Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., told Newsmax's "Wake Up America" show on Thursday that many Americans are in for a "rough winter" due to soaring prices of home heating-oil, electricity, and gas.
Also on Thursday, news came that consumer price increases eased to 7.7% in October, compared to a reading of 8.2% in September, according to NBC News.
But Cline, a member of the House Budget Committee, said: "The worst inflation we're seeing right now is a spike in energy prices: gasoline, electricity, home heating oil. We're going to see a 17% spike in price there. That is coming at a time when the president is just about to end his raid on the gas reserve.
"And that is going to be a huge hit for the gas prices and the home heating bills for Americans, especially in the northeast. It's about to go through the roof."
Asked about the role inflation played in the Tuesday's midterm elections, Cline said: "Well, it was on the minds of voters in my district when they went to the polls. They were concerned, not only that prices were going up, but that their wages weren't keeping up. That's the problem.
"When you're losing the equivalent of a month of salary because wages aren't keeping up with price hikes, that's a real problem for working families. So, putting food on the table, and eggs and the price of bacon, is going through the roof. That's really hard for families. And then they have to go put gas in their cars."
Cline said Americans' concerns about the economy was responsible for Republicans' successes in the midterms.
And he warned: "It is going to be a rough winter for a lot of people and they're hoping that Congress can take some action when we come in on January to present this president with a bill that will open up domestic drilling, that will increase the supply of energy in our country and on the global markets, that will bring prices down — not just sit on a steady increase that we're seeing right now.
"So just because it's not spiking any more than it has, still doesn't mean that prices are coming down. And that's what we need to address when Republicans take office in January."
Cline took aim at Democrats whose sole focus has been on green answers.
"We're going to not only stop the flow of dollars that are flowing out to the Green New Deal and all the other programs that they [Democrats] have been funding over the past two years, but we're going to follow those dollars and hold this administration accountable because these hard-working tax payer dollars are going to programs that they [taxpayers] don't support."
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Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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