[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 12681-12682]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            HIGH GAS PRICES

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, high gas prices continue to frustrate 
the American people, and so I think it is important that Congress show 
we are fully engaged on this issue and ready to help in any way we can. 
Unfortunately, that means the parties will have to come together on a 
solution, something our friends on the other side seem, at least so 
far, stubbornly unwilling to do.
  The commonsense solution to this problem, we all know, is a 
combination

[[Page 12682]]

of energy exploration in the United States to bring down prices in the 
short term married to a long-term strategy of energy independence 
through development of clean energy technologies. If we are going to 
help Americans in the short term, obviously we need more American 
energy now, but our friends on the other side don't want to hear it. 
They think Americans should get used to $4-a-gallon gasoline.
  Asked last week about the sudden spike in gas prices, the Democratic 
nominee for President said he would have preferred a gradual 
adjustment. As I have said several times, and others have, I don't 
think that is the common view in the United States, and I want to give 
my colleagues on the other side one more opportunity to say that, in 
their view, Americans shouldn't have to get used to $4-a-gallon 
gasoline. I haven't heard a single one of them say so yet, but I can't 
imagine they agree with their nominee that what Americans really needed 
was a gradual adjustment to $4-a-gallon gasoline.

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