[img_assist|nid=2856|title=Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Kensington)|desc=Getty Images|link=none|align=right|width=158|height=191]Eighth district Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Kensington) delivered the Democratic response to President George W. Bush's weekly radio address on Saturday.

Bush used his airtime to admonish Democratically controlled Congress for not doing more to bring down high gas prices by opposing more oil drilling offshore and in the Rocky Mountain West and Alaska.

But Van Hollen attempted to tie rising gas prices to the earliest days of the Bush administration, citing Vice President Dick Cheney's "secret Energy Task Force," where "[t]hey invited the top oil company executives into the White House and told them to bring along their wish lists."

"It's really no surprise what happened next. With two oil men in the White House, gas prices have nearly tripled, and oil company profits are up over 300 percent."

The congressman also addressed the issue of domestic oil drilling head-on, saying, "Now let me be clear: Democrats support more drilling." Like earlier efforts by Democratic leaders, he emphasized the several million acres "the Big Oil companies" already have at their disposal and said that if they do develop these resources, the Democrats will push legislation to hand over the leases to those who would.

Van Hollen also repeated the line that drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge "won't put a drop of new gas on the market for at least 10 years" and that drilling itself is not the solution to lowering high gas prices.

To do this, Van Hollen said, the President needs to tap into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which he described as "the supply of oil our country has put away for a rainy day."

"Presidents have tapped this Reserve before. President Bush's father did it in the early 1990s. President Clinton did it. Even this President Bush did it after Hurricane Katrina."

According to the congressman, this solution would take only 13 days to have an effect.

Van Hollen also took a shot at Republican presidential nominee John McCain for comments a trusted advisor made to The Washington Times last week about Americans undergoing a "mental recession."

"The pain is not 'mental' and Americans are not 'whiners' as Senator McCain's top economic advisor Phil Gramm would have us believe. The pain is real, and we need immediate relief."

He concluded by chiding President Bush for his unsuccessful trip to Saudi Arabia with the purpose of getting the country to boost its oil production.

"I don't believe we should have an America that goes begging to other countries. We have our own oil stockpile set aside for a time of need. The President should free our oil now.