It’s a given that the Democrats are in trouble in the 2022 midterms. But President Joe Biden might also be on his way out. Desperate Democrats are sending signals they’d be happy if he didn’t run again in 2024, and might be even happier if he left before that, and took Vice President Kamala Harris with him. Why? A look at his disastrous bumbling on energy tells you all you need to know.
For those around during the 1970s, the gold standard for political ineptitude has always been President Jimmy Carter. Forty-three years ago this month, Carter gave his now-infamous “Address To The Nation” on energy policy.
It was a disaster, and wrong on all counts when it came to both basic economics and energy.
Some of his most memorable quotes, courtesy of the Foundation for Economic Education:
- “The oil and natural gas we rely on for 75% of our energy are running out.”
- “We can’t substantially increase our domestic production …”
- “Within 10 years we would not be able to import enough oil — from any country, at any acceptable price.”
These were just a few of the many defeatist fatuities in that infamous speech, not one of them true. But no one thought Carter was intentionally lying. He was just wrong. And it led to soaring prices, gas rationing with lines that lasted for hours, and economic misery.
Biden’s energy policies are likewise having a devastating impact on the U.S. and global economies. But there’s no excuse. He was in Congress during the Carter years. Did he not learn any lessons, especially about energy? Is he senile? Or merely a figurehead for the far-left, woke puppetmasters that run his “green” administration?
How else can you explain a president who blames “gas stations” for soaring gasoline prices? The same stations, by the way, where customers now put up stickers of Biden pointing at rising gas prices and saying, “I did that!”
Biden’s energy catastrophe is a major reason why, in a recent Rasmussen poll, just 29% said they wanted him and Harris to run again in 2024. Not even a majority of Democrats want them on the ticket, that’s how bad it is.
Meanwhile, 57% in a Monmouth University Polling Institute poll cite federal government policies since the start of this year as having hurt their families. Among those taking the poll, 33% cited “inflation” and 15% named gasoline prices as their No. 1 concern; it was “the first time that gas prices (were) mentioned by more than a handful of Americans as their predominant issue.”
Gasoline prices have soared 108% since Biden became president, promising to wage war against the oil industry as part of his 10-year, $1.7 trillion “climate action” plan.
He kept his word. Upon entering office, Biden immediately blocked the Keystone XL pipeline project and halted federal oil leases. Since then, he has rejected drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, blocked exploratory drilling in Alaska, and has even nixed plans to expand and improve a U.S. Virgin Islands-based oil refinery.
To punish Russia for invading Ukraine, Biden also convinced U.S. allies to stop buying Russian oil and gas, adding to regional shortages, higher prices and, ironically, more coal use. And now, Biden’s green agenda is even threatening our national power grid.
So, no, the sudden “shortage” of oil and soaring energy prices weren’t bad luck. Or someone else’s fault. They were made in Washington, by Biden and the Democrats. And they’re hitting Americans hard at a time when wages aren’t keeping up with inflation, which now costs the average family an extra $460 monthly, according to recent estimates by Moody’s.
But don’t tell that to the Bidenistas, who in one week showed how they’re severely damaging their party’s prospects in 2022 and 2024 with a series of blame-deflecting comments on energy that made them look out of touch and inept.
As Biden tweeted Saturday: “My message to the companies running gas stations and setting prices at the pump is simple: this is a time of war and global peril. Bring down the price you are charging at the pump to reflect the cost you’re paying for the product. And do it now.”
Really? Amazon gazillionaire Jeff Bezos, not exactly a right-winger, tweeted this response: “Ouch. Inflation is far too important a problem for the White House to keep making statements like this. It’s either straight ahead misdirection or a deep misunderstanding of basic market dynamics.”
The U.S. Oil & Gas Association was even more pointed: “Working on it Mr. President. In the meantime – have a Happy 4th and please make sure the WH intern who posted this tweet registers for Econ 101 for the fall semester …”
Not to be outdone by his boss, Biden’s National Economic Council Director Brian Deese claimed that high gas prices are “about the future of the liberal world order” and Americans would just have to get used to them.
Finally, comes the revelation that Biden sucked 5 million barrels of oil out of the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which is supposedly for emergency use, and sold it overseas, in particular to China and Europe.
This is tone-deaf and major league ineptitude, far worse than anything Carter did. Carter lost handily in 1980 to a man the media and their Democratic allies desperately tried to portray as a right-wing extremist: Ronald Reagan.
