Best of The Program | Guest: Rick Perry | 4/8/20
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Welcome to the podcast.
I want to remind you up front that Glenbeck's Arguing with Socialists is available now at bookstores that you can't get into, but also online bookstores that you can.
Make sure you go there, get a copy.
It's a great time to be reading and making sure you're preparing yourself for the battle that comes after COVID-19 when we gotta fight for all of our rights all over again.
That is Glenn Beck's Arguing with Socialists, available now in bookstores.
You can also get signed copies, by the way,
at GlenbeckBookSigning.com if you would like to do that.
Coming up on the program today, we talk about hydroxychloroquine a little bit.
Why does the media seem to be rooting for its failure so they can prove Donald Trump wrong?
Former Energy Secretary and Governor of Texas, Rick Perry, joins us to talk about the massive effects going on right now with the energy business and the kind of economic
disaster we're in the middle of right now.
We have an amazing edit job by CNN on a Donald Trump clip, which of course you probably expect, but also will not believe.
And we also talk about
the idea that the schools might reopen
in the fall.
Fun, fun, fun.
We'll get to that all on today's podcast.
You can also subscribe and rate and review.
Make sure to click five stars because that helps other people get the program.
And sign up, subscribe at Sue Does America as well, my show, which airs every night on Blaze TV.
And you get the podcast for free here as well and on YouTube.
You're listening to
the best of the Blendbeck program.
All right, total confirmed cases of COVID-19, 1,447,516.
That is up almost 100,000 from yesterday.
Total confirmed deaths worldwide, 83,000, up from 75,000 yesterday.
Total confirmed recovered worldwide, 308,000.
That's a nice number.
It's up almost 16,000 from yesterday.
We have
400,549 confirmed cases.
And now in America, 12,858 deaths.
That is up the overall number, almost 50,000 from yesterday
and 2,000 in deaths yesterday.
But here's the good news.
The U.S.
is 17th in the death rate per 1 million people, 39 deaths per million.
By comparison, Spain has 311 deaths per million.
Italy has 283 per million.
France, 158, and Sweden.
Everybody says, oh, Sweden's really doing it right.
Are they?
Because we have 39 deaths per 1 million.
Sweden has 59 deaths per 1 million.
We're doing pretty well, America.
New York City is the deadliest.
It's the deadliest day so far.
Yesterday, 731 COVID-19 COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday.
This brings the New York State death toll to 5,489.
New York City accounting for over 4,000 of that total.
At this point, New York accounts for nearly half of all the total deaths in New York.
Statewide, they have about 140,000 confirmed cases.
But they say now the actual death toll may be higher in New York, as many people have died at home and are not yet tested or classified as COVID-19.
As many as 280 people are dying per day in their own homes or their apartments in New York City, and most are presumed to be victims of the virus.
According to the New York City Fire Department, over the past two weeks, more than 2,192 people have died in their own homes, and 75% of those people, they presume, are from COVID-19.
One city councilman tweeted that New York City Coroner's Office has designated a city park for use as a temporary burial site for COVID-19 deaths.
20% of the New York City Police Department is calling in sick.
It's not a surprise if you've been listening to me.
I've been telling you that New York is not the place to be in case of a real trouble, a pandemic as it turns out to be.
A lot of these cops are underpaid and they don't live in the borough they serve.
They're going to stay at home if things get really tough.
And quite honestly,
part of me, I don't blame them.
New York City Police Department has lost its 12th member to a suspected case of coronavirus this week.
Monday, 6,974 uniformed officers of the NYPD were out sick.
That was accounting for 19.3% of the department's uniformed workforce.
Another 993 officers have presumed cases and are awaiting test results.
France temporarily surpasses the U.S.
with the deadliest national daily total.
1,419 dead yesterday.
Now even Antarctica is not safe from COVID-19.
Leave it to dopes.
This is the only place on earth that you didn't have to worry about it.
A cruise ship from Australia was set to sail to Antarctica.
They just wanted to go look at the penguins and the seals and the whales.
Now over 60% of the passengers on board have tested positive for COVID-19 and another 20% have suspected cases.
The ship is moored off of Uruguay, which is beautiful, I hear, this time of year.
COVID-19 killing more Britons than the Blitz.
The UK had 786 known COVID-19 deaths yesterday, including a 23-year-old with no underlying health conditions.
