On the recordMay 5, 2011
I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock). Mr. McCLINTOCK. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Chairman, fortunately the vast majority of the American people and the majority of this House recognize that it is long past time to put American energy independence and prosperity first. By opening up these resources, we assure energy abundance for the next generation. We begin to arrest the ruinous increase in prices at the pump. We assure productive, high-paying jobs, not only for the thousands of American workers directly employed in the industry but for many times more the employees in support and spin-off jobs. We assure billions of dollars of oil royalties paid directly into this Nation's Treasury at a time when the Treasury is empty. We assure that our growing reliance on foreign sources is reversed. To those who are clamoring for more tax revenues, this is the healthy way to get them, by removing the impediments that have prevented a prosperous and expanding economy. It is prosperity and prosperity alone that creates tax revenues. With this measure, we begin to change the policies that have produced the pathetic and self-inflicted spectacle of the most energy rich nation in the world importing most of its energy.
