Energy
Floor Speech
ENERGY -- (House of Representatives - September 17, 2008)
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Mr. McCOTTER. I thank the gentleman from Georgia.
And I think you've hit upon, with the quote from Speaker Pelosi about trying to save the planet, one of the fundamental problems that we've run into trying to come up with a sound energy policy for the United States.
As the gentleman from Tennessee talked about, we want a bridge. We want a responsible transition from where we are today to where America becomes energy-independent and secure. We believe we need maximum American energy production, commonsense conservation, and free-market, green innovations to provide that responsible transition that does not allow for the callous infliction of economic pain upon the American people.
And when you think about what we hear in phrases like, ``I'm trying to save the planet, I'm trying to save the planet,'' what we're really hearing is that the party that was elected to lower our gas prices, the Democratic Party, has made a subtle shift in what they're trying to accomplish. They're now trying to break us off our addiction--not to foreign oil simply; they are now trying to break our addiction to oil.
So, in short, their solution to the problem of high gas prices is to make sure that no one has access to any gas at all. And that's why another quote, which I'm sure you'll put up, is that they have described, in their own Democratic staff's words, ``Drive smaller cars and wait for the wind.'' This is not a responsible solution.
Like many people, when I was growing up--I'm 43--I remember something called the ABC Wide World of Sports. I remember ``The Agony of Defeat.'' And I used to like Evel Knievel. Now, there was one time when Evel Knievel, instead of just jumping over cars and busses--you know, he worked for a living, it's tough work; if you can get it, it pays well--he was going to jump something called the Snake River Canyon. And I remember watching this on a little, tiny TV screen with my dad. And my dad looked at it, just looked at Evel and his little suped-up motorcycle, he looked at this enormous Snake River Canyon, and my dad said, ``That boy ain't gonna get there from here.''
And when I think of the Democrats' energy strategy, whereby we have no domestic production of our own natural resources from the Outer Continental Shelf, from ANWR, from anybody else, anywhere else, and they tell us, we're going to fix this with green technological innovations, it's going to be magic, I think of poor Evel Knievel. The only difference is that, in trying to jump immediately, cold turkey, from our current petroleum-based economy into some distant green future where we do not need our own domestic energy resources, is we are not simply taking the American people over the Snake River Canyon, the Democratic majority is pushing them over an economic cliff. And they are already beginning to see where the abyss lays every time they drive by and buy gas at the pump.
Now, as we heard about the process last night, people think, why does process matter? I don't know. It seems to me that as a sovereign citizen of our free republic, we live in a democracy for a reason; that the will of one person will not be imposed upon any sovereign citizen of the United States, certainly not by the subservient Members of Congress because we work for these people. These people are our bosses, and they want their
voices heard on the floor of this House. And on an issue as critical as American energy and how we transition to a secure future not only for ourselves, but more importantly, for our children, they expect to have their voices heard through their elected representatives.
And as the gentleman from Georgia pointed out, we heard several promises about what an open process this was going to be, how every vote was going to count, how every voice was going to be heard and we would come together in a bipartisan fashion to serve the American people. And yet, what did we see? We saw a bill drafted in the dead of night by a Speaker, handed to her Rules Committee, no amendments allowed, and voted, rubber-stamped by her Democratic Congress, with no debate on this floor, no dissent about amendments, no chance to offer alternatives, no committee process. Silence, silence, in terms of input on this bill.
And then we saw something that I thought I would never see. We saw 24 people who had co-sponsored a bipartisan bill, who had sang its praises to their public and to the rest of the American people, and they voted against it--and I didn't really hear a good reason put forward--so they could pass a sham drill bill.
Now, we've heard a lot about why the Republicans didn't do certain things over the course of their majority. And we paid a heavy price--and a rightful price, as many of us have admitted. We were put into minority, from majority to minority status by the American people, and we are learning a painful lesson. But let us not forget the people who obstructed a sound, sane, productive American energy policy for the entire time they were in the minority. They act as if they had no hand in it.
When we were in the majority, we tried, we tried mightily. Many times the House would pass legislation and it would get to the Senate, yet the Democratic minority did everything they could to prevent the expansion of American domestic energy production to the level sufficient that it would serve the American people and lower the gas prices. The only difference now that they're in the majority is they have to pretend that they're trying to lower them.
And that's why, when you pass a bill out of this House called a compromise bill when you have not talked to anyone on this side of the aisle about what goes in the bill, it means it's a compromise amongst yourselves. That is a unilateral compromise. So let's be clear about who compromised with who.
And then when it comes to the floor, it's called ``landmark legislation,'' it's
going to create jobs. And if you vote against this, you are a captive of Big Oil because you don't want to lock up 88 percent of America's reserves?
As our friend Steve Scalise from Louisiana said, the Democratic ``sham drill bill'' might as well have been written by OPEC; it's going to make them a lot of money when America doesn't produce its own oil and gas.