By comparison, the worst day of the blitz of London bombings by Germany in World War II killed 131 people.
Department of Health estimates that the actual total of COVID-19 deaths is actually likely much higher.
Can I ask you something, Stu?
Which is more freaky to you, being bombed
or COVID-19?
As far as likelihood, COVID-19 would be more likely.
I don't think I'd like to.
I know, but which would be more freaky?
I mean, I would, you know, hearing the planes fly over you every night, not knowing if you were going to be bombed or not, would be really freaky.
But there is really no difference.
I mean,
you're going out.
It's a silent killer.
You don't hear the engines.
I mean,
I guess you stay in your house and you're safe, where
that wasn't true in the Blitz.
I guess, yeah.
I mean, I think too, you know, look, the idea of just planes flying over your head and explosions all around you, and the businesses you go to certainly aren't opening in 30 days because they're, you know, they're rubble.
Uh, uh, I still think that would be much more terrifying.
But, I mean, like, look, as we, you, you discussed this in arguing with socialists, in that it's socialism is the number two cause of death over the past hundred years.
Number one is infectious disease, right?
Like, it's not as dramatic
as bombs and guns and things like that, but it does kill more people and it does all the time.
We have to deal with that.
It's just a totally different way, right?
It's a totally different way of dying.
You never know when it's coming.
You know, you don't have that anticipatory struggle, I don't think.
I mean, I don't go out to, like, you're not going to, I don't know, you're going to be sitting around thinking like, I'm like, oh my gosh, am I breathing in COVID air right now?
Is that happening?
That's not the way we think about this, right?
President Trump signaled yesterday he may put a, quote, very powerful hold on the funding to the World Health Organization as he lashed out the United Nations specialized agency, accused it of being very China-centric.
He is absolutely right.
We shouldn't be paying, I don't think we should be paying the UN, but we certainly shouldn't be paying the World Health Organization.
They not only dropped the ball, they are wildly corrupt
as they do the bidding of the Chinese Communist Party.
We have more on that tonight on our special at 9 p.m.
You can find it at blazetv.com slash glenn 9 p.m.
tonight, our Wednesday night special.
You can also find it at YouTube, but only during the broadcast.
This one I'd like them to hold on in the archive so other people can see it.
Because I'm asking the questions that media won't ask.
They won't ask because they're all in bed with China.
We don't have any Chinese connections.
Oh, we've been banned in China.
Oops.
Oh, well.
We're not Comcast that is opening up a new Universal Park next month.
So we don't have any restrictions.
Asking the questions about China and showing you video of,
was this made in a lab?
Is this a bioweapon?
There's some new evidence out that shows that a lab was involved.
It appears as though this is not man-made.
But that bioweapons lab played a role.
And we will show you the video.
We'll give you the evidence,
and we'll ask the questions the media should be asking tonight at 9 o'clock.
Gun sales are up over 200%
in some states, up 200%.
More-oriented home defense guns, like pump-a-action shotguns and cheaper handguns, are what's selling right now.
They say that most of the people who are buying guns have never bought a gun before.
They may be ahead of the curve.
I think you're going to see gun sales go through the roof as we get further into this.
I'll tell you why
as
this progresses, we're working on some things now on what's coming that you should be prepared for.
I'm going to go to Gabrielle in Ohio, who is a small business owner
and is trying to get one of the loans from the federal government.
Hi, Gabrielle.
Hi, Glenn.
Gabrielle, are you there?
Hi.
I'm here.
Hi.
Good to talk to you.
Tell me about your
business and what's happening.
So I'm a 50-year-old business owner.
I've been listening to you since I was 30 years old, so 20 years.
And my husband and our family have been in the restaurant business for 100 years.
We're the oldest restaurant family in the state of Ohio.
So a year and a half ago, my husband and I decided to open a small pizza place and kind of bring the East Coast pizza to the Midwest.
And it's been awesome.
And I have all the support of the neighborhood and the community.
And
this
coronavirus hits and
it's been rough.
The, of course, I have four children.
Everyone's been helping out, whether they're home from college or not in high school right now and doing online classes.
Everyone's helping out in the business.
The private bank we use has also been great, but I've had to jump through a ton of hoops and I've had a lot of, I have great resources because of my situation with my husband's family being in business for so long.
But it was still, I'm in the queue waiting for money.
