam Hussein went into Kuwait, threatened to shut down the oil and take it all over, we didn\u2019t waste any time. George W. Bush dispatched troops. We could not allow that to happen.<\/p>\n
The free flow of oil — I don\u2019t care what the climate change ninnies say. I don\u2019t care what the anti-fossil fuel crowd says. The world functions on the free flow of oil at market prices. Any interruption is a potential disaster. Any oversupply depresses prices. It\u2019s a delicate balance. There\u2019s tons of it. The challenge with the supply of oil is meeting the demand without creating a whole bunch of surplus. It\u2019s a logistics problem. It\u2019s a pleasant one to have.<\/p>\n
So with the United States production rising, the Saudi production, OPEC\u2019s production is gonna have to be cut because the world supply is what it is. The world demand is what it is. If the U.S., because of the dominant position we have, sets the price, the Saudis are gonna have to accommodate. So they might have been looking forward to cutting back production anyway. If they didn\u2019t, prices would collapse because there\u2019d be way more supply than the world needed.<\/p>\n
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So the bottom line here is that instead of a disaster, if this had been 20 years ago, it would have been a disaster. We would have been up a creek. There would have been panic. There would have been gas lines already. There would have been a contrived shortage. The panic, you would not have been able to deal with it. It would have been created in media story after media story. But it\u2019s a blip. It\u2019s a blip because of fracking. It\u2019s a blip because the United States is now self-sufficient and has so much we can export, making the United States the real winner.<\/p>\n
Riyadh, which is the Saudi capital, is gonna have to do what they have to do to support prices at the same time we\u2019re taking the lead as the world\u2019s largest and fastest growing oil producer. And, by the way, none of this happened because of Barack Hussein Obama, the Democrats. They were trying to shut fracking down. They didn\u2019t want the pipelines built. They didn\u2019t want any of this to happen. But it did in spite \u2019cause Trump gets elected and what\u2019s the first thing he does? Opens up all those pipelines, tells the environmentalists to go pound sand or wherever they pound whatever. Pipelines are open, new drilling is planned, fracking goes on, prices come down. It\u2019s magical how this theory actually works in practice.<\/p>\n
Back to the phones. Thomas, Vero Beach, Florida. Glad you waited, sir. Hello.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Sir, what\u2019s your take on Trump\u2019s walking backward on Iraq? [sic] First, he was locked and loaded. And Tuesday he doesn\u2019t want war. Today just a while ago on Fox, maybe more sanctions. What\u2019s that all about?<\/p>\n
RUSH: Are you talking about Iraq or Iran?<\/p>\n
CALLER: I\u2019m saying Iraq. [sic]<\/p>\n
RUSH: So you\u2019re asking me what I think of Trump walking back on Iraq?<\/p>\n
CALLER: Excuse me. I misspoke. Iran. Iran. Iran. You\u2019re right. Iran.<\/p>\n
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RUSH: The reason I\u2019m asking is because I\u2019ve got a sound bite here that I — let\u2019s see. Yeah, grab sound bite number 24. I\u2019m gonna play the sound bite, and you tell me what you think of this. Okay?<\/p>\n
CALLER: Okay.<\/p>\n
RUSH: This is Trump this afternoon in Los Angeles at the airport before he got on Air Force One to get out of there. He was with his new national security adviser, Robert O\u2019Brien. They were both talking to reporters. And a Democrat in the media, a reporter said, “Mr. President what are the options that you are considering? You just said there were some very bad things were thinking of regarding Iran?”<\/p>\n
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THE PRESIDENT: There are many options. As you know, there are many options. And there\u2019s the ultimate option and there are options a lot less than that. And we\u2019ll see. We\u2019re in a very powerful position.<\/p>\n
REPORTER: Are you considering…?<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: Right now, we\u2019re in a very, very powerful position.<\/p>\n
REPORTER: When you say, “the ultimate option,” are you talking about…?<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: No, I\u2019m saying the ultimate option meaning go in, war. No, I\u2019m not talking about… I\u2019m not talking about that ultimate option, no.<\/p>\n
RUSH: So Trump leads these guys into believing he\u2019s thinking of maybe of nuking them, and then walks that back and then makes \u2019em think he\u2019s maybe thinking of going to war with them. “Oh, no, no. I\u2019m not talking about that. I\u2019m talking about another ultimate option. They\u2019re all out there scratching their heads. Now, is this what you mean by walking forward and walking back, being aggressive and then backing up on it? Is that what you mean?<\/p>\n
CALLER: The first response should have been to destroy them for knocking down our drones. They don\u2019t care about sanctions. All they want is war, and that\u2019s the only thing we\u2019re gonna talk to them with.<\/p>\n
RUSH: So you think Trump ought to just unload on them?<\/p>\n
CALLER: Absolutely!<\/p>\n
RUSH: Do you think he will?<\/p>\n
CALLER: No. He\u2019s walked backwards.<\/p>\n
RUSH: And why do you think that…? I\u2019m not trying to set you up. There\u2019s no wrong answer, here. I honestly want to know what you think. Why do you think he\u2019s walking it back?<\/p>\n
CALLER: Well, first he said he was locked and loaded. What\u2019s that say to me? That says to me, “My guns are ready,” and then he says, “I don\u2019t want war.” That\u2019s walking backwards.<\/p>\n