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RUSH: George in Billings, Montana. You’re up first. I appreciate your patience. Welcome to the program.

CALLER: 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 years above the Arctic Circle. Some of it’s belowground and of some of it’s aboveground. 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.

RUSH: Well, that’s an excellent point. It’s an excellent point. Can you tell me, when was the last pipeline rupture that created all kinds of havoc? We’ve gotta be really careful now to do this Keystone thing because these pipeline ruptures, they happen all the time. When was the last one, George?


CALLER: Earlier on in his presidency there he went right to Canada and told ’em 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.

RUSH: No. 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. I also hope that 78% of the American people understand that his 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?

Just a jackass, folks.

We’re just dealing with a jackass.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Jay in Springfield, Illinois, great to have you on the program. Hi.

CALLER: Hey, Rush. I just want to make three points about gas real quick and I’ll try to make ’em brief. First of all: 2008 summer, when crude oil was $146 a barrel, gas was four and a quarter. Now it’s $107 a barrel, gas is basically four and a quarter. That’s weird. Then like the thing you talked about earlier about the early eighties comment or that the story said people were driving way more than now than what they did in the early eighties. Well, I had a license in the early eighties, 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 eighties. 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, what I told the 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, 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. My nickname for it is the Okey-Dokey Pipeline now, not the Keystone pipeline. And that’s why 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. If they just keep talking and arguing about, “Oh, the Keystone pipeline, yes. The Keystone pipeline no,” all these people, the electorate out there that really aren’t informed and they’re gonna 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.

RUSH: Well, you raise a good point. I would love it. 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 today, but maybe not, either. I’m not running for anything. If I were, I would think I 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 ask me this question for 23 years: “Why didn’t the Republicans do…?”

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. 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. It’s an interesting question. But your point about driving not driving less today than in the 1980s, let me give you another example. 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…?

I don’t know how long, but it’s a long time. It’s many, many years. We are exporting more 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 heads, “That can’t be true! Why would we be exporting gas?” Because it’s a salable commodity and there are buyers for it. Do you know the Iranians do not have a refinery? They have to import every drop of gasoline they use.

They have a pretty good supply of domestic oil, but they have to export it and then re-import gasoline ’cause 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 are 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. It’s 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.

The 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.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Who’s next? Kevin in Buffalo, I’m glad you waited, sir. Welcome to the program.

CALLER: (garbled speaker phone) How’s it going, Rush?

RUSH: Good. Thank you, sir.

CALLER: I work with [Local] 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, ’cause this has been something that really controlled how I work for probably the last year, year and a half.

RUSH: Wait a minute. You live in Buffalo?

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: You live in Buffalo. You of work Local 798. For those of you in Rio Linda, that’s a union — and that’s a pipeliners union — and you would be working today if he would have approved the whole pipeline, that’s what you said?

CALLER: Yeah. Yeah, definitely, all of us would be.

RUSH: See, this is another thing. 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 ten 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 gotta vote for Obama and they’ve gotta give money to Obama ’cause Obama’s looking out for them, see? Obama’s gonna take much better care of ’em than the Republicans ever would. The Local 798 is a 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!

Yeah, it’s all over the news that he approved the Keystone pipeline.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Dave in Bay City, Michigan. Great to have you, sir, with us on the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Hey, Rush. Rush, I cannot believe how short the American public’s memory is on this. We’ve lived through this just three-and-a-half years ago. August 15th of 2008, oil hit an all-time price high of 147 bucks a barrel. The next day, George W. Bush lifted the offshore drilling moratorium. Oil went from $147 straight down to, in the first quarter, under $40 a barrel in 2009. We went from $4.25 at the pump to a buck eighty! And who is talking about this? We just lived through this not even four years ago. We know what works. Just the threat of drilling, from a guy who meant he would do it, gets it down.

RUSH: I don’t think that most people have forgotten it. Don’t forget now… I know I sound a little frustrated today, but it’s not because I don’t think people are gonna get it. You think it’s a great opportunity. I think it’s a fabulous teachable moment, and I think people’s memories are clear on this, and I think the polling data all shows this. If I sound frustrated, I’ll just be personally truthful. The reason I sound frustrated is because in the 23-and-a-half years of doing this… I guess I’ve got an unrealistic expectation, and that is that they’ll stop this, that they’ll stop lying. I know that’s silly. I know that’s an unreasonable expectation.

That’s who they are. They can’t tell the truth and survive politically. And I’m the one who’s told everybody this. But there are times where even I have childlike naivete and assume, like happened when you were in the first grade, liars are dealt with. They were punished, and they didn’t do it anymore — and if they did, they got punished again. But we’re talking about the Democrat Party where they get rewarded for it, or at least they’re not significantly punished for it. So I don’t think the American people are missing any of this. I look at Obama’s approval numbers. He was at an all-time low in the New York Times last week at 41%.

He’s not fooling anywhere near a majority of the people anymore. But then if the media stop lying, they’d be out of jobs. If they stop telling lies, if they stop supporting Obama, they’d be out of jobs. They’d be worthless to the Democrats. They’d be useless to the Democrats and the Democrats would turn their ire on them. So if the AP and all these other news organizations don’t shill for Obama, they’ll be unemployed, too. It’s a little too late for them now to go back and actually do their jobs in the right way because they’ve blown the trust. They’ve squandered the trust that they maybe used to have with their customers, i.e., the American citizens.

