When Joe Biden ran for president, we were told he was the embodiment of competence and intelligence. Biden, his backers insisted, would solve our problems in a genial, grandfatherly way. He’d make fixing America look as easy as licking an ice cream cone on a nice Delaware day. A year into his presidency, it seems that Biden came only to make a mess and eat ice cream.
The ordinary American consumer suffers and endures high prices due to the bad decisions and policies of the Biden Administration. It is no wonder, then, that a recent poll found 60 percent of voters would vote Biden out of office were the election held today. From the supply chain to Ukraine, Biden seems to have had the opposite of the Midas Touch—and it isn’t going to get any better!
The Chip Shortage Will Be with Us
To combat the worldwide computer chip shortage, Biden told the press that his policies had led to the construction of new computer chip manufacturing facilities being built within the United States for the first time in decades (currently, nearly 90 percent of all worldwide computer chips are produced overseas, in places like Taiwan and Japan). But these facilities will take a few years to come online.
And once these production facilities are producing computer chips, it will take months and years for them to meet all the varying demand for chips. So, one can anticipate the prices of anything requiring a computer chip (including cars) to remain high over the next few years—especially if China invades Taiwan during that time, thereby knocking one of the world’s largest computer chip manufacturing facilities offline.
Biden did champion the American CHIPS Act, a bill designed to allot $52 billion to encourage more domestic chip manufacturing. Instead of his “Build Back Better” boondoggle, this should have been Biden’s chief legislative priority. And $52 billion for a crisis decades-in-the-making is pathetic (and shows just how unserious Biden is on this matter).
Biden’s Ukraine Policies Are Squeezing Americans’ Wallets
Meanwhile, gas and grocery prices continue to rise. And, while Biden may want to blame his predecessor for having locked down the country at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic (a policy that Biden and his fellow Democrats insisted should have continued), the fact remains that these negative trends are occurring under the Biden Administration’s watch. More to the point, there are direct actions Biden has taken since his turbulent inauguration last year that exacerbated what were already dangerous trends in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
For example, as I have noted previously, Biden’s decision to terminate the Keystone XL Pipeline as well as his obsession with imposing the most onerous restrictions on North American natural gas and oil shale development has helped raise the cost of fuel for millions of Americans.
Similarly, the Biden Administration’s shambolic Ukraine policy has resulted in a dangerous standoff with Russia. The Russo-American spat over Ukraine risks devolving into a nuclear war unless some diplomatic off-ramp is taken by both sides. As the fight rages between the two sides, ordinary Americans are caught in the middle. Once more, because of these unnecessary tensions over Ukraine, the price of fuel is spiking everywhere, with some analysts predicting the cost per barrel of oil could peak to around (or even slightly above) $100.
Related to Biden’s horrible Ukraine policy is the slowly rising price of foodstuff. Ukraine is a major exporter of agricultural goods to the global market, so if Russia invades Ukraine, you can expect the price of food will explode soon.
It is unlikely that this administration will ever accept a Russian-controlled Ukraine. It’s a fair bet the United States would impose sanctions on Russia if Putin invades Ukraine, which would likely knock production and distribution from the region out of the global market entirely. In effect, you and I are set to pay permanently higher prices on essential goods unless their production and distribution changes fundamentally. And what are the odds of that happening quickly?
Biden’s Vaccine Mandates and Our Supply Chain
Speaking of distribution, supply chain problems have mounted as the leadership of many countries—including the Biden Administration—have insisted upon what many view as extreme vaccination mandates for private companies. In fact, it is opposition to the vaccine mandates in Canada that has sparked the ongoing Freedom Convoy of truckers currently “terrorizing” the gelded leadership of Justin Trudeau. In both Canada and the United States, failure to comply with these mandates usually results in a loss of business and the firing of workers en masse.
What’s more, it means there are only a limited number of businesses and workers to carry out their jobs—imposing greater costs on consumers. Thus, our supply chain and distribution woes are exacerbated yet again by bad Biden policies as there are not enough workers or businesses in compliance with the vaccine mandates to fulfill the national demand for supply chain services.
And rather than deploy the logistical capabilities of the United States military to ameliorate the ongoing distribution problem, as retired U.S. Army General Russel Honoré argued in October 2021, the Biden Administration has simply insisted that Americans consume less. This was the message of the current secretary of transportation, Pete Buttigieg, who could not have been less helpful during the height of the supply chain crisis over the recent holiday season. Honoré’s prediction has proven correct: the longer the crisis continues, the greater the threat to our national security.
Biden’s team doesn’t really care, apparently. It’s time to feed the Old Man some more ice cream!
We Need Solutions, Not Rhetoric
Joe Biden was elected on a message of competence and intelligence. A year into his misadministration, everything is falling apart, both at home and abroad. It’s easy to blame your predecessor for everything that’s gone wrong. But, at some point, Biden needs to take the blame as readily as he took the reins of power.
Nearly every problem the United States has faced over the past year has been self-induced. Extreme or unwise Biden policies have led us to a place where inflation is soaring and where that problem is being worsened by the ongoing Biden-induced crises in Ukraine and in the supply chain. The few times that Biden has addressed these concerns he has glossed over the fact that his policies either caused or exacerbated the problems facing ordinary Americans today—namely high prices, and insufficient access to goods.
The solutions are straightforward, though. Biden should ratchet down tensions with Russia over Ukraine. A simple declaration that Ukraine does not—and will not—qualify for NATO membership coupled with a call to restore the Minsk II Agreement signed with Russia in 2015 for Ukraine will likely give Vladimir Putin an excuse to stand down on his invasion threat. Once that occurs, volatility in global commodities markets will decrease and likely give American consumers a reprieve.
At home, the Biden Administration must reexamine its draconian stance on vaccination mandates—especially for critical workers. Further, Biden should order the military’s vast logistical capabilities to be brought to bear on items closer to home—assisting with clearing American ports and getting the country’s supplies moving again.
Americans are not able to keep pace with the spike in prices that so many bad Biden policies are causing. It is a drag on the economy. Biden’s goal should be to mitigate the pain most Americans are feeling by enacting policies that will help to reduce the costs on ordinary consumers for essential items, like gas and groceries.
Thus far, all Biden has done is pick fights with nuclear-armed Russia and fired essential workers for not getting their vaccines—all while eating ice cream. If this is competence, according to our elite, I don’t want to see what incompetence looks like.
As former President Trump might say, “Total disaster!”