June 20 (Bloomberg) -- House Republican Leader John Boehner called on President Barack Obama to push for an embargo of gasoline sales to Iran and take “a harder position” on that country’s suppression of political dissent.

U.S. leadership in organizing an international “block” on sales of “refined oil products” to Iran would “have an immediate impact on this regime’s horrible record” of not “dealing with their people in a fair and open way” as it tries to curb protests against the vote that re-elected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Boehner said.

Obama needs “to take real, strong action, make it clear he’s not going to sit down with the Iranians until they begin to treat their people respectfully and that they’re willing to stop their nuclear programs,” Boehner said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital With Al Hunt,” airing this weekend.

The United Arab Emirates supplied about three-fourths of Iran’s gasoline last year, Etemade Meli newspaper reported in April. India, Turkey, the Netherlands and France were among its other suppliers.

Boehner also criticized Obama’s efforts to seek direct diplomatic talks with Iran in a bid to get the nation to end its effort to build nuclear weapons.

“I don’t know how you have a conversation with someone who’s sworn to kill you,” Boehner said. “What’s the basis for a conversation?”

Financial Regulation

Boehner, 59, said the president’s plan for new regulations on the financial industry would give too much power to the Federal Reserve, while predicting Congress will pass a version of Obama’s proposal.

The Ohio lawmaker said many of his Republican and some Democratic colleagues in Congress “are concerned” about “far too much discretion given to” the Fed in the president’s proposal.

Obama’s plan would vest the Fed with new powers to regulate the largest banks in response to what he termed “an absence of oversight” that “engendered systematic, and systemic, abuse.”

Boehner also objected that “there’s nothing in” Obama’s plan “that ends the bailout” of financially troubled banks and financial firms.

Money that banks repaid to the Troubled Asset Relief Program should go back into general-purpose government funds because “we don’t need to have a $70 billion slush fund down at the Treasury,” he said.

Still, Boehner said “Congress needs to look at the regulatory structure” for the financial industry. And he said “something will pass this year.”

Health Care

On overhauling the U.S. health-care system, Boehner rejected a new proposal offered by a bipartisan group of former senators that would require people to buy health insurance and leave public funding of that program to the states.

“There are some people who are well-to-do who don’t want to have health insurance,” Boehner said. “I don’t know that we ought to mandate” they buy it.

Like Democratic plans being drafted in Congress, the proposal by former Senate Republican Leaders Howard Baker of Tennessee and Bob Dole of Kansas and former Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, among others, is too costly, Boehner said.

Republicans are drafting an alternate plan to “make the current system work better for those who can’t get insurance” by helping people who “don’t qualify for government programs” and still “don’t have the money to afford health insurance,” he said.

House Resolution

Boehner proposed the gasoline embargo on Iran before the House voted 405-1 yesterday to approve a Republican-backed resolution condemning Iran’s crackdown on protests triggered by the government’s announcement that Ahmadinejad won re-election. The Senate passed the same resolution unanimously later in the day.

Iran has “to bring most of their gasoline, import it into their country,” he said in explaining his embargo proposal.

Although Iran is the second-largest oil producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, its refineries are unable to keep up with demand for gasoline, according the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Iran spent about $6 billion on gasoline imports in 2007, according to the agency’s Web site.

“We need to send a very strong message to the Iranians that we’re not going to allow them to treat their people this way” nor “allow them to become a nuclear power,” Boehner also said.

Obama Defender

Obama’s approach to the Iranian election dispute has been criticized by other Republicans, including Arizona Senator John McCain. The president’s defenders include Republican Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, a former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“For us to become heavily involved in the election at this point is to give the clergy” who run Iran “an opportunity to have an enemy and to use us, really, to retain their power,” Lugar said June 16 on CBS.

Asked about Lugar’s view, Boehner said, “Well, I’ve got my doubts about that.”

Boehner declined to predict whether Republicans next year would match the average gain of 19 House seats made by the opposition party over the last 30 years in mid-term congressional elections.

“I think we’re going to gain seats,” though “it’s way too early to determine how many,” Boehner said.

To contact the reporters on this story: James Rowley in Washington at jarowley@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 20, 2009 00:01 EDT