{"id":30092,"date":"2008-08-08T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T03:30:16","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T03:30:16","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T03:30:16","slug":"sen_saxby_chambliss_calls_rush2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2008\/08\/08\/sen_saxby_chambliss_calls_rush2\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Saxby Chambliss Calls Rush"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: Senator Chambliss is on the line. Senator Chambliss, I\u2019m glad you called. I only have a couple minutes here so I may ask you to hang on during the break at the bottom of the hour.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Okay Rush, how are you, my friend.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I\u2019m fine. There\u2019s a hubbub here because of a Wall Street Journal column today about you being a member of the Gang of Ten, you and four Republican colleagues that basically signed on with the Democrats\u2019 idea of an energy plan that will essentially shut off all drilling, all kinds of tax credits for renewables and alternatives, it will let all kinds of brand-new regulations, basically thwart the effort to drill for more oil.<\/p>\n

CHAMBLISS: Well, Rush, nothing could be further from the truth. I mean you know, here we are in Washington trying to set good policy on energy as well as other issues, and people back home in my state and all across America are hurting, they\u2019re angry because gas prices have gone from $2.33 when the Democrats took over to over $4, and that\u2019s backed a little bit, but people are upset about that. And what are we doing in Washington to try to help these people out who all of a sudden that have had their kitchen table budgets shoved to heck and back. We\u2019re doing nothing. So what we did was we got together in a bipartisan way, Rush, and you well know that no major issue gets resolved in Washington unless you got 60 votes, and we had to get 60 votes, so we put a bipartisan group together, a group of Democrats who were willing to make the commitment to additional offshore drilling, provided that we would make some compromises otherwise, and —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well —<\/p>\n

CHAMBLISS: We did.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Senator, I don\u2019t mean to be rude but I do have to take a commercial break here in ten seconds.<\/p>\n

CHAMBLISS: Sure.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Can you hold on and we\u2019ll go through what some of the specifics of this bill are.<\/p>\n

CHAMBLISS: Yeah.<\/p>\n

RUSH: And you can tell me if the reporting that we\u2019ve all heard about the specifics are accurate.<\/p>\n

CHAMBLISS: Yeah, be glad to, Rush.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay, we\u2019ll be back. Stay with us. Senator Saxby Chambliss from Georgia.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: And we are back with Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss. Thank you for holding on during the break, Senator.<\/p>\n

CHAMBLISS: Sure.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Now, let me set a couple things up here, it won\u2019t take long at all and it will give you the general idea why people are bamboozled today and a little angry. In the first place, people are fed up with the four dollar gas price, it\u2019s a tipping point and they want to drill for new oil, become independent, they want to drill here and drill now, and they don\u2019t like being dependent and they want to have more supply from domestic sources. The ban on offshore energy production is set to expire at the end of September if Congress does nothing, giving the American people exactly what they want. Now, here comes your bill, The New Era Bill, and it says that new production will only be permitted in four states, and the state legislatures are in charge of it, not the federal government anymore, and only 50 miles or further offshore in those four states, which eliminates the richest fields and things like ANWR. It has 84 billion dollars in tax credits, subsidies and federal handouts for alternative fuels and renewables. It basically, according to the Wall Street Journal today, will eliminate any effort for new drilling.<\/p>\n

CHAMBLISS: Well, it\u2019s actually designed to do just the opposite, Rush. First of all, our bill has nothing to do with whether or not the moratorium remains on after September 30. That\u2019s going to be an up-or-down vote on either continuing resolution or some sort of omnibus bill. That\u2019s where it will be included. I intend to vote to lift the moratorium. I think all five of us will do that. I\u2019m sure all five of us will. This doesn\u2019t have anything to do with that. What it does have to do with is we\u2019ve got a commitment for the first time that I can remember in my now 14 years in the Senate, a significant number, although five may not sound significant, but it really is. We\u2019ve got five Democrats who are willing to say, ‘Look, you know, we think we need to be reasonable and we need join with you guys, so let\u2019s work on a compromise bill that will allow additional offshore drilling,\u2019 something we haven\u2019t done in the last 28 years. And sure, we had to make some compromises on the other side, but what we\u2019ve got is this. We\u2019ve got common ground. Is ANWR common ground? Absolutely not. I voted on that, Rush, as you well know, I got elected to the House in \u201994 with —<\/p>\n

