Bush lays gas blame on Congress

President Bush blamed the Democratic Congress for blocking bills he said would have lowered gas prices, marking a coordinated strategy with congressional Republicans to shift responsibility for the nation’s economic woes to Democrats. They, in turn, were quick to strike back.

“I’ve repeatedly submitted proposals to help address these problems. Yet time after time, Congress chose to block them,” Mr. Bush said yesterday during a news conference in the Rose Garden.

“I believe that they’re letting the American people down. I’m perplexed, I guess, is the best way to describe it, about why there’s no action, inactivity, on big issues.”

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, Maryland Democrat, responded to Mr. Bush by saying “the president has proclaimed that he is the ‘Decider,’ but this morning all he tried to do is pass the buck to someone else rather than accept responsibility for his administration’s failed economic policies and escalating gas prices.”

“For his first six years in office, the president and the Republican majorities in Congress did virtually nothing to address gasoline prices and to make America more energy independent,” he said. “Then, with new Democratic majorities in Congress, we passed landmark energy legislation that will increase fuel economy and invest in renewable and alternative fuel sources.”

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Senate and House Republicans, meanwhile, simultaneously unleashed a barrage of press releases and rhetoric saying that Democrats, such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, own the gas-price problem.

Oil recently hit $120 a barrel and gas is heading toward $4 a gallon this summer.

“Two years ago, Speaker Pelosi promised the American people that the Democrats had a ‘common-sense plan’ to lower rising gas prices. Not only haven’t we seen this plan, but prices have soared by $1.27 since Representative Pelosi became speaker,” said House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican.

Mrs. Pelosi was quick to cite “years of neglect to our economic condition” by the Bush administration.

Republicans, however, said Democrats repeatedly have blocked attempts to increase domestic production, going all the way back to President Clinton’s 1996 veto of a bill that would have opened up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska for drilling.

The White House held a series of conference calls during the past three weeks with Republican Party officials from House and Senate leadership offices to coordinate their message on gas prices, a senior Republican aide said.

House Republicans have coined the phrase “Pelosi Premium.”

Senate Republicans yesterday circulated a picture of Democratic senators standing in front of a Capitol Hill gas station on April 27, 2006, when they protested prices of $3.09 for a gallon of regular, next to a picture of the same sign this week, with regular at $3.85 a gallon.

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