This is a rush transcript from "Glenn Beck," March 7, 2011. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO, GUEST HOST: Hello, America. I'm Judge Andrew Napolitano, filling in for Glenn this week, who's on vacation.
Tonight on the docket -- the price of oil and growing government debt.
The bloody protest in the Middle East and North Africa has sent the price of oil skyrocketing. Oil is trading at a half-year high of over $100 a barrel. And consumer saw a 33 percent gallon gas price jump at the pump just in the last two weeks.
Meanwhile, the federal government continues racking up endless debt. Today, it's $14 trillion. But by the end of next year, if the president gets his way, it will be over $15.6 trillion. That debt is money. You and your children will have to pay back.
Our progeny will be born as financial slaves to the federal government, as they will have their wages tax and spend for spending that occurred before they were born.
Yet, the big government shakedown doesn't stop there. Part of the reason gasoline is so expensive is because of inane and unconstitutional government interference. You see, the government, the federal government is sitting on huge reserves of oil. It places all sorts of nonsensical drilling restrictions on oil companies and it levies huge taxes on gasoline.
In fact -- are you ready for this? -- from 1981 to 2008, federal and local governments, state governments as well, have collected half a trillion dollars more in oil tax revenue than oil companies made in profit.
So, who is really gouging you?
After all of this big government meddling and gasoline and debt, it all means one thing. That gas costs more than it should. And that our children are going to pay for the drug addict like spending addiction of politicians today.
But here now, a Tea Party-endorsed senator committed to getting the government out of the oil market, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul. He's also the author of a fascinating new book, "The Tea Party Goes to Washington."
Senator Paul, welcome here.
SEN. RAND PAUL, R-KY.: Good to be with you.
NAPOLITANO: All right. So, I want to talk about oil. I want to talk about the book. I want to talk about the debt. And your colleague, Senator Mike Lee, will be joining us in a couple of moments. The federal government charges 18 cents a gallon in tax at the pump. It has nothing to do with getting the oil to you. Should we be paying that? Should the government reduce that tax in times when oil is spiking 33 percent in two weeks?
PAUL: Well, the interesting thing is most of the push I hear, people all wanting to raise that tax.
NAPOLITANO: Right.
PAUL: So, we're lucky if we keep the tax where it is, probably. But really what we need to do is have a government that is friendly to business. We all need electricity. We all need gasoline for our cars. But we have a government right now that I think is the most anti-business government or administration that we've had in my lifetime.
NAPOLITANO: And yet, the president appoints someone like Bill Daley, the brother of the soon to be ex-governor of Chicago and a former senior vice president, JPMorgan Chase, in order to put on the front of being in favor of business. The president went along with keeping the Bush era tax rates where they were in the lame duck era of Congress, claiming that he's in favor of this. His words don't always match up with what he's doing.
PAUL: Well, he claims he wants to do something about regulations, but then they have this sort of nebulous code they're going to use and say that we'll get rid of regulations as long as they don't affect human dignity. A lot of us are wondering how you're going to measure human dignity in relation to trillion-dollar regulations. I think it's impossible.
NAPOLITANO: You know, a federal judge in New Orleans, Judge Martin Feldman, ordered the government to process permits for drilling. Remember, with 31 oil wells there, only one of them blew. It was catastrophic, people died and the loss was in the tens of billions. But there was nothing wrong with the other 30. The federal government inspected the other 30 and said, well, OK, they're doing what they're supposed to be doing, but we're not going to let you drill.
Judge Feldman ordered them to drill, allowed them to drill, they didn't. Judge Feldman held officials in the Interior Department in contempt and they left one drill. And now, they're appealing that decision on the one. Are they crazy?
PAUL: Well, we prevent them from drilling and then we increase and have to pay their unemployment benefits. And it is a crazy system. We worry about being energy independent and we worry about having to send troops over to the Middle East to guard the oil and to take care of the oil production over there, but we don't drill for oil in our country.
Our electricity comes primarily from coal. Half of the electricity comes from burning coal. In Kentucky, it's 90 percent comes from burning coal.
NAPOLITANO: Wow.
PAUL: And yet, they won't give any permits. We have permits that have been sitting there for seven years.
NAPOLITANO: What should we do with the enormous oil reserve that the government has in caves or some type of containers under Louisiana? Should we tap it now? Does the government belong in the business of owning this much oil?
PAUL: We need to get the government out of the business because, you know, the way you distribute goods and why goods are distributed efficiently in the marketplace is because they have a price and someone makes a profit. If you don't make a profit, you get booted out of that business. The government never has to make a profit so the government is not very efficient at distributing goods.
NAPOLITANO: Right.
PAUL: And so, we need to -- it always is, you know, and I hear you say it in your monologues, government is best that governs least. The reason we want government to be small is because they don't work for a profit and they aren't very efficient.
NAPOLITANO: Here's somebody that agrees with you, your colleague, Utah Senator Mike Lee.
Senator Lee spearheaded a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution in the Senate -- which almost made it, Senator Lee. I got to tell you, as I've told you earlier. I got to love sitting with someone who voted with you. I was shocked and surprised, pleasantly so, that you almost got that through.
Is there another chance at this one, an amendment to require the government only to spend what it takes in?
SEN. MIKE LEE, R-UTAH: Absolutely. We're going to keep pushing this issue until it succeeds. We got 11 Democrats to vote with us. The next time, it's going to be more because everyone knows that the American people are overwhelmingly behind the idea of a balanced budget amendment, and that's what we need right now.
Congress isn't going to fix this problem until it's legally required to. And the people expect for members of Congress to impose this legal obligation on themselves.
NAPOLITANO: Now that we won't have a balanced budget amendment, because there weren't enough votes in the Senate to stop a filibuster, a modern day filibuster. There was no Jimmy Stewart goes to Washington moment by a one vote.
Will you, Senator Paul -- I have reason believe Senator Lee will do this -- will you vote against raising the debt ceiling?
PAUL: Yes. I can't imagine why I would vote to raise the debt ceiling. I've told people that I would under one instance, and that is that we pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution and that we show significant budgetary reform, significant budget cuts, maybe a five- year plan to balance the budget and a balanced budget amendment.
Unfortunately, I don't see those things coming. The one thing is Mike Lee is going to bring his balanced budget amendment up again. It will be voted on again --
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