House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined a roundtable discussion focused on how Democrats' out-of-control spending is wreaking havoc on the U.S. economy and has led to a dramatic increase in inflation. Whip Scalise highlighted how Democrats’ far-left energy policies are hurting American families, workers, and small businesses. Whip Scalise pointed out that the Biden Administration’s out-of-control spending and radical climate agenda have raised the price of food, gasoline, and electricity, making it more expensive for the average American to fuel their car and heat their home. Whip Scalise slammed President Biden for shutting down the Keystone pipeline, giving Russia its desired Nord Stream 2 pipeline, and making the United States more reliant on foreign countries for oil. Whip Scalise emphasized that House Republicans have a plan to fix President Biden’s self-made crises and bring back American energy independence which would lower American families’ energy prices.

This week, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) launched a Republican roundtable series to highlight how the American people are suffering from President Biden and Democrats' self-made crises.

Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), Budget Committee Ranking Member Jason Smith (R-Mo.), Representatives Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), French Hill (R-Ark.), Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.), and Young Kim (R-Calif.) joined Whip Scalise at the roundtable discussion. Joining the lawmakers were Kevin Hassett, former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors; Kevin Riley, President of Riley Permian; and Russ Grant, Owner of Mega Motorsports, 5G Farms/Property Owner for Burton Creek Rural Medical to discuss how House Republicans can reduce the cost of everyday goods for Americans.  
Whip Scalise’s remarks:

"As [Financial Services Ranking Member McHenry] said, this is really a reflection on what one year of big government socialist policies have done to the hardworking people that make this country so great. The biggest frustration and complaint I hear when I go back home, or when I go to other parts of the country, right now is the inflation that's hitting families. Inflation is the biggest tax on low-income families. And if you go back to candidate Biden – before you look at what one year of President Joe Biden has gotten us – candidate Biden promised that anybody making under $400,000 would not pay a dime in new taxes. And yet right off the bat, he took actions to cancel the Keystone pipeline [on] day one – eviscerating thousands of hardworking jobs. These were good jobs. People [were] making $50,000, $80,000 a year with great careers. He took those jobs away. So, they paid the price for Joe Biden's policies.

"But then you look at inflation. As Joe Biden immediately pushed an agenda to spend not billions, but trillions of dollars in new programs and proposing trillions of dollars in new taxes. Inflation started going up dramatically. We see [the] highest levels in over 40 years for inflation. But inflation is what really hits those low and middle-income families the hardest. Those were the people Joe Biden promised wouldn't be affected by his policies. And unfortunately, they're the hardest hit. They were the first to be hit, and the hardest hit by his policies. When everybody goes to the grocery store right now, they're paying dramatically more. We see bacon [is] up 20 percent. We see meat prices [are] up double digits. We see all of the basic household goods that you buy are dramatically more expensive. It makes it harder for those families to put food on the table.

"And then you look at gas prices. If they want to get in their car and go to work, over 90 percent of Americans who have cars are not driving electric vehicles, they're driving cars that you have to fill with fuel. By the way, those people that are driving the electric cars, they're not plugging those cars into trees. They're plugging them into outlets that you have to generate energy to produce. A lot of that is fossil fuels. Most communities have natural gas, maybe they have nuclear [power]. They might have coal to generate the power [and] that power costs money. That power has to come from somewhere. And when Joe Biden came in, he shut down domestic drilling on federal lands. Again, killed the Keystone pipeline [on] day one. And that's not that Joe Biden's against all pipelines because he greenlighted Russia's pipeline. 

"And this is where I think you see most people in America, very angry and frustrated by these policies because it's not about protecting the Earth because if it [is] about lowering carbon emissions, you would be producing more energy in America. But what did he do? He let Putin get a pipeline, shutting down [an] American pipeline and the workers that helped build it. Then he started begging OPEC countries to produce more oil after he made it harder to drill for oil in America. And this is where the carbon footprint really comes in.

"If you drill for America, oil has got to come from somewhere. Most of our economy, our manufacturing [are] based on fossil fuels. The standards we have in America are better than anywhere else in the world. If you don't produce that oil or natural gas in America it's getting produced in other countries. And since he loves going to Saudi Arabia and Russia and begging them to produce more oil, they increase fossil fuel emissions dramatically by producing it there. If you want to help our economy, if you want to lower the cost of gasoline, which as we know is up almost 40, 50 percent – [the] biggest tax on low-income families – make more of that energy here in America. It will not only lower costs. It'll actually lower carbon emissions around the globe.

"And finally on this, when asked what the Biden Administration's plan to increase oil production and lower gas prices is, his Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm laughed and said, 'That is hilarious.' That's what Joe Biden's Energy Secretary said about this dramatic increase in prices that's crushing families. She laughed and said it's hilarious. Well, I'll tell you, it's not hilarious. She should have been fired that day, but it shows you the fact that he kept her shows Joe Biden wants prices to be higher. He wants those taxes to be higher on those hardworking families that he promised that he would protect. He's failed them on every single front. It's why inflation is such a devastating drag on our economy and such a high tax on low and middle-income workers. We, as Republicans will fix these problems. We will continue to push for the kind of policies that will reverse this high inflation and these high gas prices."