Live from Music Row, Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – guest host Gulbransen welcomed U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) to the newsmaker line to comment upon historic gas prices, inflation, and the true intentions of the Biden administration for America.
Gulbransen: On our newsmaker line we have Tennessee U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty. How are you doing this morning, sir?
Hagerty: Aaron, I’m doing great. Good to be with you this morning.
Gulbransen: I appreciate you coming on. So, I’m sure you’re incredibly busy, so you didn’t get to hear the three [previous] segments. I did ranting about gas prices, but I know that they concern you.
And as a U.S. Senator, do you have an insight on this? Can you give us an overview of what’s going on in the country with this and what can be done, sir?
Hagerty: Aaron, gas prices should be a concern to every American. It’s at the very root of this massive inflation that Biden has unleashed on America and, frankly, on the world.
The war that he began to wage on the fossil fuel industry the day he came into office has had an unprecedented effect of doing a couple of things.
One, it has certainly raised the price of gas at the pump to an unprecedented level, which means this is the most pernicious tax that you could possibly impose upon America, which is this massive inflation.
And again, at the heart of it is raising the cost of energy here in America. But these are global markets, Aaron. And so it’s had an effect of raising the cost of energy and the price of energy all over the world.
The second-largest producer of energy in the world is Russia. Vladimir Putin has been the biggest beneficiary of Joe Biden’s backward-looking energy policies, and the result has been a massive windfall to Russia that he’s used to wage war on Ukraine.
So Biden has inadvertently wound up putting himself in a position, putting America in a position, where we have subsidized Russia’s war on Ukraine. Russia’s economy doesn’t work at the level that oil was when President Trump was in office.
It’s a subsistence economy at that point when you get oil prices the way they are now. I mean, frankly, the price increase that we’ve seen since Biden took office has more than paid for Russia’s entire military budget.
So you think of it from this perspective, he has weakened us economically here in America, he’s made us less competitive as a nation, and he’s fueling the coffers of some of the worst dictators in the world. These are people that don’t have our best interests at heart. That’s what we’ve got going on here.
Gulbransen: Yes. This is one of those tricky things. When we ascribe motive to it, I actually personally think that there’s a measure of incompetence in the gas policy, in the energy policy of the administration.
But there’s also I think there are at least elements of the administration that want us to have these high prices and they want us to move away from the fossil fuel, and they’re doing it at the expense of the American people and their wallets. And what do you think is the driving force in the Biden administration on that, on their energy policy?
Hagerty: Aaron, I think you’ve actually put your finger right on it. And I think Biden said it in a press conference from Asia. I’m going to read a direct quote from Biden because this just underscores all of it.
He said, ‘When it comes to the gas prices, we’re going through an incredible transition that’s taking place that, God willing, when it’s over, we’ll be stronger in the world, be stronger and less reliant on fossil fuels when this is over.’
He’s acknowledging that he’s going to, ‘put us through this transition to get us to a world where there’s no fossil fuel.’ And the transition is so painful to people in Tennessee that have to drive to work. It’s so painful to anybody.
It depends on whether it set off massive rounds of inflation. And this is a guy who’s never had a job in the private sector. Joe Biden has worked in government his entire life. I mean, I’ve grown up in the private sector.
We know what this impact is. Biden doesn’t get it. The people that he’s put into administration, which are academics and political activists, they just don’t get it.
They’re living in a bubble in Washington, New York City, and the West Coast, and they actually want to see this, I think. They want to see massively high gas prices that force America off of fossil fuels, combustion engines, and the electronic vehicles that don’t exist yet, that are too expensive.
And frankly, we don’t have the infrastructure in place to support them. That’s the naivete part that you’re talking about. That’s the naive component. But again, there’s a theology here at play that they’re going to force us away from fossil fuels.
And again, he’s going over to beg other nations and other countries to pop, but he won’t let us do it right here at home. This administration is using regulatory policy to kill the pipeline permits, to kill the refineries.
He’s just basically withdrawn permit waivers that President Trump issued back in 2018. He’s withdrawn all of those, half the refineries in America.
And he’s imposed retroactive penalties, billions of dollars of penalties on these refineries that are going to force many of them out of business. That’s his plan.
Gulbransen: My wonder I also have is, will the Biden administration change course at any point in time after they get shellacked, at the very least in the U.S. House elections in November?
Because if we see $6 a gallon, there’s no way there’s not going to be a wave election for Republicans. And then, of course, in the Senate as well. I mean, the map is a little different from the Senate.
There’s probably five or six competitive races. But do you see them learning any lessons? If they do, for lack of a better phrase, get their rear ends whupped in November, or are they just going to double down and continue with their bad policy on energy and we’re going to see $6 until we have a Republican president? Is there any hope?
Hagerty: Well, right now, Aaron, they’re at the double-down point. I think they’re looking at the same polls. We are Biden’s polls are in the tank.
And if you look at it from a pollster’s perspective, the map is more challenging in the Senate than it is in the House, you’re exactly right.
But the pollsters are saying that the environment has never been better for Republicans. I think it’s going to be a massive wave and you’re going to see a turnover not only in the House but also in the Senate.
That’s going to make a difference. It’s going to mean people like me with a business background are going to be in a position finally to actually hold this administration accountable, to haul these administrators in of these departments, like the EPA.
To haul in the Interior Department, haul in the Energy Department, and really begin to put pressure and peel back what the Biden administration is doing.
But they’re doing as much as they can with executive orders. It’s going to continue to be very difficult. And again, as you look at what Biden is doing with our policies overseas and continue to weaken us as a nation, making us less competitive and again, harder for a family to put a meal on the table.
That’s something that we’re going to have to fight back hard on. But again, the American public has had it. They’re feeling this in their pocketbooks and they are feeling at the kitchen table. And I think we’re going to see a massive wave, as you describe, come November.
Listen to the interview:
– – –
Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Bill Hagerty that is great news! I wish the Tennessee Star would ask the hard questions to Hagerty about his continued support for RINO Mitch McConnell? Ask Hagerty why he has made millions while being in the Senate representing hard working Tennesseans. I wish the star would ask Hagerty has not put his and his spouses investments in a blind trust while being in the senate? I am not sure how he can focused on Tennessee issues and making millions in stock trades. I wish the Tennessee star would elevate their news for high information voters and cease being like the democratic voters that are low information voters and listen to CNN/MSNBC. I will continue to hope the Tennessee star will improve their reporting with hard questions that make politicians more accountable!
I am glad Hagerty did stand up to the spending! I wish Hagerty would explain to the hardworking Tennesseans that voted and sent him to congress How he continues to support Mitch McConnell as the GOP leader? McConnell called Hagerty and Marsha Blackburn isolationist and we have not herd Hagerty or Blackburn stand up to McConnell and tell him to stop supporting the deficit spending and put Tennesseans/America first! Will you support stopping the deficit spending and help Tennesseans that are being crushed by high gas prices and food? Support and file a bill for a balanced budget? Hagerty is it time for a new generational leader in the senate? McConnell only has enriched himself since being in the senate with stock buys on insider information. Hagerty will you put yours and your spouses investment in a blind trust while representing hard working Tennesseans? Can you give us a stock pick where we buy stock for $56,000 and then sell stock for $4,000,000? It is time to put Tennesseans first and help our seniors that are scared about having enough money to buy groceries!