Dan Burton: “I get a big kick out of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, for whom I have great respect. You know, I…”

“I get a big kick out of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, for whom I have great respect. You know, I remember when Jimmy Carter was President of the United States, we had those gas lines that went all of the way around the block, and people carrying gas cans to get 3 gallons. They said, we are going to become energy independent. We are not going to rely on the Saudis, or we are not going to rely on the Middle East or anybody else. That is what the Democrats in charge said they were going to do. That was back in the 1970s. In the 1970s. And we drill for oil in California. And we drill for oil in Texas. And we drill for oil in Oklahoma. And we drill for oil in Kansas. All of those are very densely populated areas of the United States. We are all concerned about the environment and everything. And yet I have been up to the ANWR in Alaska. There is nothing up there. Alaska is three and a half times the size of Texas, and we can get between 1 and 2 million barrels of oil a day, which would reduce the problem of supply and demand, and yet almost all of my Democratic colleagues who are down here hollering to high heaven tonight about the energy prices, they voted against it. They sold out to the environmental people saying, oh, my gosh we cannot drill in the ANWR, which is 5,000 miles from nowhere. We cannot drill in the ANWR because we want to protect some animal that is not up there.…”