Reagan aggressively deregulated energy, cut taxes, and left the Fed alone to fight inflation. Lower energy prices and the 1980s boom was the result.
Biden has shown himself incapable of such insight. He’s a creature of Washington, out of touch with the American people and the pain he’s causing. The anger over gasoline prices is growing political. It could cost Biden his job.
So if you want to know what’s going to happen in the midterm elections and in 2024, here’s a tip: Watch gasoline prices, not polls.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
A lot of wishful thinking and over-personalizing it against Biden, who is just an interchangeable front man or placeholder carrying out the party line. Hardly matters which Democrat or CCP clone occupies the oval office. Will be the same policy, even if slicker White House rhetoric; because the same energy and foreign policy people behind the scenes will continue the policies with or without Biden. The Democrats consider high gas prices and inflation a remedy, part of their path to a fossil fuel-free Utopia of windmills and magically-powered electric cars. Gas station owners should start by getting smart, and announcing big cuts in gasoline prices will be coming just as soon as: 1) the states lower the various and sundry taxes levied on consumers at the pump; 2) the federal government indefinitely suspends petroleum product taxes that ripple through the economy; 3) pipelines delivering non-Russian oil to refineries are given the green light; 4) etc. Gasoline tax cuts would ripple through the economy and lower inflation, because the delivery cost to grocery and retail stores would also drop. But the greedy politicians want to maximize their tax revenues, the hell with citizens in general.
The GOP Senate should take some of the blame, as they could have demanded remedies for USA problems as condition for the massive weapons stimulus monies for Ukraine. Out of $56 billion in weapons stimulus down payments for the War Against Russia, the GOP could have demanded a pittance for USA national security. Not just for shoring up USA borders in addition to NATO borders, or allocating funds to replace gasoline taxes. National security should also demand a Manhattan-style emergency project to rush to completion pipelines to transport non-Russian oil to USA refineries ASAP. If congress can grant immunity to phone companies for gathering data for the NSA and give vaxx and pharma companies immunity for mandatory or forced consumption of experimental products, similar waivers can be given for pipeline companies in the name of national security. The GOP “useful idiots” failed us, getting nothing in return from Schumer and the Dems for GOP subservience. They could not even grant Rand Paul’s request to have an inspector general track the Ukraine expenditures. Some of that graft/stimulus for the Ukraine oligarch kleptocracy could be better spent solving USA problems. Blaming Biden and changing White House figureheads does not resonate, as it continues the problem and is not a solution.
The high prices are by design. Democrats think that by forcing fossil fuel prices up, Americans will automatically switch to green energy. The problem is green energy is not ready. Most of the equipment and minerals come from overseas, from countries that may be hostile to the US. The infrastructure required for EVs is not there, yet, and has a significant carbon footprint. We will go the way of Boeing if we continue to allow unqualified politicians to make, not just, long term policy decisions, but, also select the types of nuts and bolts used to support that policy. All the focus is on passenger vehicles, which will require replacement of 250,000,000 units. Considering we only made, less than 2,000,000 EVs last year, imagine the raw materials, infrastructure, time span, and the associated carbon footprint required to build and charge these new EVS. Meanwhile, how many households are switching to burning wood, because they can no longer afford to heat their homes.
I think we need an energy Marshal plan, drafted by technical experts, rather than a fairytale Green New Deal, drafted by morons.
Biden has halted US oil exploration and deeply curtailed the ability of energy to be produced in the USA, while at the same time begging OPEC nations to produce more oil, all while claiming to be “green”. Biden does not tell us that producing energy in North America from local sources is actually more green that buying overseas and shipping to the USA. If energy is produced in the USA in large amounts the energy is transported by wires (electric), by pipeline (crude oil, natural gas and chemicals), while shipping oil to the USA from far away places requires ships that produce hundreds of tons of CO2 in the form of burning the dirtiest fossil fuels to give the false impression that America is green. Remember, the fossil fuels delivered from Saudi Arabia produces the same amount of CO2 per gallon of product as the American produced fossil fuel, EXCEPT, the additional fossil fuels that produce the tons of emissions transporting the energy to the USA that would not have been burned if the energy was produced in the USA. The Green Energy industry is more about making money than protecting the environment.
I would be happier paying $5 for gas. I filled up my nissan frontier pickup yesterday. It was $6.19 for regular. My fillup cost $90.
California has 12% of America ‘s population. What happens here affects the whole nation.