With both soaring gas prices and an enduring jobs slump on his watch, Obama continued to deflect attention away from his record of blocking American energy production on the campaign trail in North Carolina Wednesday. His latest strategy combines attempting to take credit for an increase in domestic oil production on state and private lands (actually decreasing on federal lands), while continuing to promulgate the lie that "we've got 2% of the world’s oil reserves, but we use 20% of the worlds oil."
(Start @ around 4:20 to skip the longwinded intro stuff...then turn your lie detector on...)
After Rush played portions of this clip on Wednesday's program, he launched into a tirade on Obama's oil lies and the suggestion that we're somehow evil for it (via theRightScoop):
Folks, with new technology, we have more oil in the ground that we can get than they have in Saudi Arabia. That "2% of the world's reserves" means 2% of what has been brought up, 2% of what has been produced, not 2% of the supply. This has been an out-and-out lie, and I don't know how else to categorize it. He is purposely misstating this. This is a left-wing catcall for as long as I have been alive, and in this statistic is the implied guilt. "Look at us! We've got 2% of the world's oil, and we use 20%, and it's not fair. We are raping the other nations on this resource!"
The U.S. Geological Survey released a 2008 report that backs up Rush's assessment.
Rush continued discussing the topic, resulting in a great segment that explored Obama's whole green energy push, as well as the money (and campaign laundering) behind it:
Every one of Obama's crony capitalist deals with solar energy has gone belly up. And every one of them has involved a slush fund that ends up coming back to Obama in the form of campaign contributions, just like the Democrat Party's relationship with unions is basically a money laundering operation.
Rush also expands on the benefits of oil that this administration despises:
Have you ever stopped to think why we use oil and its derivatives, such as gasoline, kerosene, jet fuel, have you ever wondered why? Do you think it's a conspiracy? Big Oil's gotten together to conspire with others to make sure that only their product is used to power airplanes and cars? Not how it happens. It happens in the free market because it's what works. It's what powers the internal combustion engine. It's not a conspiracy. It's not big business getting together to monopolize and control and deny you freedom of choice, of fuels. It's because it works. It's found to be the cheapest and most economic and the most efficient way to move people and goods and services around. It works. That's why.
There's nothing better than oil. There's nothing even close to it. We are blessed to have it. We are blessed to have the technology to know how to refine it and make additional products from it, which you find in your everyday life. It is not evil. And the people who work in that business are not evil. They contribute to greatness and the possibility of greatness. They contribute to people's dreams coming true. They make it possible for us to feed ourselves cheaply without having to kill each other to get something to eat. Oil is something for which everybody should be thankful.
For 30 years the Democrats have been saying, "You can't say that the answer is drilling for oil 'cause gonna take four or five years." Well, four or five years was NOW in 1970. In 2000 they said, "Oh, you can't drill. It's gonna take three to four years, maybe five years for us to get any oil." Well, now is five years after 2000. If we'd have increased drilling at any point in the last 30 years when the Democrat Party objected, we would have independence when it comes to foreign oil. The Democrat Party's not interested in that. In fact, your best bet is to believe the opposite of what they say on most everything.
ADDENDUM: This all ties into a discussion Levin was having last week concerning Obama's overall war on American energy...
...while his campaign rhetoric attempts to distract you from his real intentions.
ADDENDUM II: As far as the topic of gas and rising prices, but changing politicians...why does a top Romney adviser want a $2.00-plus gas tax hike?! This from EPJ:
As the price of gasoline soars, top Mitt Romney adviser, Harvard economist Greg Mankiw sticks to his guns and calls for a hike in gasoline taxes. In a recent blog post, Mankiw points to a WaPo column which states:
"N. Gregory Mankiw, former top economic adviser to President George W. Bush and current adviser to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, also backs a stiff gas tax increase... In a New York Times column this year, Mr. Mankiw offered a tax overhaul that might include a gas tax “exceeding” $2 per gallon."
A significant portion of such a tax ultimately may land on oil producers, which means it cuts back on supply and exploration and, in a feedback loop, smacks the consumer right in the wallet.
