Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), chairman of the Senate Republicans, slammed Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm during an interview on Sunday after she burst out laughing last week when she was asked about increasing oil production in the U.S. to alleviate rising gas prices.

“That is hilarious,” Granholm said last week as she laughed in response to a question about what her plan was to increase oil production in the U.S. “As you know, of course, oil is a global market. It is controlled by a cartel. That cartel is called OPEC, and they made a decision yesterday that they were not going to increase beyond what they were already planning.”

Barrasso initially responded to Granholm’s controversial response by calling it “disgraceful,” adding, “there’s nothing funny about spiking gas prices hurting American families.”

Barrasso followed up on that tweet with remarks he made during an interview on Sunday with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures.”

“It’s no laughing matter when people are suffering,” Barrasso said. “And some have to decide whether this winter they’re going to be able to eat or heat their homes with natural gas prices at a seven year high, gas at the pump at a seven year high.”

WATCH:

TRANSCRIPT:

MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX NEWS HOST: Joining me right now to tell us exactly what is in that infrastructure bill and the fate of the Biden economic agenda is Wyoming senator, a member of GOP Senate leadership, John Barrasso. Senator, it’s great to have you this morning. Thanks so much for being here.

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO (R-WY): Thank you, Maria.

BARTIROMO: Assess what we’re seeing right now, Senator. We just saw this red wave; it doesn’t feel like your colleagues on the Left are believing it. They’re still pushing through their larger spending plan. And your colleagues even in the GOP pass that infrastructure plan. Assess the situation for us.

BARRASSO: Well, first, thanks, Maria. It was a rejection election. Voters overwhelmingly across the country rejected these radical policies of the Democrats, which have caused inflation, rising prices, open borders, and now they want to raise taxes even higher. You would think this would be a wake up call for the Democrats, but they’re still sleepwalking like zombies on this road to socialism. And they’ve bloated up their other bill, the $4 trillion reckless tax and spending bill, almost thumbing their noses at the voters who said stop, and the Democrats know this is going to make taxes go up. It’s going to make the debt go up. It’s going to make prices go up, and Maria, people across the country are fed up.

BARTIROMO: Yeah, but do your Republican colleagues get that, Senator? You voted no on the infrastructure package, but 13 of your colleagues voted yes. And that pretty much opens the door for this larger social spending plan. I’m going to put on the screen your colleagues who voted yes for this infrastructure plan. Why did you vote no?

BARRASSO: Well, I voted no for a couple of reasons. One is I believe it’s going to add hundreds of billions of dollars to the debt and deficit. And there were energy parts of that bill that I think are going to make energy more expensive, and at the same time, make our grid less reliable. Now, the concern is that they have for months linked these two bills together. That’s been very clear, so I couldn’t support it. What we need to do now is drive a stake through the heart of this $4 trillion tax and spending bill, and to do that we’re going to need help with Joe Manchin and from Sinema because the Democrats just seem to be addicted to spending and taxing.

BARTIROMO: Yeah, I want to get into that Build Back Better plan in a moment because we have a list of what’s in it. But first, let’s stay on energy for a moment, because it is just beyond me why your colleagues would vote yes on infrastructure and enable this larger spending package to move forward. We know that there was not a penny in there for the border wall. The administration is mocking the United States by making believe there is not a crisis at the border. And now talking about paying $450,000 per migrant. Just the way Jennifer Granholm mocked the United States by laughing over energy prices. That is our energy secretary, and she joined Bloomberg Television this week. Let’s take a look at that clip right here and get your reaction since you are so concerned about energy. Watch this.

[START VIDEO]

BLOOMBERG TV HOST: In Sturgis Michigan, it is $2.89 a gallon. I guess that’s better than in California. What is the Granholm plan to increase oil production in America?

JENNIFER GRANHOLM, ENERGY SECRETARY: Ha. Ha. Ha. That is hilarious.

[END VIDEO]

BARRASSO: It’s no laughing–

BARTIROMO: Senator, do you think that’s hilarious?

