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Republican Congressman Chip Roy blasted both Democrats and Republicans in a floor speech pointing out that both parties have it wrong when it comes to spending and argued that banning Russian oil imports is pointless if the Biden administration doesn’t open up oil production at home.
"It’s not good enough to ban Russian oil if we’re not going to open up American oil and gas," the Texas Republican said on the House floor Tuesday in an impassioned speech that slammed both Democrats and Republicans. "All we’re going to do is provide more money to Venezuela, more money to Saudis, more money to Iran, but yet that’s being touted as a victory."
WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 22: Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
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"Some of my colleagues on this side of the aisle are saying ok good, oh this is great," Roy continued. "But my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, they don’t want any oil. They don’t mind your gas being $4, $7, $10 a gallon. Don’t get played. But my colleagues on this side of the aisle are going to get played."
Roy went on to explain that both parties are not addressing issues that the American people want to see fixed simply by spending money in the omnibus spending bill that is currently being debated.
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"Everybody back home is saying, what are you going to do to stop vaccine mandates?" Roy said. "Nothing. What are you going to do to secure the border? My colleagues on this side of the aisle say oh don’t worry we’re going to give you more money for ICE more money for border patrol. But you know what that does? It makes it worse because you’re funding the processing of people at our border because that’s all the border patrol and ICE are doing."
Roy explained that his Republican colleagues will send taxpayer dollars to ICE and border patrol while claiming to have done something to address the border crisis.
"It ain’t true," Roy said. "It’s going to make it worse and anybody who’s been to the border, anybody who talks to border patrol, anybody who talks to ICE knows that’s true."
Roy, speaking about the spending bill, said that all both parties are engaging in "backroom deal making" without any debate while waiting for "someone to drop a bill on the floor of the house and then come down and vote yes or no."
"That is a disgusting display by both sides of this body," Roy continued. "We ought to have a full and open debate on the floor of the House about what we’re doing in sending arms to Ukraine, how much we’re spending, what it means for our involvement, what it means for NATO, what it means for stopping Putin, and stop spending money we don’t have. Stop funding tyranny. Stop forcing Americans to get a jab or lose their job. Stop leaving the border wide open. Stop selling the American people a bill of goods, and I'm looking directly at my party when I say that."
President Biden on Tuesday announced a ban on all imports of Russian oil, gas and energy to the United States, targeting "the main artery" of Russia’s economy amid President Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine.
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Politicians and pundits on both sides of the aisle have said the move, which members of both parties have called on the Biden administration to make since the invasion into Ukraine began two weeks ago, should be accompanied by the easing of oil and gas drilling restrictions in the United States.
UNITED STATES - MAY 18: Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, speaks during the House Judiciary Committee markup of the Elder Abuse Protection Act, the Criminal Judicial Administration Act, and other amendments in Rayburn Building on Tuesday, May 18, 2021. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc)
"The United States imports nearly 600,000 barrels of oil a day from Russia—an amount that could have been made up for by the more than 800,000 barrels of oil the Keystone XL pipeline is capable of delivering each day if the Biden administration hadn’t stood in the way," Republican Sen. Tim Scott wrote on Fox News last week. "As Vladimir Putin conducts his evil and unprovoked attack on Ukraine, now more than ever, we must cut off our energy dependence on Russia while turning up our energy production here at home."
