Congress members fleeing DC all say the same thing about filling their gas tanks
President Donald Trump has said that rising gas prices are a small price to pay for the war in Iran. But members of Congress in both parties are warning that this could become a crisis for Republicans in the midterm election.
The Independent spoke with members of Congress this week as Speaker Mike Johnson sent the House of Representatives home early to campaign for the midterm elections after only three days in session.
“It’s a lot lately,” Rep. Aaron Bean (R-Fla.) said. The average cost for a gallon of gas as of Thursday in Florida is $4.30, according to AAA, slightly lower than the national average of just over $4.40.
And gas prices don’t discriminate by vehicle. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) uses a Jeep Wagoneer SUV and said she feels the pinch.
“It was $100, close to $100, which is expensive,” she told The Independent. In South Carolina, the average cost of gas is $4.11. Mace will not return to Congress next year after a failed bid for governor. But she had a word of caution for her colleagues.
“The No. 1 issue, everybody knows, is cost of living, and neither party has addressed it,” she said. “I mean, they're full of s**t. They're bullsh**ing people. They're lying to the electorate about what they can do.”
She also panned Trump’s promise to give every American adult citizen a $5,000 check if Republicans hold the majority.
On the other end of the spectrum, Democratic Rep. Maxine Dexter of Oregon said she pays significantly more than she did in the beginning of the year.
“I think it was about $45 and I’ve got a [gas-electric hybrid] Prius,” Dexter told The Independent.
The price of gas has spiked ever since Trump began the war in Iran in late February. In response, the Iranian regime closed off the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil supply passes. Fighting between Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen against Saudi Arabia also caused the price of fuel to spike.
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) said that it cost him $69 to fill up his tank last time.
"We got a war going, I don't blame the president for that,” he told The Independent. “He does need to explain to the American people."
Norman attempted to run for the Republican nomination for governor like Mace, but lost. He then tried to challenge Sen. Darline Graham (R-S.C.) for the Republican nominate to replace her brother, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, in the Senate but lost.
Some Republicans dodged the question. Rep. Nick LaLota of Long Island dodged when asked, as did Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia, a member of the hardline House Freedom Caucus.
President Donald Trump has been more blunt in his assessment.
“You have a little higher,” he told a crowd in North Carolina on Wednesday. “It’s a very inexpensive price to pay for what we’ve done. Remember that.”
House Speaker Johnson talked at his press conference about how he knows gas is still too expensive.
“We're going to acknowledge obviously gas prices are too high right now, diesel prices are too high,” he said on Tuesday. The average price of diesel is currently $6.40 as of Thursday according to AAA.
Democrats were brutal in their assessments.
“So much that I couldn’t pay in cash, I had to put it on a credit card,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) told The Independent. McGovern said Trump is out of touch about the cost of gas.
“He should talk to his limo driver,” he said.
Chris DeLuzio (D-Penn.) represents western Pennsylvania and talked about the cost in places like Beaver County, where Trump is popular.
“Well it’s now an average of about $4.60 or so a gallon in Beaver and Allegheny County,” he told The Independent.
