When Paul Ryan originally made this argument I said it would become an official meme by the end of the week.
It looks like I was more or less correct if not off by one day. via ThinkProgress
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said Sunday that he thinks the best way to respond to the crisis in Ukraine would be drilling for oil and natural gas “in every possible conceivable place” in the U.S. [...]
“I would do something differently from the president,” Paul said. “I would immediately get every obstacle out of the way for our export of oil and gas, and I would begin drilling in every possible conceivable place within our territories in order to have production we can supply Europe with if it’s interrupted from Ukraine.”
I guess you could say Rand Paul has one-upped Paul Ryan.
Paul Ryan said we should build the Keystone XL pipeline extension and export oil to Ukraine even though Ukraine relies on natural gas, not oil. Rand Paul, on the other hand, says that we should drill everywhere!
Here’s an idea — let’s begin drilling in Rand Paul’s front yard and see how long it takes for him to cry Liberty!
Snark aside, this is a laughable approach to foreign policy and energy policy. If he wanted to impress me Paul should have proposed that we increase production of green energy products such as solar panels and export that to Europe. We should export energy independence as a form of national security.
Rand Paul won the CPAC 2014 presidential straw poll.