The nation's energy woes could be solved in the states of Texas and Oklahoma alone, rather than the administration seeking oil from sources like Saudi Arabia and Russia, Rep. Markwayne Mullin told Newsmax on Monday.
"Texas and Oklahoma combined could do away completely with Saudi Arabia's and Russia's oil if they would just let us go to work," the Oklahoma Republican said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America. "We will not bring down inflation if we continue to have high energy costs, because energy is the backbone of our economy, you can't have cheap and reliable products if you don't have reliable and affordable energy."
Inflation is hitting Oklahoma particularly hard, as the state has a 9.9% inflation rate, compared to the nationwide 8.6% rate, and the average household income in the state is $40,000 a year, said Mullin.
"The average Oklahoman, it's costing them $5,200 more per year to live this year than it did last year, and we continue to see the prices going up," said Mullin. "Oklahoma could be part of the solution instead of President [Joe] Biden, and his administration flying to Saudi Arabia and begging OPEC, a cartel, to produce more oil and instead of them asking Venezuela to start normalizing relationships again, and instead of trying to buddy up with Iran. All we have to do is go to work right here inside Oklahoma, and we can solve a lot of the inflation issue because you can't bring down inflation with high energy costs."
Biden, show host Rob Finnerty commented, said on Friday that he wouldn't be meeting one-on-one with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, but members of his administration said on Sunday the meeting will occur, and Mullin commented that he doesn't know if Biden lied "because he may not have remembered" or wasn't briefed.
"Sometimes I don't think they tell them until the day of, or before he walks up, because someone else is running that White House," said Mullin. "Joe Biden is not running that White House and the reason why they're going to Saudi Arabia is because they know without a question that we can't eliminate fossil fuels in this country."
However, the administration is "bowing down to this woke agenda of the socialist Democrats" and doesn't want to bring back the United States' energy production because "they're afraid that they're going to divide the AOC [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.] crowd," Mullin added. "Instead, the answer is 'let's go to the cartel, to Saudi Arabia, and see what they do."
The administration, he continued, is acting like California, which "has eliminated the production and the ability to retrieve crude oil out of the ground."
"They're bringing that same policy [to the country]," Mullin said. "That's why you have Kamala Harris as VP, and she's bringing these same policies that have been so effective in California and the rest of the United States and affecting Oklahoma the most. And it shouldn't happen when we could solve the problem."
The congressman, who is seeking nomination for the U.S. Senate, with the Oklahoma primary set for next week, said that while former President Donald Trump hasn't endorsed anyone yet, he'd welcome the backing.
Mullin added that he and Trump had a "really good relationship" before and after the former president was in the White House.
"In Oklahoma, about everybody is friends with President Trump, or they want to be friends with him," he said, adding that his campaign is fighting for the whole country.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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