Romney: Fire Obama's "gas hike trio"

AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

(CBS News) COLLINSVILLE, Ill. - Mitt Romney is calling on President Obama to fire his administration's "gas hike trio," three top Cabinet members whom Romney accuses of being hired to help "skyrocket" gasoline prices.

Obama has mocked the idea that he wants gas prices to rise, saying at a news conference earlier this month: "Do you think the president of the United States, going into re-election, wants higher gas prices?"

But Romney said on Saturday that Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson were intended to help implement then-candidate Obama's strategy to make "energy prices go up a lot."

But now that "the president has endured what we might call an election-year conversion" and wants to lower energy costs, Romney continued at a town hall meeting here, "I think it's time for him to fire his gas-hike trio."

Another option, the former Massachusetts governor suggested, is for the three officials to quit.

"They really ought to turn in their resignations," he told the crowd of over 300 at the Gateway Center. "They were hired to raise the cost of gasoline, now the president says he wants to lower it. Given that's the new direction, their expertise is not in lowering the price of gasoline; their expertise is in raising it. So if I were them I'd simply turn in my resignation. That's what they should do, and if they don't he should fire them."

The attack signals a choice by Romney to go after what could be an enormous liability for Obama in the general election: pain at the pump. But heading into Tuesday's GOP primary in Illinois, which could play kingmaker following a messy election season marked by an increasingly split delegate count, Romney also set his sights on reassuring a Republican base wondering why he can't lock up the nomination.

"There are four people running for president in our party right now," Romney said. "I will support whoever our nominee is. I happen to believe I'm the guy with by far the best chance of beating [Obama]. And you know, we got behind John McCain last time -- he lost 19 states in the primary process. But when the process was over, we got behind him, we worked for him, the various candidates did, we helped his effort, the party came together."

Taking questions from the crowd, Romney faced one critic eager to swipe at his Achilles heel. Asked about having "$50 million invested in Goldman Sachs," Romney argued that he didn't have investments "anywhere near the nature you're speaking of."

"And I can assure you, I am not in this race to make money; I've already made enough," he continued. "I've worked for the last 10 years ? without taking a salary. I'm not embarrassed about being successful, but I'm embarrassed for people who think there's something wrong with that."

[magik1369]

Romney is inauthentic, phony, and a bold faced liar. This is why neither he nor Santorum will ever be POTUS. Anyone with an IQ above a slug knows that the republicans created the Great Recession and that the republicans rushed to war on false intelligence and put this country into Debt and Deficit. Republicans are finished. Obama will beat any of these republican chumps.

[tudognight]

Damn the neo cons are here in force with selective memory. The whole Bush administration was full of fuel price increases. California saw the Texas energy kids shut down plants to raise electric prices...They got caught and bragged about ripping off the state. Too bad Enron screwed them too and they lost everything...including their investments for retirement. As for jobs, Bush and the Republicans only created high paying military jobs....the Auto industry crashed...the Banking industry crashed. Kind of hard to move ahead with two wars raging and the economy crashing. We are just starting to come out of it. We do not need to return to slash and burn profit taking by the 1%. We do not need any more being trickled or pooped on. Unless you are a mushroom like the Neo Cons here, these things do not allow you to grow.

[Paul_I]

After Romney bombs Iran, I wonder if he will accept personal responsibility for the resulting exorbitantly higher gas prices, or will he accept that there are other influences on gas prices besides administration policies?

[tsigili]

Fire Obama and everyone who works for him, including all of the Dems in the House and Senate, up for re-election.

[BlameRepublicanz]

the price of oil is going up because of WORLDWIDE FEAR OF WAR WITH IRAN!!!

Hmmmm...who are the guys who have been fear mongering about war with Iran? Who are the guys saying that we should drop bombs on their nuclear facilities? Who are the people saying that Obama is "weak" on Iran because he wants to pursue all options of diplomacy first?

THAT WOULD BE THE HATE-FILLED, IRRATIONAL GOP CANDIDATES, FOLKS!