And the best part is their unilateral compromise the Speaker cut with whomever, they didn't bother to talk to the Senate. As Senator Landrieu from Louisiana mentioned, that bill is dead on arrival in the Senate. How do the statements we've heard yesterday, the justifications, the compromise, landmark legislation, when your own Democratic Senators think it's dead on arrival?
Where is the hope for the economically struggling families across America? Where is your sense of responsibility, not only to the people of this country, but to their House right here, to this institution? Where is the hope for the American people who are suffering under energy prices, skyrocketing since you took power in this place? There isn't. Because it's a sham.
And it is the Democratic Senate that will prove it. It is not Republican Luddites that don't want to go forward towards a more ``green'' future. What it is is the Democratic Senate telling the Democratic House we can't stomach your bill.
Now, the thing that I think that everybody should remember is there is a solution to this. If and when this happens, if the Democratic Senate refuses to pass the Democratic House ``lethargy bill,'' this Democratic majority here in the House, the Democratic majority in the Senate, this Democratic Congress can say we will not leave here until a real piece of energy legislation helping the American people is signed into law, until we have done the job we have been elected to do on behalf of the American people. I do not think that is too much to ask. I do not think that is something that the American people should be denied.
I yield back to the gentleman.
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Mr. McCOTTER. I thank the gentleman. Earlier the gentleman from Tennessee had mentioned that we are going to be looking at the prospect of a speculators bill on the floor again. My question is, regardless of the merits of the speculators bill, it is a simple proposition to anyone watching.
We have heard much debate about energy policy. I remember hearing much of this back in a very unpleasant period of our Nation's history called the 1970s. What is old is new again. So when we hear about the speculators bill, the Democratic Congress, the Democratic majority, had come in with a reputation for being against the production of American domestic energy. Again, it was not limited to the technique of drilling. Clean coal, nuclear energy, all sorts of alternatives they were opposed to.
Now, if you were investing your money in the energy market and you saw the anti-American energy party take power in Washington, and you understood the concept of supply and demand, that as demand goes up, if supply stays stagnant, prices skyrocket, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that when the Democratic majority came into Washington, it was against the domestic production of America's own energy resources, that something was going to give and the prices were going to shoot through the roof and you were going to make a lot of money.
So, again what you see is the total denial of responsibility for their policies, many of which have failed to be implemented, having an impact on markets. Just as we will hear later on, or throughout the rest of the year, the 12 days or so that they even show up for the work they are paid to do, is when you promise the largest tax increase in American history in your budgets, when your chairman of the Ways and Means Committee talks about the ``mother of all tax increases,'' this is going to have affect on markets.
This is going to have an effect on the rational, hard-working Americans, who every day know that as much as they scrimp and save, here comes big brother government to take that money right out of your pocket. So consequences of ideas, or even bad ideas especially, can be detrimental to the average, hard-working American.
Now, you and I, through the Chair the gentleman from Georgia, we know one thing: The best economic stimulus for the United States of America is an all-of-the-above energy strategy that gets that trend line on energy prices stabilized and going down so that the unemployment numbers can stabilize and start going down; so speculators start losing money because the supply of oil will be coming online and they know it; so big oil doesn't make the money as the supply floods the market to meet the demand and the prices stabilize and go down; so hard-working Americans know they are not going to have to choose between freezing and eating, they are not going to have to worry about whether they can drive to see their doctor in rural areas; so they can make sure they still work in manufacturing because the fixed cost of energy hasn't driven their job offshore or killed it altogether.
We know this, which is why we are so passionate about helping the people who have entrusted us with the opportunity to serve them in this, their House.
I will wrap it up with this, the gentleman from Georgia. There are many people who say, Republicans, you weren't great. You told us you stood for things. You told us you believed our liberty was from God, not the government; our prosperity was from the private sector, not the public sector.
Yes, we did, and we did not do a good enough job keeping with our principles.
There is a difference between us and this Democratic majority. I want to know what the succinct enunciation of the principles upon which you base policy are. Because what I see in the energy debate, or lack thereof, and the Democrat sham energy bill is a quite simple proposition. They support the government rationing of American energy. You will get 12 percent when you are suffering. We will lock up 88 percent forever. That is the gist of their argument.
Why does this matter now? Because you hear more of the same promises that the gentleman from Georgia listed and had proven broken. And when you start to do your thinking this year, as the American people are want to do, I will be more than happy if the American voters judge this Democratic Congress not by the fact that it took America in a new direction to a 9 percent approval rating, which technically makes the Democratic Congress the most hated in American history; I want Americans to look at two numbers.
I want Americans to look at the price of gas when the Democratic Party took power in January of 2007, promising to lower them; and I want them to look at the price of gas, oh, maybe around early November 2008. And tell you me if you have changed your mind, if you no longer think this Democratic Congress deserves to be the most hated in American history. Because they have a chance to work with us. We are putting politics aside. We will compromise in a real bipartisan fashion to help the people whole elected us.
But if you refuse, there is nothing we can do, because, as the gentleman started out earlier, the math doesn't add up in our favor.
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