President-elect Obama was interviewed on 60 Minutes last night about the election and how he is preparing for the presidency. Obama noted early in the conversation that he’s “talking to top economic advisers about how we’re gonna create jobs, how we get the economy back on track and what do we do in terms of some long-term issues like energy and health care.” He also mentioned that his team is figuring out how to sequence agenda items “in a way that we can actually get things through Congress.”
Interviewer Steve Kroft brought up energy in the course of their discussion of economic issues:
Kroft: When the price of oil was at $147 a barrel, there were a lot of spirited and profitable discussions that were held on energy independence. Now you’ve got the price of oil under $60.
Obama: Right.
Kroft: Does doing something about energy … is it less important now than …
Obama: It’s more important. It may be a little harder politically, but it’s more important.
Kroft: Why?
Obama: Well, because this has been our pattern. We go from shock to trance. You know, oil prices go up, gas prices at the pump go up, everybody goes into a flurry of activity. And then the prices go back down and suddenly we act like it’s not important, and we start, you know, filling up our SUVs again.
And, as a consequence, we never make any progress. It’s part of the addiction, all right. That has to be broken. Now is the time to break it.
Watch the video below:
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