BARRASSO: No, it’s no laughing matter when people are suffering. And some have to decide whether this winter they’re going to be able to eat or heat their homes with natural gas prices at a seven year high, gas at the pump at a seven year high. And then Joe Biden and large entourage of Democrats from the House and the Senate and his cabinet all jetting off to Europe to a climate conference. And for what purpose? What did he do there? He pledged allegiance to the flag of the United Nations instead of to the flag of the United States. He basically apologized for America, he begged OPEC and Putin to create more energy, to make more energy. And he promised to raise energy prices in America. We know why prices are high. Biden, day number one, killed the Keystone XL Pipeline. He’s blocked oil and gas exploration leasing opportunities in the Rocky Mountain West, big impact in my home state of Wyoming, shut down Alaska energy to the point that today we’re using more oil from Russia than we are from Alaska. And these guys are climate hypocrites. I mean, their carbon footprint for going to this conference was so much larger than Vladimir Putin or President Xi’s of China because they stayed home. The American people deserve accountability of how much taxpayer dollars we as taxpayers paid for this effort of all of these liberal Democrats to head to Europe on the taxpayer dime.

BARTIROMO: Well, you were demanding that accountability last week. I saw your tweets; you wanted to know how much this trip cost. We saw the 85-vehicle motorcade that Biden had driving through Italy before he got to Glasgow. Did you ever get your answer in terms of how much it cost?

BARRASSO: Not yet. We know this conference is the most expensive climate conference in history. And we’re going to continue to bang on this administration and to get and demand answers.

BARTIROMO: So senator, there is a real disregard for taxpayer money in this administration. We see that over and over again with the $85 billion in weapons left on the ground in Afghanistan, the $100 million in materials to build a wall left in Texas, and now the flight, secretly flying migrants to various secret airports, private airports across the country, and now this plan to pay $450,000 per migrant. What are you going to do about it? Now they want to also spend all of this money and raise our taxes to pay for all of their wishes.

BARRASSO: Well, you’re absolutely right, because they bloated up their tax and spending spree now to $4 trillion. Maria, I have a seven page summary, single space, small type of slush fund after slush fund, no respect, as you point out for taxpayer dollars. So what are they going to do? Well, they’re going to supersize the IRS, an army of IRS agents to audit more people. The other day on the air, you talked about how people try to save money in the nest egg. This Biden administration, the Democrats, they want the eggs out of your nest, they have five different programs in here to give money to illegal immigrants, they, you can go page by page, item and item, wasteful spending and regulations that are going to drive up the cost of energy for American families through the winter and into next year. People are facing more inflation. I think we’re going to face the most expensive Christmas ever. And that’s if you can even get the gifts to arrive as a result of the gross mismanagement by this administration. No respect for taxpayers’ money.

BARTIROMO: Absolutely. So we’re looking at some of their programs in this Build Back Better plan. And we know that it’s half a trillion dollars in climate initiatives and money for illegal migrants and felons eligible for $45,000 a year in government programs here. You’re saying that since she got a vote on the infrastructure package, she’s been fattening up the Build Back Better plan, the spending plan? I know that they want to get something done after Veterans Day. Is that right? And tell me how the larger social spending plan has changed in the last week?

BARRASSO: Well, they actually changed it right after this rejection election that occurred Tuesday; they, they basically are in your face saying, we know this is it, Nancy Pelosi is going to be done as speaker, the squad has come out and said, ‘We know we’re gonna lose the majority in 2022. We don’t care. We’re going to go as far as we can to the radical Left until you get a chance in the election of 2022 to throw us out.’ These are the sorts of things that they’re proposing and moving forward. So they started bloating this up from when they were at $1.75 [trillion], now they’re over $4 trillion, that happened Tuesday, and they want to come back before Thanksgiving, and try to cram this through, at least through the House. It will then have to come to the Senate, and we’re going to do everything we can to stop it dead in its tracks.

BARTIROMO: Senator, do you think Joe Manchin will go along with it? They need all 50 Democrats. Will Joe Manchin do it? Will he agree to this?

BARRASSO: I believe he will not. I believe Senator Sinema will not as well. They’re going to have a huge impact on how this ultimately turns out. I’m going to do everything I can do to stop it, period.

BARTIROMO: All right. We will leave it there. Senator, it’s great to see you this morning. Thanks so much for all of that and for your leadership. Senator John Barrasso.

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Source: Dailywire

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