[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Page 6820]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               GAS PRICES

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I am going to devote my leader time 
this afternoon to an issue which may not be on the Democrats' 
legislative agenda this week but which is certainly on the minds of 
most Americans every day. I am referring, of course, to the high cost 
of gasoline. All across the country, people are suffering from the 
runup in gas prices we have seen over the past few months. It is 
squeezing family budgets, tightening margins at already struggling 
small businesses, and it poses a mortal threat to any economic rebound.
  This is a critical issue. Americans are looking for answers. Yet all 
they are getting from the President and the Democratic leaders in 
Congress are gimmicks and deflection. We have seen this before. Every 
time gas prices go up, Democrats claim there is nothing they can do 
about it. Then they propose something completely counterproductive just 
to quiet their critics. This time, it is a tax increase. That is the 
Democratic response to high gas prices--a tax hike.
  Well, the first thing to say about this proposal is that it will not 
do a thing to lower gas prices--not a thing. In fact, raising taxes on 
American energy production will increase the price of gas. Oh, and it 
would also make us even more dependent on foreign sources of oil. Now, 
that is not my view. That is the view of the independent Congressional 
Research Service, which concluded in March that the Democrats' proposed 
tax increase on energy production would ``make oil and natural gas more 
expensive for U.S. consumers and likely increase foreign dependence.'' 
It sounds like a brilliant strategy to me.
  Beyond raising taxes, Democrats insist there is nothing they can do 
about gas prices, but I think most Americans feel differently. I think 
most Americans believe it is time to stop talking about what we cannot 
do and start talking about what we can do. If the President and 
Democrats in Congress are truly serious about lowering gas prices and 
making us less dependent on foreign sources of oil, here are a few 
suggestions.
  First, if ever there was a moment to develop our resources here at 
home, it is now. For decades, Democrats have resisted efforts to tap 
our American resources. Then when gas prices go up, they tell us how 
many years it would take to get the product to market. It is time to 
take this excuse off the table by breaking the cycle.
  Second, Democrats need to allow energy companies to cut through the 
bureaucratic redtape that prevents companies that are authorized to 
explore here from getting to work and putting thousands of Americans 
back to work.
  Third, they need to stop penalizing America's producers with new fees 
and threats of tax hikes, which only drive energy companies overseas 
and help our foreign competitors and create jobs in places such as 
Venezuela. And they need to call an end to the anti-energy crusade of 
the EPA.
  In short, Democrats need to throw away the old playbook--throw that 
one away--and face this crisis with a new kind of creativity, 
independence, and common sense that the American people are demanding.
  Democrats need to stop deflecting attention from their own complicity 
in our Nation's overdependence on foreign oil. They need to stop paying 
lipservice to the need for American exploration while quietly 
supporting efforts to suppress it. They need to end an approach that 
has not changed, frankly, since the days of Jim Carter. Just like 
Carter before them, today's Democrats are using the crisis of the 
moment as an excuse to push their own vision of the future with a 
``windfall profits tax'' on energy companies. And just like Carter 
before them, they have rightly been accused of bringing a BB gun to the 
war.
  This is a serious crisis. It is time for serious solutions--solutions 
that create jobs instead of moving them overseas, solutions that 
decrease our dependence on foreign sources of oil rather than increase 
it, solutions that offer relief rather than mere rhetoric.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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