As millions of American families hit the road this Labor Day weekend, they were met with another stark reminder of President Obama’s failed policies: record high gas prices.   For the past three years, the Obama administration has thwarted common-sense GOP efforts to expand American energy at every turn, creating regulatory roadblocks to increased production and blocking off resource-rich areas for new exploration and development.  As a result, gas prices have doubled on the president’s watch, making it harder for American families and small businesses to make ends meet.  Here are a few headlines that underscore the challenge Americans are facing: 

• “Gas Prices Fuel Increased Food Costs” (KMIR-TV, 9/3/12)
• “US motorists swallow sky-high Labor Day weekend gas prices” (Reuters, 9/3/12)
• “U.S. gas prices at highest ever for Labor Day weekend” (Fox News, 9/3/12)
• “Gas prices at record high for this time of year” (Detroit Free Press, 9/1/12)
• “Gas prices soar ahead of holiday” (NBC News, 9/1/12) 
• “Labor Day weekend gas prices setting record high” (The Associated Press, 8/31/12)
• “AAA: Labor Day weekend gas prices the highest ever” (Orange County Register, 8/30/12)
• “Local pocketbooks have growing gas pains” (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, 8/29/12)
• “Metro gas prices continue to skyrocket, closing in on $4 a gallon” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 8/29/12)

With both the Plan for America’s Job Creators and the American Energy Initiative, the House has passed numerous bills that roll back barriers to American energy, replace the president’s plan to keep America’s offshore areas under lock and key, and promote an all-of-the-above approach to help address gas prices and create jobs.  These bills are being blocked by Senate Democrats, along with several others aimed at creating a better environment for private-sector job growth.  With gas prices hitting record highs, the president ought to call on the Democratic-controlled Senate to bring these bills to a vote so they can be enacted immediately. 

Learn more and follow the progress of the American Energy Initiative by “liking” it on Facebook, and read about the bipartisan, House-passed jobs bills being blocked by Senate Democrats on the Plan for America’s Job Creators website: jobs.gop.gov.