On the recordMay 5, 2011
I thank the gentleman for yielding. I won't take 2 minutes. I've been listening to part of the discussion here, and it just strikes me that when you see graphics with an oil rig sucking money out of Social Security or Medicare or whatever that was, you know that you have gone beyond the realm of what is logical for a debate or the real facts about what this legislation does. The bottom line is that it will make it easier for us to become more energy independent, not completely energy independent--it can't go that far--but it will make us more independent than we were before. It will create an environment where jobs can be created by the private sector. It will help, over time, to lower the price of gasoline because it will create more supply in the end. That's what it does. It doesn't put a big oil rig on the top of Medicare and suck money from our seniors. Come on. This is just a measure to help the situation, to make it better. We've locked off too many areas to oil drilling, and we've not exploited our own supply enough to help bring down price and to help consumers out there in the world. So that's all this does, and I commend the gentleman for bringing it forward. I urge support for it.