RUSH: I know —<\/p>\n

CHAMBLISS: — in \u201996 —<\/p>\n

RUSH: — I know, but this bill puts ANWR off limits.<\/p>\n

CHAMBLISS: No, no, no. It doesn\u2019t address ANWR one way or the other, but we knew Rush that we would never be able to get 60 votes and we will not get 60 votes on ANWR in any piece of legislation right now until we get enough like-minded, folks, in there. But this bill that says while we know we can\u2019t do that, we can drill offshore. We\u2019re going to open up additional areas, plus —<\/p>\n

RUSH: In four states.<\/p>\n

CHAMBLISS: Well, four states will have — but, look, the Gulf of Mexico is where the oil is. And that\u2019s where we\u2019re going to start with in this bill. We\u2019re going to protect the beaches of Florida. That\u2019s why the 50-mile barrier is there.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay, so the 50-mile barrier — see, the thing that has people upset about this is that everybody\u2019s assumed that the Democrats are going to sweep to major victories in the House and Senate and a landslide in the White House. This drilling issue came along with a tipping point of four dollar a gallon gas, finally Senator McCain had an issue the Republicans could embarrass Obama with and perhaps ride to victory, because the vast majority of the American people want to do the opposite of what the Democrats do. So nobody can figure out why compromise with the Democrats and cut the knees off of Senator McCain.<\/p>\n

CHAMBLISS: Well, it doesn\u2019t cut Senator McCain\u2019s knees off. It really complements his position, but what it does do is it provides an opportunity to send a message to the markets that, wow, the president is serious about lifting this moratorium, and now we\u2019ve got ten members of Congress who have come together in a bipartisan way who say also we\u2019re going to lift the moratorium, we\u2019re going to allow more drilling. Look what\u2019s happened to the market since we started this conversation. Just in the last week since our legislation was announced, our draft discussion was announced, we\u2019ve seen a further reduction, Rush, in the price of a barrel of oil. Now, we\u2019re not taking credit for that, but the fact is the markets understand that finally Congress is not at loggerheads. Congress is serious about expanding offshore drilling. They do want to drill now and they want to drill in places where we know there\u2019s oil.<\/p>\n

RUSH: But Senator, the Democrats don\u2019t want to drill, and the obstacles to drilling that are apparently in this bill are going to make it impossible to succeed. I mean, letting the ACLU and animal rights groups and so forth have a regulatory role or at least a right to protest here, which is just going to make the permit process extended over and over and over. I don\u2019t see the Democrats compromising anything here.<\/p>\n

CHAMBLISS: Well, they agreed that we move into additional areas of the Gulf of Mexico, they\u2019ve agreed that we go to places like Virginia where the two senators there want to immediately take advantage of this, and we don\u2019t know whether there\u2019s oil out there or not off the Atlantic coast. We think there is gas out there, and we will have the opportunity to have immediate access, but let me mention one other key point to what we agreed to, Rush. One argument we\u2019ve heard is that if you start drilling now, it\u2019s going to be ten years before you see any results of it. Well, in the Gulf of Mexico, where we, number one, know there\u2019s oil, know there\u2019s gas, there\u2019s something else out there that is key to immediate effect on the market, and that\u2019s the infrastructure. They\u2019ve got the pipelines already existing in the Gulf of Mexico, and if a driller were successful out there in the short term, we could immediately see some impact in the supply. And as you and I well know, supply and demand is what is causing the price–<\/p>\n

