Shocking Remarks on Gas Prices

Floor Speech

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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.

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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

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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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