Fox News Channel "Your World" -Transcript

Interview

MR. CAVUTO: Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was the one asking that question. She joins me now.

Congresswoman, good to have you. But that was sort of like asking, when did you stop beating your wife. Was that really fair?

REP. SCHULTZ: It was absolutely fair. Because I'll tell you, when I'm standing in front of my constituents in a town hall meeting, Neil, and they are, you know, asking me, Debbie, we've got an industry that is making record profits, they are charging record prices -- coincidentally, they're all doing the same thing at the same time -- they are asking me, how is it that they're not manipulating the prices?

And so we gave, the Democratic Congress, gave the FTC the authority and pushed them to investigate whether or not the industry is manipulating prices. And we need to get to the bottom of whether they are because it is really disturbing that they have record profits and record prices. And quite honestly, the answers that they gave us today were really unsatisfactory.

MR. CAVUTO: But the two are hand-in-hand, right? When you have bigger prices, it's not surprising that you're going to get record profits. And you mentioned the FTC, Congresswoman, and the fact of the matter is, the FTC has looked into this no less than 18 times in the past seven years. We've had the Justice Department doing the same. They've never found evidence of collusion. They've never found evidence of anything on the part of oil companies to --

REP. SCHULTZ: They have not had the authority. The FTC has not had the authority that we have given them recently to truly investigate whether these companies are manipulating the prices.

MR. CAVUTO: Well, what will be different this time than the prior studies and examinations they've done? What will they have access to now that they didn't in those others?

REP. SCHULTZ: Well, it's more than just the access to the information. It's the effort that they're making because, you know, they took a pretty top-surface look at it before and concluded, you know, no, there wasn't any problem. And we've pushed them, and now they have agreed, as of last week, to open an investigation in to the industry and whether or not they are really manipulating prices.

But you know, it goes way beyond manipulation. The bottom line here is that, you know, we have to stop just using words to say that we're going to end America's addiction to foreign oil. We have to take positive, affirmative steps which the Democratic Congress has been attempting to do, and we've been blocked repeatedly by the Republican Caucus.

MR. CAVUTO: Where have you been blocked? When it comes to searching and digging for more oil in this country, where have the Republicans blocked you on that?

REP. SCHULTZ: No, no, no, no. There is no need to search and dig for more oil because we can't drill our way out of this problem. We have to make sure that we can make significant investments in alternative energy research. We have to repeal the --

MR. CAVUTO: Why not -- Congresswoman, why not do it all?

REP. SCHULTZ: No, no, no. Let me finish, Neil.

MR. CAVUTO: Do it all. Do everything you want to do --

REP. SCHULTZ: We're trying.

MR. CAVUTO: -- all those alternatives and then look for all the oil that's here because right now, Congresswoman --

REP. SCHULTZ: We have an administration --

MR. CAVUTO: -- we're beholden to some people on the other side of the globe who don't much like us.

REP. SCHULTZ: Neil, we have an administration that is refusing to do anything to expand the capacity that we have except more and more drilling, and that is not the answer. We can't drill our way out of this problem. And they still want to give the $14 billion -- with a b -- in subsidies for the oil industry when they are the most profitable industry in history. We want to take that money and invest it in alternative energy.

MR. CAVUTO: Congresswoman, you're right to say take the subsidies away for an industry that doesn't need it, want it.

REP. SCHULTZ: But the Republicans refused to do it.

MR. CAVUTO: Well, actually, they were open to that. And as long as they were --

REP. SCHULTZ: But they weren't.

MR. CAVUTO: Here's where you guys constantly butt heads. You know, the Democrats are against, you know, looking for more oil here. Republicans, I guess, are against some of these other fuels that are being examined. Why don't you both put down your respective guards and say jump ball, have at all these technologies, have at all the oil here because Saudi Arabia and these countries that have said that they're not going to be increasing production really aren't real interested in our problem here. If anything, they're interested in making it worse.

And they're laughing at us, Congresswoman, because they think, hey, America, you're sitting on all this oil, and you're doing nothing for it.

REP. SCHULTZ: Well, I'll tell you why myself, as a member of the delegation from Florida in Congress, I'm certainly not willing to allow more drilling off the coast of the Outer Continental Shelf and jeopardize the largest industry in my state, which is tourism. We do not need big oil rigs off the coast of Florida. We need to make sure that we make significant investments in other kinds of energy generation so that we can really ween ourselves off from foreign oil instead of just talk about it.

MR. CAVUTO: All right, Congresswoman, very good having you. We'll see how this all goes.

REP. SCHULTZ: Good to be with you. Thank you.

Source