I've gotten all my paperwork in.
My accountant was awesome.
My lawyers were awesome.
I'm just...
How long before they say you get money?
They're not making any promises because I think I missed the first batch of money.
I think I missed the first load, and I'm waiting to see if he releases any more money.
Or, you know, the government says, I'm going to give you a token, you know, $250 more
trillion.
But I crossed my T's and died in my I's and we're all working really hard.
And honestly, the state of Ohio is respectful to each other and grateful for where we are right now.
Same with my family and my business.
And
we were doing a lot of things I probably never would have done as a family.
But
I'm just very grateful.
I'm feeling grateful, but just hoping that we get through this,
you know, all together.
Good for you, Gabrielle.
Thank you so much.
God bless you.
Let me know what happens, will you?
Chuck in North Carolina.
Hello, Chuck.
Yes, I'm here.
Yes, go ahead.
You're on.
Okay.
Glenn, what I have found is that I'm a 70-year-old farmer, and I do seasonal three times a year we harvest.
And the banks don't know the policies.
I mean, bless the banks.
They're trying.
I'll give them that.
But they can't tell me.
Initially, they said I get no money.
And while I was on hold with you, I got an email that says they're going to go ahead and process my loan.
I've requested the money,
but they told me that I wouldn't qualify for what I wanted because of the fact,
excuse me, that
I didn't have 12 months' worth of data
because I hire people for two months at a time.
And I've got a harvest coming up during May and June.
And, I mean, I had to hire someone to take my place
because I'm suffering from Agent Orange Cancer.
And I'm at high risk because I take chemo every day of my life to stay alive.
And I'm trying to.
So, Chuck,
how are you going to bring this crop in if you don't have the money?
Well,
I guess I'm going to have to go down there and help and do it myself.
I mean, if I don't, I've still got
the problem we have is I've sold nothing.
I haven't sold a thing since this started.
And in February, when
they said that they wanted us to stay at home, I hired someone because I realized this thing is serious.
So I decided I need to be at home.
and quarantine myself till this thing is over.
Well,
they cannot commit that I will get any money to pay that person either.
But
I guess I'm going to have to.
I don't want to help.
I really would like to stay quarantined.
But
the good Lord, if he decides he wants me, he's going to take me no matter whether there's coronavirus or not.
Chuck,
we will keep you in our prayers.
God bless you.
Thank you for sharing this story.
I think this is where the rubber is going to meet the road in
Donald Trump's re-election.
If we can't get the people like Chuck, if we can't get the pizza place owners, if we can't get them money
because there's just not enough of it.
But these banks are getting everything,
he is going to lose re-election.
We have got to look out for the little guy.
It's got to go there
first,
and we have to get this under control.
If I was advising the president today, which I clearly am not,
that's what I would tell him.
Mr.
President, you've got to take care of the little guy who is the farmer and the pizza shop owner and the person that owns their own store and have worked so hard and need that money.
You need to streamline this and get this to them now before they lose everything.
Back in a minute.
You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck Program.
So you have cabin fever yet?
Well, me and my boy, we're out grilling on our RekTech grill.
It's time to get out and smell the Wrektech.
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And that's why we have this little ray of sunshine sitting on our back porch.
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Joining me today to talk about the book is one of the socialists who helped us with the book.
It's Professor Tweed.
And good to have you on the program, Professor.
I'm charmed, Beck.
Professor, are you there?
Yes, hello.
Hi.
How are you, sir?
Charmed.
Yes.
I'm elated to have access to this platform to encourage those listening to free themselves from the shackles of the 18th-century mindset of debt and deficits.
The era of how are we going to pay for it is long dead.
The truth is, because the government can print its own money, we needn't fret about the potential of insolvency.
We could and should run the printing presses, as you so sophomorically call it, as much as needed to guarantee everyone with living wage-paying jobs, health care, clean energy, free college, and if I had my way, at least one of those motorized scooters that are so popular in Italia.
Right.
Right.
It's wonderful.
That's wonderful.
So,
Professor, I mean, as entertaining as you are, really, free enterprise capitalism is actually a really simple system.
You know, I own property.
You own property.
You right now are probably looking at the script saying, where the hell are you?
Yes.
That's who I am.
It's exactly what I was doing just a minute ago, looking at
where the hell are you?
I have a very specific...
