These days, it’s pretty fashionable to dump on Russia. Biden is even blaming Putin for over a year of failures from his administration. A bipartisan group of lawmakers, seemingly unhurt by inflation or rising gas prices, wanted to ban Russian oil from the U.S. market. Even before Biden banned it himself, they crafted a bill to shut down Russian energy imports. The problem? They had no plans on replacing it with something else.
Our government’s approach to checking Putin has only seemed to hurt us. Gas prices have been rising for over a year, thanks to Biden’s radical policies. Congress could have fixed this problem by allowing U.S. companies to drill—as they did under President Trump. Instead, they are strangling U.S. energy supply, with no means to fix it. And only a fraction of Republican House members bothered to stand up to them.
The House passed on H.R. 6968, the Suspending Energy Imports from Russia Act. The vote featured overwhelming support for the bill, gaining 414 votes for the measure, and 17 Republicans and Democrats against the bill…
Two progressive lawmakers, Reps. Cori Bush (D-MO) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN), voted against the bill. Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Dan Bishop (R-NC), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Scott DeJarlais (R-FL), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Glenn Grothman (R-WI), Clay Higgins (R-LA), Thomas Massie (R-KY), Bill Posey (R-FL), Chip Roy (R-TX), and Tom Tiffany (R-WI) voted against the legislation.
Massie said in a statement on Wednesday he will oppose the bill because it would not boost American domestic energy production. [Source: Breitbart]
Only 17 Republicans rejected this bill, because it did not replace Russian oil with more U.S. energy production. The rest of the party seemed to stab Americans in the back with a pointless bill, seeing as how Biden already banned Russian oil. This would have been a golden opportunity for both parties to show they are putting Americans ahead of Biden and his failed agenda. Instead, only 17 members of Congress had enough sense to put their foot down.
Do Republicans think Americans can survive with these rising gas prices? The price of gas has jumped by at least 20 cents every day for the last week. There appears to be no sign of it stopping. How high can it really get? It’s not crazy to think that even in conservative states, the price of gas would exceed $10/gallon.
But our lawmakers don’t seem to care. They are more concerned with sending a meaningless message to Putin (a man who does not fear them), than to do anything to help the average Americans. Want to really stick it to Putin? Start drilling for oil. That will put the fear of God into him. If he knows we are willing to replace his oil with our own, he will have good incentive to change his ways.
Otherwise, he is watching the U.S. punch itself in the face, thinking it will hurt him. And he’s laughing at us.
Author: Kit Fargo