Political Quotes

“this is a common sense issue. It is about economics and it is about common sense. First of all, this debate about being an environmental issue, that is ridiculous. You pump water into this well to raise the oil to pump it out in the first place. There is not one drop of oil that has gone out of this reserve into any natural environment, so let us not talk about that. The second point is we have to have a billion barrels of oil to protect our military, to protect our economy against what could happen, our trust in the Middle East. We do not know what those people are going to do. We do not know what is going to happen to us in the Middle East. But if we give it away, we do not have the billion barrels of oil. We have 591 million barrels. What happens is, sure, the last 7 million cost $17.50 a barrel. But there are 591 million barrels that cost us $33 a barrel, so the average cost of that barrel of oil is about $32.27. If we want to sell something for $15 that we bought for $32, I have got a lot of good deals for you. But in order to keep the integrity of our economy, the integrity of our defense and the integrity of the whole SPR system, we have to defeat what is there. We have to pass the Schaefer amendment. I ask for an expedient effort to do so.”