Using the Power of the Purse

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, it is a bit of a segue here between things you were talking about earlier in the last half hour and all three of you have been mentioning, and that is when you talk about the $70 billion that has been provided to Ukraine for the war with Russia, if you look at the amount of increase in fuel costs that this administration caused, it drove up the price of oil, the price of natural gas so much that Russia made, last I saw, over $60 billion more than they had before.

This administration is really responsible for funding both sides of the war between Russia and Ukraine: The $60-plus billion that Russia got because Biden's actions increased the cost of fuel, and then the $70 billion that we appropriated to Ukraine. You go, this is nuts that they would be doing that.

Then you look at who is getting hurt, and you mention the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. It is down to its lowest point in decades because this President was trying to cover for his disastrous energy policy. So the millions of barrels that the Trump administration put in there so we would have it for an emergency, like a hurricane and other things, that is all gone, trying to cover for Biden's own disastrous policies.

The American public, they see the price of gasoline coming down some, but people need to understand what this is all about. It is what it has always been about, power in the hands of a small group of elitists and everybody else, like in the Middle Ages for many ages. The wealthy ride, the poor walk. That is what this energy policy of theirs is really all about.

I saw a picture just before I came over, John Kerry on his private plane flying, using that energy, because he is important, because he is the elite. But everybody else is going to need to give up their cars.

As our friend Thomas Massie has pointed out, plugging in a car overnight is like plugging in 17 refrigerators.

And everybody won't be able to do it, but if everybody would go to an electric car, then people aren't going to have power. And then they will have to rely on their buddy, their Big Brother Government to say, Okay, some of you can plug in these times.

What about when we were independent, and we didn't need the government to tell us when we could move about?

This is where it is headed. The green is really a brown policy, and it is going to be really unpleasant.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source