On the recordMarch 8, 2012
I come to the floor to express my concerns on behalf of the 26 million constituents I have in Texas about the rising gas prices and the administration's failure to take reasonable and rational and practical steps to help ease the pain Americans are feeling at the gas pump. Just think about it. We know unemployment is unacceptably high and intractable, notwithstanding our private sector economy's best efforts to grow and to create jobs. So we know people are out of work. We know many of them are unable to pay their mortgages and are literally losing their homes to foreclosure. Those who are fortunate enough to have jobs are experiencing higher prices when it comes to food, when it comes to health care, notwithstanding the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, of which the President said the average family would save $2,500 in health care premiums. Last year alone, there was almost a double-digit increase in the cost of health care for most American families. Now, to add insult to injury, we have higher gas prices, which are crowding out other spending and lowering the standard of living for American families who are struggling with the slow economic recovery we are experiencing. The average price of gasoline in the United States has more than doubled since the week of the inauguration of President Obama in January 2009. In January 2009 a gallon of regular gas was $1.89. Today it averages $3.79 a gallon.…
