President Joe Biden promised he would help the public at the gas pump. He said he had a plan to lower gas prices. But, like most of his plans as president, the results have been a disaster.
On May 10, he announced this plan in a White House briefing; it was big on words and little on substance. Yet, Biden’s strategy has been as effective as his “plan” to stop COVID. Gas prices are at an all-time high less than a month after Biden promised the country relief was on the way.
“My plan is already in motion,” Biden said on May 10. “I led the world and other countries to join with us to coordinate the largest release of oil from our stockpiles of all the countries in history — 240 million barrels to boost global supply.”
Yet, this has done nothing. Additionally, Biden went on, of course, to shift the blame instead of taking responsibility. He blamed the pandemic. He blamed Putin. He tried to put some blame on the Federal Reserve. And while some of these are legitimate, he omitted his horrible energy policies that have contributed to this mess.
Moreover, not only is Biden shifting the blame on others, he is being manipulative and deceitful with his claims. For example, he boasted of increasing oil and gas production in the country, claiming that he did more of this in his first year than former President Donald Trump did in his.
“Here at home, U.S. oil and gas production is approaching record levels,” Biden said. “In fact, we produced more oil domestically in my first year in office than my predecessor did in his first year.”
This is technically true, but it is very misleading. Oil production was higher in Biden’s first year compared to Trump’s. However, this was only because of the increased oil production during Trump’s four years in office. Trump increased oil production from 8.87 million barrels per day in 2017 to 12.79 million in his last month in office. Comparatively, the highest total for Biden in his first year was 11.77 million barrels per day. So, while Biden did increase from Trump’s first year, it has actually decreased since his last day as president.
“To further drive down prices, my administration is allowing the sale of gasoline using homegrown biofuels this summer, which wasn’t allowed before,” Biden said. “And to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and reckless autocrats like Putin, I’m working with Congress to pass landmark investments to help build a clean energy future as well, from tax credits for businesses to produce renewable energy to tax credits for families to make their homes more energy-efficient.”
Except, again, this is Biden being misleading. He actually increased our dependency on foreign oil compared to when Trump was in office. Also, while we did receive oil imports from Russia, it was a relatively small percentage. Furthermore, Biden’s intent to “help build a clean energy future” will not immediately affect gas prices. It will take years, if not decades, to implement and is partly responsible for making costs higher.
This is not the first time Biden has fallen on his face after announcing he had a plan to help the public. In fact, it can be legitimately argued that every time Biden announces he has “a plan” to help, things turn out worse than they were before. This was true with COVID, the Afghanistan pullout, inflation, food prices, and now it’s true with gas prices.
It took less than a month to show Biden’s latest failure with, unfortunately, no end in sight to record-high gas prices. The big question is: How many more of Biden’s failures can the country survive?