I was emailed this script specifically to do in this particular script.
I was emailed it.
It's weird.
I was emailed another script, Professor, Professor, and I was looking for any keywords quickly, so I really didn't even hear your point.
Oh, well, it was a great one.
Modern monetary theory.
Theory, yes, yes, modern monetary theory.
Yes, and what is your question on that?
Yes, I am familiar.
It's in chapter six of the new book.
Well, here's the thing, Fat Man.
Basically, you can print as much money as you want to, and bottom line, at the end of the day, everyone's going to be
okay,
just like AOC says.
So, Professor, how do you pay for all of these things?
How do you stop inflation?
Oh, please.
We don't need to pay for things.
We don't need to even tax rich folks like yourself, Mr.
Beck.
But I will tell you, we will.
Taxation is still a valuable tool to deal with income inequality.
To quote a professor at Bard College, L.
Randall Ray,
what we will do is we will tax the rich.
What will we do with the tax revenue?
Burn it.
Uncle Sam doesn't need your money.
Of course, as you know, we can just print that money.
You just...
just awful human being.
You despicable.
I don't think we're doing a good job on this one, Professor.
I think
we're doing a really lousy, lousy job on this.
Here's what you need to know.
Modern monetary theory is printing money with everyone saying, we don't need any tax money.
We don't need any dollars.
We don't need the rich.
We can just print it.
And they take the taxes.
And they use that to set price controls, to stop you from buying the things the government doesn't want you to buy.
They control inflation by having price controls.
All the things that have been tried over and over that never, ever work.
I was just saying that, and
you weren't even listening to me.
I don't know, fiddling with Twinkies or whatever it is you do over there.
How can we have two separate scripts on that one, Stu?
I mean, I had Catwoman in my script, and I don't even...
That's weird.
I have no idea.
I have no idea.
No idea.
Yeah, it's one of those things.
A socialist radio program would have nailed that one.
Yeah, it would have.
It would have.
It's called NPR.
It's called NPR.
Anyway,
we were out last night.
We did a book signing last night.
Everything is virtual.
I haven't seen Stu in, I don't know how many days.
How many days have we been doing this now?
Has it been three weeks?
Are we going on three weeks?
Yeah, because we did, yeah, it was two weeks initially.
It was the 15 days to stop the spread, and now it's the 30 additional days to stop the spread.
So we're a week into that, I think.
What are they in China now?
They just lifted the ban in Wuhan.
Was it 70 days?
72 days, I believe, is what they did in Wuhan.
Now, of course, lifting the ban in Wuhan is still probably more restrictive than we have it right now.
I think their normal life is worse than our lockdown life.
But yeah, they are saying, look, we're past this thing.
That's going to be interesting to see if that's true.
Yeah, well, they might be past it for now, but I think this is what's going to be the big surprise to most Americans.
It's probably coming back this fall.
There's a good chance of it coming back.
Now, I guess maybe we can really help stop the spread of this if we don't open up our borders and we don't fly around everywhere.
But America's going to change.
This is the best of the Glenn Beck program.
He was the former governor of Texas, great governor of Texas, former U.S.
Energy Secretary.
His name is Rick Perry.
He joins us now.
Rick, I have to tell you that I think
what should lead on your resume is the guy who forged the path to American energy independence.
Thank you for that.
Well, that's nice of you to say, but the fact is it was those independent operators out there that day in and day out went out and took advantage of what the message was from the president, which was, you know, get out of their way.
Don't over-regulate them.
Don't over-tax them.
We obviously figured that out pretty early on in Texas.
And
this president clearly saw that if you won't get in the way of the fossil fuel industry, if you will give Texans, and for that matter, people from North Dakota and Pennsylvania and Louisiana, if you'll give them the opportunity to go explore, they will use their technology, their innovation, and they will flourish.
And that's exactly what we did, Glenn, is America became the number one oil and gas producing country in the world.
As a matter of fact, December 1st was my last day on the job, 2019 as Secretary of Energy.
And the information, the Energy Information Agency announced that day that America, for the first time in 70 years, was a net exporter of energy.
What a fabulous
statement to make for this administration, what this president did.
And now we see it all put into jeopardy.
And we see it put into jeopardy because of something that, you know, if anybody saw this coming, I'm going to call BS on them.
Glenn, I can promise you.
Go ahead.
