[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 43 (Thursday, March 10, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1070-S1071]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 COSTS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, Washington Democrats are trying to 
pull off a political spin job for the ages. Everyone knows that gas 
prices and energy costs have been soaring sharply for many, many 
months. Working families know all too well that gas prices and utility 
costs have been rising throughout President Biden's tenure.
  Just this morning, we learned that inflation set yet another modern 
record last month. Prices skyrocketed another 0.8 percent in February 
alone. That comes out to 7.9 percent inflation year on year, the worst 
inflation in 40 years. And it keeps getting worse, not better.
  This has been a painful pattern throughout President Biden's tenure. 
We have now had 9 straight months of inflation higher than 5 percent. 
And remember, 3 weeks ago, before the crisis in Europe, Democrats were 
already in a political panic over gas prices and desperately talking 
about a gas tax holiday. Three weeks ago, before the crisis in Europe, 
the average price of a gallon of gas had already shot up more than a 
dollar from when President Biden was sworn in.
  Now, you would think the Democrats would have been proud of this. 
Hostility to fossil fuels and homegrown American energy is precisely 
what President Biden campaigned on. Here is what our President said on 
the campaign trail in 2020--a direct quote:

       No more subsidies for the fossil fuel industry. No more 
     drilling on Federal lands. No more drilling, including 
     offshore. No ability for the oil industry to continue to 
     drill, period. [It] ends.

  That was the President in 2020. Here is what he told an activist:


[[Page S1071]]


  

       [L]ook at my eyes. I guarantee you . . . we are going to 
     end--

  End--

     fossil fuel.

  Now, President Biden spent 2 years campaigning on hostility to 
American energy. Now he has spent 14 months putting that hostility 
right into action, and Democrats' reckless spending that has fueled 
across-the-board inflation has made Americans' pain at the pump even 
worse.
  But in the last few days, the Biden administration has tried to 
invent some laugh-out-loud--laugh-out-loud--revisionist history. They 
are trying to rebrand the entire increase in gas prices on their 
watch--listen to this--as an effect of Putin's recent invasion of 
Ukraine. So they want to blame 14 months of gas price increases on the 
last 2 weeks of turmoil.
  Washington Democrats' war on domestic energy long, long predates 
Putin's war on Ukraine. So let me say that again. Democrats' war on 
domestic energy long predates Putin's war on Ukraine.
  Now, I strongly support America stopping our purchases of Putin's 
oil, but Democrats' 14-month war on our own production will make that 
necessary action more painful for American families than it had to be. 
If the Biden administration had spent 14 months promoting American 
energy instead of attacking our production and fueling inflation, we 
would be better positioned to push back on Putin at a less painful cost 
to American families.
  The President's team wants to pretend this lengthy problem only 
started 2 weeks ago, but American families have been paying for 
Democrats' bad policies for a lot longer than that.

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