Rising gas prices and no clear end of the Iran war are clashing with GOP plans to win the November elections on a message of affordability.
Republican U.S. House lawmakers are huddled in Miami this week to figure out a legislative agenda and midterm messaging to spotlight lower prices and new tax breaks.
Some lawmakers at the gathering acknowledged that the spike in gas prices — up more than 60 cents from a month ago according to AAA — is painful, but said they remain confident in President Donald Trump’s promise that the conflict in Iran will be over soon and gas prices will come back down.
The morning after Trump reassured both lawmakers and markets that the war was ahead of schedule and would be over soon, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., echoed that the war is “nearly completed” and “gas prices will readjust after that.”
“The Strait of the Strait of Hormuz has been closed by the regime down there, but it will be reopened, and it will take a couple of weeks, but gas prices will come back down,” Johnson told reporters at the GOP retreat.