Well, I was just going to say, the Saudis and the Russian were having their OPEC meeting.
And listen, OPEC's been around since night.
We've seen them manipulating the market.
That's what they do.
That's just a reality of life.
I'm not going to say it's good, bad, or indifferent.
It just is what it is.
And they were were meeting.
The Russians are hurting.
Russians are hurting financially, partly because they tried to manipulate the energy market in Europe and try to be the only source.
If that would have been very good for them from their perspective, but the U.S.
saw the danger in the European countries only having to rely upon Russian energy.
Therefore, we were against this Nardstrom II pipeline, which would have really put Europe in jeopardy from the Russian and standpoint energy reliancy on Russia.
So we came out very strong against that.
The President laid the law down and the Russians really hurting economically, they go back into this OPEC-plus meeting with the Saudis some 30-plus days ago.
And the Saudis are continuing to restrict production to keep the price of oil in that, you know, I don't know what it was in those days, high 30s, low 40s.
It may have been above that.
It's moved around so much lately.
But the point is this.
The Russians said, nope, we ain't doing this anymore.
And
my understanding was that was a very heated conversation between the Saudi minister, the Russian new minister, and they walked away.
Russia said, we're going to go produce.
And the Saudis said, oh, okay.
We'll see who's
got the biggest
said here.
Yeah, who can last the longest.
And Monday, that next Monday, they announced a $7 to $8 decrease in the cause, the cost of crude, and the market started down.
No one, I think, saw at that particular point in time COVID-19 coming in and being this global pandemic.
There may have been some people in hindsight that are saying it, but I certainly was not seeing it or hearing it at that particular point in time.
That caused a complication of massive proportion where economies start to be shut down.
The demand on the oil and gas industry basically is dried up.
Aviation fuel down 91%.
This was two weeks ago.
Gasoline demand down 50% that same time frame.
So this has been a
compounding issue here.
And
Glenn, I wish I could tell you that we could snap our fingers,
we get this
pandemic out of the way and we go back to the rosy economic picture that we had in one of the strongest economies, if not the strongest economy that America has ever had just six weeks ago.
But I can't say that.
Here's what I can say though,
that
this pandemic, as we work towards finding the solution to move us farther away from the peak deaths, the peak people who are being
affected by,
we're not going to find a vaccine anytime in the near future.
But there are things that we can do.
And there's some pretty exciting stuff out there I want to talk about I can before I get out of here because I spent as much time on the
COVID-19 partly because people don't make the connection between the Department of Energy and medicine and they should because the DOE operates the supercomputers at the national labs and those supercomputers are coming up with some fascinating theories that may be more than theories that may be actuality and how to deal with this and to to to conquer it substantially quicker than historically how you would have dealt with the pandemic.
But let me go back to the energy side of it a second.
And this is going to be demand-driven.
We're going to see some pretty rough next 30 days in the oil and gas business.
You know, I think,
I don't know what West Texas Intermediate opened at.
I want to say around $23
yesterday.
Brent,
the North Atlantic crude, was about about thirty two dollars that's a big spread between those two it's normally closer than that but one of the reasons is because the transportation cost and one of the reasons is because the u.s shell producers are so efficient we basically uh produced um at massive amounts we were right at I want to say we were right at 13 million barrels a day that we were producing.
I mean, think about that.
13 million barrels a day.
The estimate that came out yesterday by the Energy Information Agency is that we're going to be down about 1.6, 1.8.
So let's say
11 billion barrels a day.
What does this mean for the energy independence?
What does it mean for the oil producers here in America?
You said last week that you thought oil
in Texas would collapse.
What does this really mean?
The statement that I made is
if
the government, and you know me,
I'm basically
in a perfect world like the free market, we're not in a perfect world.
We're seeing not only the manipulation of the market by
the Saudis and by the Russians, but also you've got this pandemic.
So there is a time that government steps in and government is very much needed.
This is it, if there's ever been one, to save the independent producer.
I will tell you, Glenn, if we lose the independent producer in America, and I'm not talking about just Texans, yeah, we got more of them than anybody else, but North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, if you lose that independent producer, we could wake up in a year, literally in a year.
And there are four
major oil companies in the world that control all of the production: ExxonMobil,
Oramco,
Rosnev, which is the Russian company, and maybe BP and Chevron, you know, maybe four or five.