Tony in Oklahoma City, it’s great to have you on the program, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Mega Sooner dittos, Rush. I have a question and a comment. The question is: The gasoline being exported to other countries, are these countries “green” countries and the refineries have the “green” countries to thank for the high prices and higher profits?


RUSH: I must admit, I don’t know where the gasoline’s being exported to.
CALLER: And my comment is: I’m in the natural gas business here in Oklahoma, and all I know is that we’re drilling like crazy and drilling more and more and the natural gas prices are low and remain low and are steadily dropping.

RUSH: Would you repeat something for me that you just said.

CALLER: Yes?

RUSH: What do you have to do to get natural gas?

CALLER: We have to drill.

RUSH: Drill?

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: I wonder how many people know that you have to drill for natural gas and it just doesn’t come out of the rear end of a cow. How many people know you’ve gotta drill for it? So here’s Obama: “We can’t drill our way out of anything! No drilling,” and yet Obama is touting natural gas as some clean energy. It is, but you have to drill for it. I’m so glad you called, Tony. Thanks much. I’m gonna find out where this exported gas is going. There’s any number of reasons for it to be exported. One of the reasons is you sell it to people are gonna pay you the most for it. Sorry, that’s the market. So if the Europeans are buying it at prices they’re accustomed to paying — prices that are way, way above what the American people will pay — fine. That’s the way it works. That’s the market. You call European green countries and so forth. We’ll do our best to figure out where it’s going, and that’ll tell us quite a lot.

This is Wendy in Las Vegas next up on the EIB Network. Hi.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. You’re the greatest!

RUSH: Thank you very much. I appreciate that.

CALLER: I want to get back to this conservation issue and gasoline.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: They don’t care how high the price of gas goes. The state and federal taxes are at a certain amount per gallon. It’s not to do with a rate. What they’re doing in 16 different states in the country now is, because of all the conservation and the alternative-fuel vehicles, losing a ton of highway revenue. So they are looking here in Nevada and a bunch of other states into a fuel-tax-replacement study called a “Vehicle Miles Traveled Fee.”

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: And —

RUSH: I know they’re doing it in California, too.

CALLER: Yeah. Yeah. A lot of the western states, even Texas. But the first phase of their study even involved tracking, putting a tracking device on people’s cars to see where they went. You know, you had to participate in the study.

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: And people did not like that. Now, the study is pulling up to the pump and based on your odometer, charging you 2¢ a mile.

RUSH: Another great example here, folks. We’ve chronicled this. Predicted it, in fact. It’s not just with gasoline this is happening. This is happening with water. In North Carolina, in Florida, there are droughts. And there are then mandatory cutbacks in the amount of water you can use watering your lawn, who knows, whatever. Then they figure out, “Wait a minute, we’ve cut the amount of water and now the tax revenue is going down.” They come up with a way of recouping what they’re losing. They tell us to conserve and get smaller, cheap little cars. “Don’t drive as much. Use less water,” then they realize… This is where they don’t score things dynamically.

They do a static on score. They realize that conservation — which they’ve urged, which they’ve demanded, which you get penalized if you don’t conserve — results in less tax revenue for ’em. So they have to come up with additional ways of raising revenue to make up for their loss. And then out the window goes the whole reason for conserving, and that’s making things cheaper and saving us money. That’s how they sell it: Conserve more and you’ll have more disposable income. Conserve and save the planet and all that. And then you find out, the minute they discover you’re saving money, that it’s from them. And then they come get it back from you.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT


RUSH: Hi. Welcome back. Great to have you, Rush Limbaugh, talent on loan from God-d. This a Curtis in Columbus, Ohio. Thank you for waiting, sir. Great to have you on the EIB Network.

CALLER: Oh, good afternoon, Rush. It’s an honor to talk to you. I’ve listened to you for a very long time.

RUSH: Thank you very much.

CALLER: My question is when we talk about the president saying, you know, all the domestic drilling and stuff we do here won’t do any good; well, what’s the price of gasoline in Saudi Arabia or Kuwait, or Venezuela for that matter? If it doesn’t do any good, how much are they paying?

RUSH: Well, that’s not quite a perfect analogy, because they don’t have to ship it anywhere. Of course, we don’t, either. Well, we do. We provide oil and now gasoline exports. By the way, our gasoline exports (I looked it up) are basically to Latin America. Many of our gasoline exports are to Brazil, Mexico, and Chile. Most of it is going to Latin America. I don’t know why. Find that out later. We could assume using market theories that they have a need for it and they’re willing to buy it. But if there’s more to it than that, we will find out. I don’t know what the price of gasoline is in Saudi Arabia or Venezuela or whatever, but they don’t have to place the restrictions on themselves that we place on us.

They don’t have to deal with environmentalist wackos or any of that. And they own the oil. That’s all state owned. We don’t have that. We have evil Big Oil that owns our oil here. But, look, it’s still a good point, because whenever the price of gasoline goes up, what do the Democrats always say? “The Saudis ought to pump more!” The question is, “If the Saudis pump more and it will affect the price by bringing it down, why won’t us drilling and pumping more not bring the price down?” which is what the Democrats say. (interruption) The price of gasoline in Saudi Arabia is 91¢ (chuckling), which ought to tell you what it’s costing them to pump it and refine it. It’s 91¢ a gallon in Saudi Arabia. I don’t know what the price is for women in Saudi Arabia.

Wait, they’re not allowed to drive, are they? Never mind.

Curtis, thanks for the call.

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