A failed Senate vote on Tuesday for the Keystone XL oil pipeline is not the last word on a project that Americans support — and Republicans in Congress plan to keep reminding Democrats and the White House that the pipeline is a national priority, Rep. Mike Kelly told
Newsmax TV on Wednesday.
"The president will use [Keystone] as a bargaining chip because that's all he has left in his bag right now," the Pennsylvania Republican told "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner. "But we still have the public on our side. The outrage from the American people will drive this one across the finish line."
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For now, President Barack Obama and his Democratic Senate allies get to keep plugging their ears against the message that voters sent on Nov. 4 in delivering the Senate to Republicans , said Kelly.
"It's pretty much self-evident what's going on right now," said Kelly, a Ways and Means Committee member who begins his third House term in January. "When I hear the sound bites — when I hear the things that the senators are saying they couldn't vote for [with Keystone], they must be tone-deaf."
"This is something that almost everybody universally agrees needs to be done: an $8 billion private-sector [project] to create 42,000 jobs, to give us an advantage in the world's energy market," said Kelly.
"To say, 'No, we're going to hold up on this for just a little bit longer.' Six years? Six years? Are you kidding me?" he said.
"So, the American people have grown tired of this administration's mantra. They've grown tired of a worn-out message that doesn't play very well anymore. They understand that our key job is getting America back to work, making America self-sufficient when it comes to energy, making us the biggest exporter of energy in the world.
"That would change completely our geopolitical relationships all over the world and, my goodness, nothing could be more plain than the nose on your face," said Kelly.
He said that for all the Democratic complaints of late about "an obstructionist Congress" blocking Obama, the only obstructionism in Tuesday's vote against Keystone "was in the Senate — and it's in the White House."
The president hasn't ruled out approving the Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline, but congressional critics suspect he is content to kill it slowly — with endless study and review — rather than take a position.
"This is a president that after six years — I mean, the fact to me that he still has any approval rating that's even measurable is to me amazing," said Kelly.
"In a world that's looking for leadership, and a country that's looking for leadership, we're looking for stronger people that don't play games, that get people back to work," said Kelly. "This is a president that has fallen far, far short of what he was billed as."
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