I mean,
that scares me to death as an American to have five companies that could literally control the tap of energy for the world.
Just think of it.
And that was back in 1974.
Absolutely.
And I was a pilot in the United States Air Force in 1974, and I remember how daunting that period of time was for America from the standpoint of, wait a minute, people who have
our
interest
in their hands may not have our best interest in mind.
And from a national defense standpoint, if nothing else, I mean,
you could see gas prices literally $5 or $6 a gallon.
I mean, I don't think that's out of the realm of possibility.
If the Russians and the Saudis decide to
turn that tap off, go ask the Ukrainians what it's like to be
at the hands of Russia.
They will manipulate that energy.
I guarantee you they will.
So what has to happen, Rick?
Is the president moving towards helping?
Okay.
I think the president is open.
He's obviously been on the phone to
the
minister, Abdulaziz bin Solomon he's been on the the phone to
the the Crown Prince MBS he's talked to Putin
my
and and and
the the Secretary of Energy Dan Bruette he has been directly in conversations with the Russians and the Saudis from the standpoint of
how we deal with this.
But here are two things that I mentioned these last week, and I still think they are
worth having an in-depth conversation.
And I hope the President will take a look at them and consider them.
One is
to
for 60 to 90 days, this isn't from now on, but for 60 to 90 days,
direct the refineries, and I think you can do it through an executive order, would be my bet.
Send the message to the refineries, you don't refine anything
but
sourced crude.
Now, that'll do two things.
Number one, it'll it'll shore up that uh that market, get it give it a floor, if you will, uh help it keep it from going down any more.
And I kind of like the idea of using American crude.
I don't have a problem with that.
Now, there are those out there that say, Well, you can't do that because you've got to have this certain blend and the the sour crude comes from from Saudi Araf or you know what?
We can we can manage that.
We can manage that.
Uh
You may want to waive the Jones Act so that we can move oil from one port in the United States to another port in the United States, not have to
rely upon
a U.S.
flagged.
I've always thought that the Jones Act in times of
great national security ought to be waived.
And
I don't care whose vessel you're using.
Move it from this port to to this port to get it closer to the refinery.
Get that Canadian oil
down through our pipeline system.
You can manage that.
The second thing, Glenn, that I think would make a massive difference, and it's a good business practice.
And if Donald Trump is nothing, he's a good businessman.
He thinks
and how do you do a deal?
Have the Treasury go by,
let's pitch out a good number, $15 to $20 billion dollars worth of oil futures now number one what do you bet that oil is going to be higher in 2021 and 2022 that's probably
a lot yeah it's probably a pretty good bet so if you bought oil futures today then you would be sitting on a good investment plus that would put a floor on these oil prices.
So I think there are two things that the administration could do to be very powerful over and above what they've already done from the standpoint of talking to these countries and saying, hey, listen, we're not going to allow you to destroy the shell producer, the independent operator in America, because it's the one thing that keeps us from being controlled by
energy companies that don't necessarily have our best interest in mind.
Rick, I've got less than a minute.
Just real quick, I don't need to get into the weeds on this.
April 14th, the Texas Railroad Commission is meeting to do something possibly they haven't done since the 70s, which is curb oil production.
Is that going to happen?
I think there's a real possibility that
the Commission could take that step.
And when you think about that,
if this is the movement that needs to occur, again, all of us, you know, we're free market folks, but
this is extraordinary times.
How do you save that American?
I mean, let me tell you,
the Texas budget, oh my God, I can't imagine how bad the Texas budget is going to be.
The severance tax is going to be in the tank.
You know, with this pandemic and the sales tax revenues, I mean, there's no telling.
It may be 25, 30 percent
lower revenues coming in than what they've got to spend.
It's going to be the toughest legislative session from a budget standpoint potentially in the history of the state.
So
everything that the state can do right now, right now, they need to be having that conversation about.
And I would suggest that
Texas doing its part to restrict for some period of time the production of crude might be a very thoughtful thing.
All right.
Rick Perry, thank you so much for everything.
Thanks for coming on the program.
Former U.S.
Energy Secretary, the guy who I think is responsible along with the Trump administration to bring us energy independence.
It's a lot of his policies as governor of Texas that helped the oil industry actually figure out and be free enough to make us energy independent.
Thank you so much, Rick.
I appreciate it.