RUSH: We move over to Salt Lake City. This is Lisa. Nice to have you on the EIB Network on Open Line Friday. Hi.
CALLER: Hello, Rush.
RUSH: Hi.
CALLER: I’ve gained a lot of wisdom from you over time of listening, and I wanted to share with you that yesterday I went to the fundraiser where John McCain spoke.
RUSH: Was Mitt Romney at that one?
CALLER: Well, yes, he was.
RUSH: Yeah, okay.
CALLER: He is a very funny guy. I don’t know if you knew or not, he’s very funny.
RUSH: Who’s funny?
CALLER: John McCain. He just had us cracking up.
RUSH: (doing McCain impression) ‘I know he’s funny. He’s crazy funny. Yes. Yeah, I know.’
CALLER: He was very funny, and he sort of gave us a little outline of the things that he felt were most important for him to look at, should he become president, or the things that he would take as his first priority.
RUSH: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Are these the things that he would do after he’s elected or are these the things he needs to do to get elected? I’m not challenging you.
CALLER: After he was elected.
RUSH: After he’s elected.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: Okay. What are they? I’m almost afraid to hear this.
CALLER: His number-one priority, which I agree with very much, is reining in fiscal spending.
RUSH: Yeah, okay, that’s cool.
CALLER: And his second priority as I understood it — again, I’m paraphrasing — but was the economy.
RUSH: What did he say about the economy?
CALLER: Well, that I guess is a little bit tougher. He talked about the importance of not raising taxes.
RUSH: Yeah. But did he tell you how much his global warming plan is going to raise taxes?
CALLER: Well, this is where I think that actually it gets rather interesting, because he was talking about the importance of means of looking for alternative fuels. And in my opinion, whether someone is just getting tired of going to the gas pump and always reaching a new high when they go there and being tired of funding terrorism, or they believe in global warming, regardless I think it’s something all Americans can stand behind, whatever their motivation.
RUSH: Wrong.
CALLER: Why do you say that?
RUSH: Motivation is key. Now, let me say something here. I am all for innovation, invention, creativity. I am all for this is this magical new alternative energy that will replace oil. I’m all for it. But ain’t there. We’re nowhere close. Oil is the cheapest, it is the most abundant, as I have pointed out timeless times, it is the cheapest, it is the most abundant, it is the most efficient fuel source we have. It is the fuel of the engine of freedom and democracy. Biofuels. There are more and more stories that are hitting the decks here, these biofuels are just causing all kinds of damage. They are not cost efficient whatsoever. They are using more energy to produce them than they save in their usage. I’ve got a big story here, in Norway, 400% more water is being used. You ought to see the price of rice worldwide. There are rice shortages. Rice grows in water. All of these alternative fuel sources, they sound so wonderful, wind farms, diddly-squat. Solar, fine. But nothing is out there yet that is going to replace oil. And the trashing of oil and with such phrases as ‘no blood for oil’ and so forth is dangerous because oil has led to our freedom and our advancement and our prosperity. You ought to stop and think about just how relevant it is and how dependent we are on oil, not for wherever it comes from. We’re dependent on oil for our very freedom. We are dependent on it for our very security. We are dependent on it for our lifestyle and our ability to grow. It is the blood flow of the United States and of the free world. There’s nothing anywhere near out there that is in quantity or in cost that’s anywhere near to replacing it.
CALLER: But, Rush, with all due respect, don’t you feel that oil is in large part causing the tremendous issues we’re having with the Middle East because oil is such a well-run machine —
RUSH: I do not.
CALLER: — it’s obvious that —
RUSH: I do not. No, it’s not obvious.
CALLER: I cannot possibly see how, because I would love to tell those people just to take all their oil and keep it and work with other options.
RUSH: No, no, no. Our number one source of oil is Canada. Our number two source is Mexico. The Middle East is not number one or number two on the list of countries that export oil to us. Oh, feel like Redd Foxx, ‘Elizabeth, this is the big one!’ Lisa, I’m way long here, I’ve gotta run.
CALLER: I am such a Republican, I can’t even tell you, but I mean my mind is really open to the fact that I think we do need to be thinking to the future about this.
RUSH: We always are thinking to the future. The United States is not mired in the past, we are thinking of the future, and some of us (gasping) are trying to save this country’s future from people who want to limit its growth and perhaps destroy it as we’ve known it! And two people come to mind who will do that, Obama and Hillary, and there’s maybe a third running who would contribute a little bit, and it really bothers us!
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RUSH: May I have your attention please, folks, on the business of alternative fuels? Look at me. Look-k-k at me. The United States is not a zero-sum game. Meaning when somebody gets hired, it does not mean somebody gets fired. Meaning when somebody earns an additional five dollars, somebody has lost an additional five dollars. It doesn’t mean that it’s either oil or else. The whole concept of the United States, the capitalist system, is the free market — and the free market is fueled by freedom! Freedom leads to ingenuity, invention, entrepreneurism, and what is the pursuit? The pursuit is profit. The profit derives from success. Now, there’s some charlatans in our free market. The people in carbon offset businesses are sharks. They are pure frauds! They are convincing people to pay them X-amount of dollars for whatever, to plant trees, to soak up the additional carbon footprint of what is ‘allowed.’ Allowed by who? Who says that there is a maximum carbon footprint? There is no such law, there is no such standard, because we have freedom!
If you want to have a 30,000-square-foot house and a big-ass swimming pool and a bunch of outdoor lights and you can afford it and you pay for it, and there are people that provide it. End of story. You are not guilty! You are not guilty. No, you are not. Just because somebody else doesn’t have a 30,000-square-foot house, doesn’t have a big-ass swimming pool and outdoor lights, doesn’t mean they’re innocent and you are guilty. As this relates to alternative fuels, oil is the most plentiful energy source we have. It’s the most efficient. But while oil is being used, and while it is being exploited, the United States taxpayer, ladies and gentlemen, already spends billions of dollars on alternative energy research — and you can bet that the private sector is investing in it, too, and do you know why? Because we are a growing country and everybody needs energy! We’re not going to stay the United States if we start reducing energy usage. Conservation is not the answer. So because a free market’s percolating and gurgling and burbling out there, somewhere in this mix will come the magical alternative fuel source. It may not be for a hundred years, it may not be for 50, but it will happen, and it will happen all by itself…if we stay free.
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RUSH: Oil is not the enemy. We can peacefully co-exist with oil while looking for the miracle alternative fuel source that everybody wants, but we’re going to have to do that while using oil. Oil is not the enemy, folks. It’s our buddy.