Source: United States Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND)
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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) joined Larry Kudlow on Fox Business to discuss the Biden Administration’s approach to energy policy, specifically the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), as well as willingness in Congress to negotiate spending cuts and raise the debt limit. Excerpts and full video are below.
On SPR, Oil Imports from Venezuela:
“If the President and his Secretary of Energy were serious about bringing down prices by increasing the reserves, they would increase the incentives… which really aren’t incentives at all, other than just ‘get out of the way and let the entrepreneurs and the innovators drill for and produce more of our clean oil in our Bakken and shale plays around the country.’ […] We have as a result of [President] Joe Biden – not just his policies, but his urging – one of our major companies drilling for and producing sour crude oil in Venezuela for our Gulf Coast refiners, instead of taking it from our friends in Canada by approving the Keystone XL Pipeline.”
On the Debt Limit, Spending Cut Negotiations:
“People know Democrats – with just Democratic votes – added to this incredible debt and deficit we’re experiencing right now. They did it all by themselves. So to somehow suggest they don’t have to negotiate a solution to this problem is ridiculous on its face. […] Let’s hear from [Secretary of the Treasury] Janet Yellen: What are the top five or 10 or 20 things you would fund if we only had 80 percent of the revenue coming in compared to the outlays?”
“The mandatory side of the ledger is now over two-thirds of spending. We can’t just tinker around the edges of the discretionary budget, especially when half of that is national defense, the one legitimate thing the federal government is supposed to be doing.“