Bush rips Dems’ ‘unacceptable’ inaction on drilling

President Bush threw down the gauntlet Monday afternoon, signing a memorandum that lifts executive restrictions on oil drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) and blasting congressional Democrats for not joining him with legislation that would clear the way to ending the ban.

In a Rose Garden statement, Bush noted record-high gas prices and said Congress has “done nothing” since he called for ending the OCS drilling ban last month.

{mosads}At the time, the president cited the “two-key system" — the lifting of the executive order and the end of the congressional ban — and his willingness to turn his key in concert with Congress.

Bush said Monday that because Congress has not joined him in seeking to end the ban, he acted first.

"Failure to act is unacceptable," Bush said. "It's unacceptable to me and it's unacceptable to the American people."

Bush made it clear in his remarks that the objective in lifting the executive order was to intensify pressure on congressional Democrats to join him in an election year when the national average for gas exceeds $4 a gallon.

The president said Monday that his memo lifting the executive order "means that the only thing standing between the American people and these vast oil resources is action from the U.S. Congress."