WASHINGTON, D.C. — House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), Congressman Mario Díaz-Balart (R-Fla.), Congressman Dave Joyce (R-Ohio), and Congresswoman Michelle Fischbach (R-Minn.) at today’s leadership press conference to discuss how President Biden’s inflationary policies and extremist climate agenda are hurting American families when they buy food at the grocery store and when they fill up their cars at the gas station. Whip Scalise slammed President Biden for traveling to Saudi Arabia to beg OPEC countries for oil instead of turning to American producers for domestic energy production. Additionally, Whip Scalise urged Democrats to bring the several bills Republicans have proposed to address President Biden’s self-made energy crisis to the House Floor immediately.
On President Biden coming up empty on his trip to Saudi Arabia to beg for more foreign oil production:“Here we are facing another week where Democrats will not bring up any bills on the House Floor to lower gas prices, to lower inflation, to secure America’s border, to address the serious problems that families are facing.“You just saw over the weekend, [President] Biden came back from Saudi Arabia, hat-in-hand. He goes over there begging them to produce more oil. You had the French President Macron [tell] him that the answer was going to be no, yet he flew Air Force One 5,700 miles over to Saudi Arabia just to be told no, they won’t produce more energy when he could have just stayed here where the answer would have been yes.” On President Biden choosing not to invest in American energy production: “We’ve got all the energy that we need to meet America’s needs and our allies’ [needs] around the world, and it’s [President] Biden, who keeps saying no to American energy as he begs foreign dictators to produce the oil that we need to meet our demands.“It’s why families are struggling under an 88 percent increase in gas prices at the pump. That’s how much more families are paying today than when Joe Biden became President – 88 percent more.”On Democrats’ doubling down on their inflationary policies:“But what are they bringing to the floor this week as [Congressman Díaz-Balart] and my other colleagues talked about? A massive increase in spending! [A] 14 percent increase in spending an appropriations bill that was drawn up in a hyper-partisan way to drive inflation even higher.”On hardworking families feeling the pain at the pump and the grocery store:“And when you think about what’s hurting families the most right now, it’s high gas prices, it’s high inflation when they go to the grocery store – if they can even find the products they’re looking for – it’s costing them 15, 20, 30 percent more to buy those products.“And if somebody wants to buy a home right now, maybe they want to be a first-time homebuyer, well, good luck because next week, we’re expecting another 1 percent increase in interest rates because of all of President Biden and Speaker Pelosi’s spending, and their answer is to add more spending in Washington.”On Democrats refusing to work with Republicans to reverse their self-made crises:“They’re so out of touch with where families are right now, and House Republicans are going to continue to propose ideas to fix these problems. We brought forward a package of energy bills that would lower gas prices tomorrow. “I presented them directly to Majority Leader [Hoyer] time and time again for months now, and not a single one of those bills has come to the floor. All [of these] bills would not only be bipartisan but would lower gas prices today for families and start lowering inflation.”On President Biden’s self-made border and drug crises:“And so, we’re going to continue pushing to restore sanity as they continue going down this path of driving inflation higher, embracing an unsecure border with millions of people coming across our border illegally that’s driven fentanyl deaths through the roof.“Last year, 100,000 young people died of overdoses, primarily fentanyl, coming across our southern border because [President] Biden won’t do his job in securing the American people. We’re going to continue pushing to solve these problems.”