Crucify Them!

Gary Bauer

Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: Since President Obama took office, conservatives, business executives and industry leaders have complained that he has an anti-business, anti-free market, anti-energy agenda. Remember Obama's constant bashing of Wall Street and the financial industry? Remember Obama's outrageous statement that doctors were cutting off people's feet for profit? Remember top White House officials repeatedly saying they were going to put a "boot on the neck of BP?"

Well if we needed more evidence of this administration's mindset, we got it yesterday. Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK), the ranking Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, announced that he was launching an investigation into the comments of Al Armendariz, an EPA regional administrator.

Here's how Armendariz during a speech described his approach to regulating America's oil and natural gas companies:
"I was in a meeting once and I gave an analogy to my staff about my philosophy of enforcement… I'll go ahead and tell you what I said: It was kind of like how the Romans used to … conquer villages in the Mediterranean.  They'd go in to a little Turkish town somewhere, they'd find the first five guys they saw and they'd crucify them. Then, you know, that town was really easy to manage for the next few years. It's a deterrent factor."Inhofe is not only investigating these outrageous comments, but he is also demanding answers from EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson regarding a series of equally outrageous public statements and emergency orders aimed at restricting new high tech drilling efforts. The U.S. has made tremendous gains in domestic energy exploration in recent years, thanks entirely to the work of our private energy industry and some remarkable technological breakthroughs, including hydraulic fracturing. But the Obama Administration is aggressively trying to limit the practice.

On Fox News this morning, Inhofe blasted Obama for speaking out of both sides of his mouth. The senator said, "Let's keep in mind, this is all a part of Obama's war on domestic energy. He's the one who said that we have good natural gas and it's plentiful and all of that but we've got to stop hydraulic fracturing. This is the war on hydraulic fracturing. …So it's an attempt to try to satisfy both sides. He's whispering to the left … then he's saying to the public at the same time that we are for natural gas and all that."

Senator Inhofe is right. This administration is driven by hostility toward America's most successful industries and businesses. And, of course, it is filled with haters of fossil fuel.

Let me remind folks again -- ignore Obama's rhetoric and focus on his record. Forget about Obama's claim that "We're drilling all over the place." Look at what he has done:

• The first thing Obama's Interior Secretary did when he took office was cancel scores of drilling leases. This is the same man, by the way, who as a senator filibustered a bill to allow more domestic drilling -- even if gasoline reached $10 a gallon!
  
• The number of operational rigs in the Gulf of Mexico was cut in half after the 2010 BP spill. Why? Because of an Obama drilling ban that held up scores of permits.
  
• Since Obama took office, drilling has declined on federal lands. A March 14th report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration noted, "Total sales of all fossil fuels produced on Federal and Indian lands … dropped by about 6 percent between FY 2010 and FY 2011." [Emphasis added.]
  
• Obama's Energy Secretary once advocated $8.00-a-gallon gasoline.
  
• A Harvard study estimated that Obama's cap and trade scheme could have resulted in $7.00-a-gallon gasoline.
  
• Barack Obama blocked the Keystone XL pipeline that would bring in more oil from friendly Canada.
  
• He said he wants to bankrupt the coal industry, which he admits will cause electricity rates to "necessarily skyrocket."

My friends, if you haven't yet seen the video "If I Wanted America To Fail," please watch it now and then share it with your friends and family members. America can't afford four more years of Barack Obama!

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