Political Quotes

“I am going to briefly turn to another matter, and that is the recognition that today OPEC announced they were not going to increase the production of oil from the OPEC nations. What does this mean? It simply means that as we look at going into a showdown with Iraq, the Mideast nations that control oil--basically OPEC--are not going to increase production. That means to the American consumer a continuation of high gasoline prices, high oil prices, perhaps well beyond $30 a barrel. We have seen the development of that cartel over a period of time. It initiated a program that said, in effect, if the price fell below $22 a barrel, they would reduce supply to stabilize the price. They wanted a price structure of $22 to $28. That puts a tremendous burden on the structure of our society and our economy. It is rather revealing to recognize that as we continue to address our situation with Iraq, we also continue to import oil from Iraq. I think currently we are importing about 600,000 barrels from Iraq each day.”