Speaker Pelosi addresses gas prices, veterans

Speaker Pelosi held a press conference today to discuss the current gas price crisis. Speaker Pelosi was insistent that work is being done to address the issue citing many experiences from ordinary Americans and their gas tribulations. She recounted stories from citizens that not only are having trouble finding work near home, but the fact that they then have to drive farther to find work making there income become seemingly non-existent factoring in the gas costs to travel to and from work.

The Speaker also addressed strengthening GI programs. She was adamant about welcoming our veterans home and having appropriate health care and educational programs available to them.

Leader Hoyer holds weekly pen and pad session

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) today held his weekly pen and pad session. During the session, Hoyer both reflected upon the progress made by the House of Representatives this week as well as the future bills they are hoping to pass.

Hoyer criticized the “exploding” job market and noted that “whether our economy is in recession or on the brink of it” the financial problems facing our nation need to be quickly corrected. Leader Hoyer said that the passage of President Bush’s stimulus package was “a good first step” to saving the economy, but stressed that more still needs to be done to help those losing homes and spending the money they have received from the package on high gas prices.

Hoyer said that we have to become less dependent on foreign nations who are “holding us hostage” and making record setting profits from oil sales, and that legislation to move our country toward better energy usage is necessary to ensuring future economic prosperity.

Hoyer noted that the surge in Iraq has “not brought about the political reconciliation” that the Iraqi’s need, and that we have to take away government subsidies from oil companies to help taxpayers. Hoyer said that tax money that should be spent on things such as rebuilding infrastructure (in order to do things like create jobs), has been wasted on funding for oil companies.

Hoyer said that presidential candidate Barack Obama’s comments regarding his controversial Reverend, Jeremiah Wright, were “forthright and decisive.” Leader Hoyer explained that voters should be more concerned with putting a democrat in office than the incendiary comments of a troublemaking pastor.

Pelosi rants about high oil prices, tells kids being speaker is “fabulous”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) held a briefing to speak with children and their parents on “Take Your Kid to Work Day,” but did not pass on an opportunity to allege President Bush of not doing enough to lower high gas prices beforehand.

Pelosi called on the President to suspend purchases of oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), which she said could lower gas prices from anywhere between 5 to 24 cents a gallon. Speaker Pelosi said that more affordable gas prices would provide our economy with the “critical” first step it needs to rebuild our dreary financial situation.

Watching the Speaker interact with the children at the conference was both humorous and intriguing. Asking simplistic questions, as well as questions that their reporter parents wrote down for them to ask, the children forced Pelosi to discuss everything from her favorite baseball team (she said the San Francisco Giants) to how she would rate our economy on a scale of one to ten (she said, as an “optimist”, it was about a three).

One of the children asked Pelosi who the next President should be and she said “a Democrat.” She told the children that meeting the Pope last week was “thrilling and intellectually challenging” and that freedom of the press was one of the most important aspects of American democracy.