[BlameRepublicanz]

Hahahaha there actually conservative on here and elsewhere saying that "OBAMA WANTS HIGH HAS PRICES"

Wait a minute, I thought he was the campaigner in chief? I thought the only thing he cares about is being re-elected? Would high gas prices help him get re-elected?

The tea baggers can't even keep their criticisms straight anymore!

[ProgressNow]

"the president has endured what we might call an election-year conversion"
-----

Oh yes...and Mittens would know ALLLLLLLL about election-year conversions!!!!

"I was pro-choice before I was pro-life"

"I was pro-gay before I was anti-gay."

"I was pro-union before I was anti-union."

"I was against bailouts before I was pro-bailouts"

Mitt Romney...most liberal Republican ever!!!!!!!!

[RobAla]

Gas is projected to hit record highs this summer, but his administration does not seem to care.

"Politico: By ALEX GUILLEN | 2/28/12 6:37 PM EST
The Energy Department isn't working to lower gasoline prices directly, Secretary Steven Chu said Tuesday after a Republican lawmaker scolded him for his now-infamous 2008 comment that gas prices in the U.S. should be as high as in Europe.
Instead, DOE is working to promote alternatives such as biofuels and electric vehicles, Chu told House appropriators during a hearing on DOE's budget."

If Americans want to know why we are going to be stuck with massive oil price increases this summer, we have to look no farther than President Obama's administration. High gas prices don't just slam people at the pump, every product that is transported by fossil fuel will have to include the increased transportation cost in the prices in the stores. This will hit the poor and middle income Americans very hard, and it will hurt those on fixed incomes (the elderly) the worst. Not only that, vacations will be cut - nailing the crap out of states that depend on tourism. High gas prices will cut the legs out from under the small amount of recovery that we have experienced.

In an interview Barrack Obama did with the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board very early in the presidential campaign, January 2008 - he said the following:

"Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Coal-powered plants, you know, natural gas, you name it, whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers."

Does this sound like someone who is concerned with Americans suffering under the weight of high energy costs? NO. President Obama is a radical extremist with a consuming ideology that outweighs any concern that he has for suffering Americans. He has a dreamed up personal "vision" that he wants for America, and he does not care who gets hurt - as long as he can bring his own personal vision to pass. Does this sound like a President who really cares about the American people? NO.

We need a practical leader, with proven practical solutions, to turn this nation around economically. I am SO ready for a new President - one that cares to help the American people with proven solutions.

[BOJOKER-Obama_]

Obama is trying to force us into worthless Volts and other over priced hybrids to pay back the Green Energy companies that own him because of the money they contributed to his 2008 presidential campaign and now for 2012.
The paybacks and pay offs will begin after he is tossed out of office in Nov and he starts receiving millions in speaking fees from the Green Energy speaking tours.

[BlameRepublicanz]

another day without a job for RobAla...another day spent copying and pasting his propaganda

[toosmart4u]

Romney will say anything for a vote, this is just more pandering to an ignorant GOP electorate.

[kenstan]

The President has no control of gas prices last time gas was over 4.00 a gal Bush was in office. If Romney gets into office he can't do any thing either.

[star93022]

Here is Newt Gringrich says on his website: Newt2012.org
Newt's American Energy Plan:
1. Remove bureaucratic and legal obstacles to responsible oil and natural gas development in the United States, offshore and on land.
2. End the ban on oil shale development in the American West, where we have three times the amount of oil as Saudi Arabia.
3. Give coastal states federal royalty revenue sharing to give them an incentive to allow offshore development.
4. Reduce frivolous lawsuits that hold up energy production by enacting loser pays laws to force the losers in an environmental lawsuit to pay all legal costs for the other side.
5. Finance cleaner energy research and projects with new oil and gas royalties.
6. Replace the Environmental Protection Agency, which has become a job-killing regulatory engine of higher energy prices, with an Environmental Solutions Agency that would use incentives and work cooperatively with local government and industry to achieve better environmental outcomes while considering the impact of federal environmental policies on job creation and the cost of energy.