The oil boom of the late 70s and early 80s in oil producing states came about, in part, because of the short-term market upheaval that took place AFTER decades of government control over oil and gas prices were removed. (I'm not arguing in favor of government control of oil prices, I'm just stating a fact). Had the free market been the prevailing force on oil and gas all along, I would contend that there would have been no energy crisis.
And, again, Rush's point was that Daschle's policies will hurt America - in both energy and taxes. Anyone have any argument with his point?
The distortions in the market caused by government regulation had to end at some point, and that any "pain" that resulted would only have been magnified if it had been put off again.
Ironically, it is the very same trade agreements that Bill Clinton promoted as president that will make it extremely difficult to regulate the energy sector in the future. In western Canada for the last couple of years you had an incredible boom in all sectors of the economy because of the money that flowed into the area from the sale of energy in the U.S. The problem that people had was that U.S. consumption was driving up the cost of energy on the world market -- western Canadians were paying through the nose for oil and gas even though the stuff was being extracted from underneath them! The Canadian government had no control over these prices because any attempt to regulate would have been a clear violation of NAFTA.
I think Rush gives too much credit to Daschle -- he may be the Senate majority leader, but the reality is that he is just a Senator from North Dakota. If you really want to make Daschle look like a right-wing Republican, all you really need to do is one of the following: 1.) discover oil in North Dakota, or 2.) elect him senator in Alaska.