In the Democratic response to Bush's Rose Garden news conference, Schumer said Bush "has closed his eyes and put his hands over his ears as these crises have grown.

"Now all of a sudden he's realizing the problems," Schumer said, later adding, "He has lost control of what is going on in the American economy and lost the faith of the American people."

Schumer also said Bush is "plain wrong" about how to address the situation. In particular, he said, opening the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration will do nothing to alleviate high gasoline prices, noting it will take 10 years before new oil could be produced and then it would reduce the price of gas by only a penny a gallon.

Schumer said the president cannot be both a friend to Big Oil and back lower prices.