[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 106 (Wednesday, June 22, 2022)]
[House]
[Page H5739]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     SHOCKING REMARKS ON GAS PRICES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Tennessee (Mr. Rose) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ROSE. Madam Speaker, recently, Cecilia Rouse, the chair of the 
White House Council of Economic Advisers, was trying to explain away 
the challenges that runaway inflation presents to most American 
households, and she said, ``Most American household balance sheets are 
strong and can provide some cushion for rising prices.''
  I was shocked to hear these remarks coming from one of the 
President's top economic policy advisers. Madam Speaker, most 
Americans, in fact, do not have a cushion for rising prices. A recent 
survey found that 56 percent of Americans cannot cover a $1,000 
emergency expense from their savings.
  That is why I led a letter demanding that Chair Rouse apologizes to 
the millions of Americans struggling with skyrocketing prices due to 
the failed economic policies of the Biden administration. I include 
this letter for the Record.


                                     House of Representatives,

                                    Washington, DC, June 15, 2022.
     Dr. Cecilia Rouse,
     Chair, White House Council of Economic Advisers, Washington, 
         DC.
       Dear Chair Rouse: We write today to express our outrage 
     toward your recent comments during an online event hosted by 
     the Center for American Progress. At the event, you stated, 
     in part ``. . . most household balance sheets are strong and 
     can provide some cushion for rising prices . . .'' As Chair 
     of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, we are 
     astounded at your failure to recognize that most Americans 
     actually lack any sort of cushion for the hardships they must 
     endure as a result of the Biden Administration's failed 
     economic policies.
       A recent survey found that 56 percent of Americans cannot 
     cover a $1,000 emergency expense with their savings. We would 
     not expect this to come as a surprise to you, one of the most 
     senior economic officials in the Biden Administration. It is 
     offensive to the millions of Americans fighting to fill their 
     gas tanks, having to remove items from their shopping carts 
     at the grocery store check-out line, and struggling to pay 
     their rising rents to pretend that households have an 
     imaginary cushion to deal with these historic price increases 
     caused in no small part by runaway deficit spending.
       Considering President Biden's approval ratings have dipped 
     below 40 percent, perhaps it is comments like these that lead 
     Americans to believe that his administration is completely 
     out of touch with the everyday struggles of millions of 
     American families. We encourage you to travel to gas stations 
     and grocery stores across the country to ask hard-working 
     Americans whether they have enough ``cushion'' to offset this 
     record inflation. In fact, each of us invites you to visit 
     our respective districts to speak with our constituents, 
     where you will find most of them do not have such a cushion.
       Alarmingly, you followed your comment by stating ``. . . I 
     understand rising prices are painful, I understand that . . 
     .'' Despite these claims, you clearly do not understand the 
     full impact of rising prices because of your mistaken belief 
     that most Americans have the ability to absorb the pain from 
     rapidly increasing prices for goods and services they need 
     each day with essentially inconsequential negative effects to 
     their quality of life due to some mythical financial 
     ``cushion'' you think most Americans enjoy. We ask you to 
     publicly apologize to the millions of Americans struggling 
     with skyrocketing prices and record inflation for these 
     insensitive and inaccurate remarks.
       Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
  Mr. ROSE. Madam Speaker, if remarks like these are reflective of the 
advice being given to the President of the United States, it is no 
wonder that they continue to enact policies completely out of touch 
with the American people.


                            Gas Tax Holiday

  Mr. ROSE. Madam Speaker, if you were on a drive through middle 
Tennessee right now and needed to fill up, let's say, a 2015 Ford F-
150, you would pay about $120. A gas tax holiday would take fewer than 
$5 off that bill.
  Yet, this is the latest Band-Aid solution being tossed around by the 
Biden administration. President Biden has already depleted our 
Strategic Petroleum Reserve to its lowest point in 35 years, weakening 
national security while doing little or nothing to lower gas prices.
  While every dollar certainly counts, saving only $5 out of every $120 
from a gas tax holiday will not make much of a difference in our 
personal budgets, but it will have a crushing effect on our ability to 
pay for the Federal highway system.
  Instead of kneecapping our Nation's infrastructure, the President 
should immediately approve the more than 4,000 pending applications for 
drilling and end the freeze on oil and gas leases, yet President Biden 
refuses.
  The key to getting prices down is simple: reestablish the energy 
independence President Trump created.
  President Biden simply must do better.

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