RUSH: Absolutely. Absolutely. And I know the ten years thing is a bogus thing. The Democrats are trying to shut down — I mean they\u2019ve turned oil into a campaign issue demon. It is amazing. So you say you\u2019ve got five Democrats — by the way, we\u2019re talking with Georgia senator Saxby Chambliss — you say you had five Democrats that were willing to compromise with you, moving in our direction. It\u2019s the first time in 14 years. Why not make \u2019em come a little further?<\/p>\n

CHAMBLISS: Well, if we could have, I assure you we would have. We had some very heated discussions between our members, even though everybody was respectful and professional with each other, but we did try to move \u2019em. I would love to have ANWR in there. I would love to have oil shale in there, although the technology with the oil shale is not quite where we could take advantage of it right now. And I think this, Rush. I mean when people see and understand that with the technology we have today, drill in areas even where we\u2019ve drilled before, and from an environmental sensitive standpoint not interfere with the environment, I think it gives us the opportunity to open up ANWR. Otherwise, I\u2019m afraid symbolically it\u2019s going to be extremely difficult ever to do that.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, to me, that whole environmentally friendly stuff is a straw dog because it\u2019s been environmentally friendly for decades. We haven\u2019t had spills from rigs. We haven\u2019t had leaks from rigs. The oil facilities pumping and drilling and so forth, we\u2019ve had, you know, tanker spills and so forth, but the actual infrastructure to get the oil is clean as it can be. We\u2019re not destroying anything with this. And the politics of this is what has some people upset. They see Republicans always compromising with Democrats to move things forward, and they want Democrats defeated, not compromised with.<\/p>\n

CHAMBLISS: Well, what my constituents tell me is that they don\u2019t like paying four dollars a gallon for a gallon of gas, and upwards of that. And if Congress could just quit their partisan bickering and come together on this as well as some other issues, they would see relief. And I think they\u2019re right. We\u2019re not going to see any relief as long as we just stand on the floor and butt heads with each other. So it\u2019s not —<\/p>\n

RUSH: If butting heads with them leads to them losing elections, and you getting enough senators on your side of the aisle to have no worries about having to compromise, I mean that\u2019s the gold standard. Time is running short here, and I just want to get one thing clear.<\/p>\n

CHAMBLISS: Sure.<\/p>\n

RUSH: The Wall Street Journal today says that this deal is essentially what Harry Reid wants, that it guarantees no drilling because, even though there\u2019s four states that can drill, states have to decide it, you\u2019ve turned the decision over to the states, the 50-mile limit and the new regulations, the analysts of this bill on our side say this is going to result in no meaningful discoveries.<\/p>\n

CHAMBLISS: Well, if that\u2019s true, then they\u2019re telling you something entirely different from what our analysts are telling us. We did our homework on this. We did our research. The folks that we talked to say there is additional oil and gas reserves in the Gulf of Mexico. It\u2019s there now; we know where it is. There have even been wells that have been shut down, down there. If they\u2019re within 50 miles, we won\u2019t be reopening them, but if they\u2019re outside of that, potentially they could be. So we know there is oil and gas there. The question is, Rush, whether you want to have access to it or whether you want the issue out there from a political standpoint. And I know and understand that. I understand that we\u2019re winning on this issue, but at the end of the day we have the opportunity not only to win on the issue — because it\u2019s pretty clear, Democrats as a whole, don\u2019t want to drill; Republicans do — but people know that the price at the gas pump is not going to come down until we do have the opportunity to drill. As long as we stay where we are today and keep the issue, we don\u2019t have the opportunity to drill. But if we do have a compromise on offshore drilling, we can drill within a short period of time.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Senator, thanks for calling. People, I\u2019m sure, wanted to hear what you had to say about this, as we opened the program with it, and I understand your office is being bombarded with calls, as are some of the other Republicans. So thanks for calling in and telling us your side of this.<\/p>\n

CHAMBLISS: Okay, Rush. Thanks, buddy.<\/p>\n

RUSH: You bet. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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