President Obama on Saturday blasted oil companies for enjoying gangbuster profits while pump prices surged to nearly $4 a gallon this week and again urged Congress to end $4 billion a year in subsidies for the oil and gas industry.
Obama thew the volley in his weekly radio address, the latest in an effort by the White House and Congressional Democrats to tie Republicans to deeply unpopular energy companies.
“When oil companies are making huge profits and you’re struggling at the pump, and we’re scouring the federal budget for spending we can afford to do without, these tax giveaways aren’t right,” Obama said. “They aren’t smart. And we need to end them.”
Senate Democrats plan to push forward a bill as early as next week that would end subsidies to oil and gas companies over Republican objections that the legislation could cost jobs. The bill’s immediate prospects look dim because it is unlikely to win passage in the Republican-dominated House.
In their weekly Saturday radio address, Republicans said Obama’s proposal would hurt the economy and that his unwillingness to open other domestic oil sources is a factor in the high cost of gas.
“Americans are looking for leadership to tackle the rising gas prices, but President Obama has only offered a tax increase on energy and the prospect of reduced supply,” Rep. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said. “For more than two years, his administration has knowingly increased energy prices by choking off new sources of traditional American energy and smothering our economy in new energy regulations.”
In recent days, Democrats have targeted the GOP for its opposition to cutting subsidies.
After Republican House Speaker John Boehner told ABC News this week that “we gotta take a look” at tax subsidies for oil and gas companies, the president seized on the words and fired off a letter to Congress urging ”immediate action,” saying he was “heartened” by the speaker’s comments. Boehner advisers said the speaker meant to say he wanted to look at whether rolling back those subsidies would cost jobs or raise energy prices.
Playing on the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, the House Democratic campaign committee launched a Web site that features the image of Boehner’s head atop a royal gown, announcing the “sacred and lasting union between the Republican party and big oil.”
The actions by the White House and its allies come as Obama, already facing public discontent over high unemployment, is at risk of being blamed for the jump in fuel prices.
A Washington Post-ABC News poll this week showed the spike in gas costs is eating away at the president’s popularity. In a hypothetical matchup with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, the GOP frontrunner in the Post-ABC poll, Romney wins by 24 points among independents who have taken a severe financial hit because of the squeeze at the pump.
Obama acknowledged the political danger of high gas prices last week at a fund-raiser, saying, “My poll numbers go up and down depending on the latest crisis, and right now gas prices are weighing heavily on people.”
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