Scalise to Biden: Stop Begging Foreign Countries for Oil

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House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined House Republican Conference Vice Chair Mike Johnson (R-La.), Congressman French Hill (R-Ark.), Congresswoman Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenn.), and Congressman Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), at today’s leadership press conference to discuss how Democrats’ inflationary policies are hurting the American people.

Whip Scalise pointed out that the Democrat-run Natural Resources Committee was more interested in holding a hearing about “big cats” instead of lowering gas prices. In addition, Whip Scalise slammed President Biden for traveling to Saudi Arabia to beg OPEC countries for oil instead of turning to American energy producers. Whip Scalise also urged Democrats to work with Republicans to help families who are being forced to choose between feeding their families and filling up their gas tanks.


Scalise commented on the Democrats’ costly self-made crises, “President Biden’s inflation-increasing agenda is crushing the American Dream for millions of families across the country. We’ve heard some of the stories. Families are already talking about canceling their summer vacation, not just because of the inflation, but because they can’t even afford to fill their gas tank because gas prices are so high, more than double where they were when [President] Biden took the oath of office,” he said.

He also touched on what he calls the Democrats’ misplaced priorities, “Just think about this. Last week, the House Natural Resources Committee, which is the committee that has jurisdiction over energy policy, along with the House Energy and Commerce Committee, held a hearing that you would think with skyrocketing gas prices, that the Natural Resources Committee would hold a hearing about how to lower gas prices. They can actually move legislation that we’ve recommended and urged them to take up to lower gas prices at the pump today. But, no,” he said, “That’s not what they had the hearing on. The Natural Resources Committee had a hearing on big cats. That’s right. Amidst this gas crisis that’s crushing American families – taking money out of their pockets every single week when they fill up their vehicle. Instead of having hearings on how to lower gas prices, they had a hearing on big cats.That is how out of touch Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats here in Washington are with the American people.”

On President Biden’s upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia to beg for more foreign oil production:


The speech then led to the President’s upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia where he will ask for more foreign oil production. “In fact, [President] Biden is getting ready to announce in the next few days that he’s going to fly to Saudi Arabia to beg them to produce more oil. Just think about the lunacy of that,” Scalise said, “So, [President] Biden, who talks about global warming all the time, I wonder how many people are going to ask [President] Biden what the carbon footprint of his trip to Saudi Arabia is. Over 5,000 miles traveled to go to Saudi Arabia to beg Saudi princes to produce more oil after he begged Vladimir Putin to produce more oil, and Putin said no.”

He also commented on Louisiana production, “In fact, you can go less than a thousand miles to Port Fourchon, Louisiana – in my district – the hub of drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, where [President] Biden shut down production on American lands, shut down American energy. He could fly less than a thousand miles.”

Scalise also addresed the nation’s high standards for energy production. The Congressman addressed the President and said he would not have to wonder what the answer would be if he were t ask about producing more energy in Port Fourchon, “their answer will be yes because they know how to produce good, clean American energy, by the way, cleaner than anywhere else in the world,” he said. He passionatly stated that he should not fly over 5,000 miles to Saudi Arabia and called them, along with OPEC, a cartel, because Scalise claimed it’s a monopoly, “They like a higher price of gasoline. But even if they said yes, first of all, the energy they produce is not as clean as what we produce in America because we have the best standards.””


Scalise also said the economic advantages of American energy production is critically important and, “by saying no to American energy as [President] Biden did [on] day one when he came into the White House, by going and asking Saudi [Arabia] to produce more energy that takes more money out of America’s coffers. So, America actually makes – next to [the] income that people write their taxes to the [Internal Revenue Service] from – the largest producing federal agency for tax revenue is the Department of Interior. Drilling on federal and state lands, public and private lands [generate] more income than any other agency next to the IRS. And that money is depleting, that revenue is depleting.”

He also noted that in Louisiana, revenue from drilling is used to restore our coast which is something that has been an environmental tragedy going on for decades. “Our state finally stepped up and said, ‘We’re going to dedicate the lion’s share of our drilling revenue to rebuild [the] land, so we don’t have as strong of hurricanes that hit where people are.’ And that’s something we’ve been working on for decades. And [President] Biden has taken that away,” he stated.

On President Biden’s war on American energy:


With the crisis happeneing, Scalise does not thing the President should expend a massive carbon footprint just to fly to Saudi Arabia to ask for more foreign drilling, “Just fly right down to any part of the United States, like Port Fourchon, where the answer will be yes to clean American energy. We know the answers.”

Watch the full video below: