PONTE VEDRA, Florida — The American people are not buying President Biden’s excuses as he blames skyrocketing gas prices on Russian President Vladimir Putin and on oil and gas companies, Rep. Roger Williams (R-TX) told Breitbart News during an exclusive interview at the 2022 U.S. House Republican Issues Conference.
“In Texas we know the answer because we’re the gas and oil state,” Williams began, noting that President Biden quashed American energy independence “from day one.”
“The fact of the matter is, when he shut down Keystone Pipeline, he talks about green energy, he talks about electric vehicles, this is not good. It’s not going to happen and we have to be able to — all energy. I’m for all energy. I want competition,” he explained.
“I don’t want to pick winners and losers. Again: Let the consumer decide. But he’s out there, he needs to take the blame for it because he did it from day one and people know it’s not Putin,” Williams stressed.
“People know it’s not anything but the Biden administration and it gets back to the whole thing. This economy that we see right now and all the things in the world, it didn’t have to happen,” he said, explaining that Biden “could have continued to make us dominate in energy where we were exporting more than importing.”
“We were the dominant player. We need to come up with a plan with Canada, United States, and Mexico and run the world in an energy standpoint, but he won’t want to do that. He just plays defense and then he goes and talks to our enemies about supplying us with energy and they won’t even talk to him,” Williams said, deeming it “embarrassing.”
“The energy sector and all the things we have — nuclear and so forth — have got be able to thrive and compete and that will get our country going again… It has to start today,” he added.
Williams, who serves as the Vice Ranking Chairman of the House Small Business Committee, also spoke about the effects of Biden’s economy, particularly on small business owners.
“Fortunately, we’re still under the Trump tax cuts which is still driving the economy really pretty good. But the problem is, is this administration has not done anything for Main Street. They continue to talk about raising taxes. The supply chain is a disaster. I’m in the automobile business, I’m a car dealer, so I can tell you all about supply chain and so the fact of the matter is, what you have to do to help Main Street is we’ve got to curb inflation,” he said, explaining that the administration must stop printing and borrowing money.
The main way we can begin to get back to that place, he said, is starting up the Keystone Pipeline and “all other industry and be the dominant player in industry and get cash flow going again,” also mentioning the “five interest rate hikes that the Fed has already talked about.”
“So it’s not a good position to be in. At the end of the day I can tell you, being 51 years in business, still employing over hundreds of people back in Texas, we need to cut regulations and we need to cut taxes again and let businesses compete and let the consumer decide who’s winners and losers and get on with it,” the Republican said. “It’s not going to happen overnight, but we have to have a day we start and I think it will start in November when we get the House back.”
When asked what three issues Republicans need to focus on to get the House back, he listed the economy, border, and self-respect within the world “where our enemies fear us and friends trust us.”
“We’ve lost that,” he added.