Appearing today on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Speaker Boehner called on President Obama to begin to work now with Republicans to address our spending-driven debt and the tax hikes that will hit families and small businesses on January 1 if Washington fails to act.  Boehner also discussed the GOP’s Plan for America’s Job Creators, and the more than 30 jobs bills that remain stuck in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Speaker Boehner appeared on CNN's State of the Nation Sunday to discuss the House's focus on jobs and the economy. And be sure to check out our Team Boehner Facebook page for video of CNN's "Getting to Know You" segment where Speaker Boehner talks about the toughest job he's ever had.

Congress is observing a District Work period this week, and that means House Republicans are taking their campaign to hold President Obama accountable for his policies that are driving up gas prices to cities and towns across America.  Today, Speaker John Boehner and Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas) toured an oil rig near Midland, TX, to learn more about the drilling process and discuss the House-passed energy bills included in Republicans’ ‘all-of-the-above’ energy plan that remain stuck in the Democratic-run Senate. 

Photos from the Speaker’s visit are available on Team Boehner’s Flickr page.  Key excerpts from Boehner's remarks to with west Texas media are included below:

>> BOEHNER ON PRESIDENT OBAMA’S POLICIES THAT ARE DRIVING UP GAS PRICES:

“While the President says he’s for an ‘all-of-the-above’ energy strategy, none of his actions have followed his words.  Whether it’s his opposition to the Keystone Pipeline – his personally lobbying Democrat Senators to oppose the pipeline – or when you look at all the activity on federal lands, you can see that we’re producing less oil on federal lands than when the president took office.  It’s time for the president in his actions to match his rhetoric.  This is what America wants… Why does the President continue to stand in the way?”

>> BOEHNER ON PRESIDENT OBAMA’S CALL FOR HIGHER ENERGY TAXES:

“The Congressional Research Service – the non-partisan arm of the Library of Congress – has looked into the president’s proposal.  And they have determined that doing what the President wants – raising taxes on oil companies – would actually increase oil and gas prices in the United States.  That’s not what the American people want.  I’ve met with enough independent oil and gas prices here and around the country to understand oil depletion allowances, intangible drilling costs, things that are necessary if we are going to encourage people to produce more of our energy.”

>> BOEHNER ON THE NEED FOR A REAL “ALL-OF-THE ABOVE ENERGY STRATEGY”:

“Listen, I’m for solar, I’m for wind.  I’m also for the development of our nuclear energy, which the President says he’s for, but I don’t see him doing anything to help.  The president says he’s for more oil and gas development, yet he stops Keystone, [and] he won’t let us drill in the most productive part of Alaska.  And when it comes to opening federal lands, they continue to shut more federal lands down -- whether it’s the outer continental shelf or the inner mountain west where we’ve got significant deposits of American-made oil and gas.”

This afternoon, House Republicans advanced a budget that cuts government spending, repeals the Democrats’ unconstitutional health care law, protects seniors, and expands American energy.  It’s a pro-jobs budget that restores fiscal sanity to Democrat-run Washington and will help jump-start our economy by providing tax and regulatory certainty to job creators.

• Reform our broken tax code to spur job creation and economic opportunity by lowering everyone’s rates, and closing loopholes.  
• Put hardworking taxpayers ahead of special interests.
• Cut government spending by $5 trillion to protect hardworking taxpayers, instead of spending $1.5 trillion more like President Obama’s plan.
• Tackle the drivers of our debt, so our troops don’t pay the price for Washington’s failure to take action.
• Reverse the President’s policies that drive up gas prices, and will instead promote an all-of the-above strategy for unlocking American energy production to help lower costs, create jobs, and reduce dependence on foreign oil.
• Strengthen health and retirement security for seniors by taking power away from government bureaucrats. 

In a press conference yesterday, Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) discussed what President Obama could do to help lower the price of gas at the pump: 

Gov. Bobby Jindal on Energy from Republican Governors Association on Vimeo.

“Gasoline prices have doubled since this president came into office,” Jindal said. “For a state like Louisiana that produces a lot of oil and gas, rising energy prices in the short term may be helpful in terms of revenues and jobs, but the reality is if we’re serious about rebuilding our manufacturing economy, if we’re serious about helping American families to have the money they need to pay for other essentials, we can’t continue to have these escalating energy prices.”

 

“Several things he should be doing: For the last few years now, he’s been slowing down the leasing activity both offshore and onshore. When you look at oil and gas leasing on public lands, they talk about the record production here domestically. What don’t tell you is how much of that activity is taking place on private lands, and what they don’t tell you is how much of that activity is based on decisions made before he became president.

 

As gas prices continue to rise – hurting families and small business across America – even Washington Democrats are calling for more energy resources. But instead of calling for more American-made energy – which would help create more than a million new jobs and upset their liberal environmentalist allies – Washington Democrats are calling on Saudi Arabia to bail them out of the rising price of gas on their watch. Reuters has the details: 

“The United States should do more to encourage Saudi Arabia to boost its oil production to make up for lost Iranian oil, Senator Charles Schumer said on Sunday, urging renewed diplomacy as a way to ease the run-up in oil prices....Schumer asked Clinton to urge the Saudi government to increase production to full capacity of 12.5 million barrels per day - an increase of 2.5 million barrels.” 

This week, a flurry of news reports have highlighted the rising price of gas at the pump – and the affect that it’s having on jobs and our economy.  NBC News reports that “every 50 cent increase in gas prices takes almost $150 billion out of the rest of the economy. That's bad news during a struggling recovery.”  Watch the rest of their report here: 

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