RUSH: This is Karen in Mahwah, New Jersey. It’s nice to have you on the EIB Network.
CALLER: Hi, Rush, how are you?
RUSH: Fine. Thank you.
CALLER: Mega dittos from an oil lover. I wanted to speak to you because I signed this Drill Here, Drill Now, back in May. There was about 11,000 signatures on it at the time.
RUSH: Yes?
CALLER: Now there’s 85% of Americans want to drill for oil. What I don’t understand is why is this lobbying going back between the Democrats and the Republicans? Why aren’t they just saying, ‘This is what the American people want, we need to do this’? There’s people out there that are just around the corner from foreclosure, and at this point I think that both Democrats and Republicans are looking at the Americans questioning their IQ saying, ‘Well, doesn’t matter. We’ll wait for the election,’ and I think there’s a lot of people out there that cannot wait ’til November to have this solved.
RUSH: Yeah, I hope you’re right. But you’re raising a very interesting question, a good question in terms of the manner in which people can be educated by getting the answer to that. For example, let’s go back and let’s look at the Dubai Ports Deal. (Gee, I haven’t been able to say those words in a while.) The Dubai Ports Deal. Remember when that was announced?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: You didn’t need petitions.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: People blew up. There was ‘no way that Dubai was going to have a bunch of terrorist running our ports.’ That’s what people thought was going to happen. And so they let their members of Congress know about it, and the Republicans and Democrats got into a race to be first to the microphone to say the deal would never happen.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: Let’s go illegal immigration. The Comprehensive Illegal Immigration Reform Act known as ‘amnesty,’ they put that together behind closed doors under the cover of darkness in a week. They wanted to ‘eliminate all the politics’ from it which meant no debates, no amendments, nobody talking about it. In one week’s time they wanted that to be signed and passed up to the president for his signature —
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: — knowing full well the American people had no taste for it, no desire. The American people shut that down. But if the American people hadn’t spoken up, we would now have amnesty as the official immigration policy of this country. Now, we move on from that to your ‘Drill Here, Drill Now’ thing. The American people are signing petitions. And after the Gang of Ten deal, they did call Congress. But I don’t know how much fun activity there’s been on here, Drill Now. There may have been some, I don’t know. We haven’t heard about it, but the petitions apparently don’t carry a whole lot of weight.
CALLER: That’s how I feel, Rush. That’s how I feel, that we don’t matter to them, that their personal interest is the only thing that matters —
RUSH: You’re exactly right!
CALLER: — and it’s to the point now where, you know, Sean Hannity’s got on his show, Stop the Hillary Express, the Stop the Obama Express. How about the American people stand up and say, ‘Stop the Check Express. You start working for us again!’
RUSH: (laughs) Well, there’s some good people up there, but the problem that you’re dealing with here is twofold. You have liberal Democrats who are the majority in both bodies who don’t care what anybody thinks. Their agenda comes first and foremost. The second thing is, you’ve got Republicans who are scared to death of not getting along with the Democrats because they think people like you would rather see them come to compromise on some of these things rather than actually take ’em on in battle. So you got Republicans in the House, on their vacation, who are trying to carry this issue along, and they’re making some noise about it, but you’re right. The reason this particular issue differs from, say, the Dubai Ports Deal is that this whole drilling and global warming thing is precisely about reining in the capitalist aspects of our economy and stilting them and promoting the government — size of government, more taxes and so forth — and that is the closest thing to a congressman’s heart, particularly a liberal, that you’ll ever get. And no matter what public opinion is, they’ll ignore it.
CALLER: Yes, yes. I…
RUSH: They will revert to arrogance. ‘You people just don’t know what you’re talking about here. You’re not sufficiently informed to understand the vagaries and the intricacies of what we’re trying to do here, but we’re trying to save the planet. I understand that you want cheaper gasoline, but that will destroy the planet. We’re trying to save the planet, and you must understand we’re trying to save you from yourself and try to save the world from you.’ So it is ultimately you’re being insulted.
CALLER: You know, Rush, I listened to you when you started the program and how you watched the show, you were astonished about how many products are coming from oil that we use every single day in our lives. And I just feel that the Democrats are turning around saying, ‘Oh, the American people are stupid,’ but look at all they’re doing with oil products! Obviously, there needs to be more supply, and we’re the supply holder. It could create jobs. It could put people back to work. Americans are very bright people, Rush. There’s a good use for them, and we need to get jobs.
RUSH: I cannot say it any better. I only want to correct you on one thing. I was not ‘startled’ at how many derivatives there are of oil. I was just amazed that I actually saw it on television and it was well done.
CALLER: I’m very sorry that I missed that.
RUSH: Well, it’s going to be on Saturday night the 23rd of this month, a week from Saturday, at 7 p.m. Eastern Time on The History Channel. Now, we called them. We actually called them to find out, and they said, ‘We’ve tentatively scheduled it that day.’ We said ‘Tentatively. Don’t tell us that! Book it, because we’re going to get you more viewers for this episode than you’ve ever had for a single episode of anything on the History Channel.’ Well, we didn’t tell them that. Cookie was talking to them. She would not treat them that way. I would have, had I been on the phone, but I wasn’t. So it’s tentatively scheduled for Saturday night, August 23rd, 7 p.m. Eastern Time. Are the Olympics still going on then? They will still be going on, won’t they? Or is it over by then? I don’t know. It’s three weeks. The Olympics is three weeks, and we’re in the second week now? No, this just the first week. (interruption) Was that right, the opening ceremony was on the 8th? Okay, the events started on Saturday. So Saturday will be one week, the next Saturday two weeks, the next Saturday three weeks — and the Olympics I think is a two-week event, or is it three? Actually, why am I even talking about it, because I don’t even care?