One year into Joe Biden’s presidency, the union is in dire straits, facing crises created by his sheer incompetence and his kowtowing to the woke Left.
Biden took the occasion of his State of the Union address this month to take a victory lap with idle talk about problems he hasn’t fixed. Meanwhile, the public is bearing the brunt of his poor policy decisions at every turn. People are paying hundreds of dollars more a month for basic necessities, such as groceries and gas; they are being branded as domestic terrorists for being involved in their children’s educations; they are seeing firsthand how thugs across the globe take advantage of American weakness.
Simply put, Biden’s lack of leadership has left us all more vulnerable to crime, poverty, and a national security crisis. His administration emboldened Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine — for example, by waiving sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, a key conduit for Russian energy that Putin was counting on in his war calculus. Biden waited until after a full-scale invasion to take action against Russia and reimpose sanctions — too little, too late.
As a result, Putin has waged an unprovoked war against Ukraine and produced a devastating humanitarian crisis in the process. Thousands of civilian lives are at risk, and we must stand united with the people of Ukraine to ensure they have the resources they need to fight this war and win. We cannot let evil go unchecked.
On the domestic side, Biden put the nation miles behind on his first day in office by canceling the Keystone XL pipeline, destroying thousands of jobs and setting back North American energy independence for decades with the stroke of a pen. Without this crucial pipeline and without the ability to sell Keystone oil to our allies, the world is drawn that much further into Putin’s orbit, forced to rely on his oil and thus fund his war of aggression.
Every gallon of Russian oil has Ukrainian blood in it. Our decision to boycott is the right one, but we must also replace that oil for ourselves and for our allies.
To choke Russia out of the global economy, the United States must restore domestic energy production. This begins with reversing the policies that have weakened American energy independence. We must cut Russia off and work in conjunction with our allies to crush Putin economically.
People are not only paying more for oil and gas — they’re paying more to feed their children, heat their homes, and run their businesses. Biden and congressional Democrats are spending money at an unsustainable rate, passing multiple trillion-dollar bills, and creating the worst inflation our country has seen in 40 years.
Their solution to this historic inflation is more inflationary government spending.
We can’t keep adding gas to the fire. Their big-government socialist spending bills are bleeding people dry. It’s time for pro-growth fiscal policies to get our economy back on track.
Biden is finally acknowledging that we need to secure our southern border, but his policies are laughable and have led to the worst crisis in decades. Since 2021, hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants have crossed into our nation every month. Drug cartels are flooding our communities with drugs such as fentanyl, and overdoses are at a record high. The Biden administration’s open-border policies and dangerously lax approach to immigration have unleashed poison across our communities and allowed human trafficking to run rampant.
At the end of Biden’s first year in office, America is unquestionably in crisis. We need less lip service and more action. We need to rein in out-of-control government spending, put taxpayers back in the driver’s seat, and demonstrate strength on the world stage. Only strong, conservative leadership can correct the course and put America first again.
Drew Ferguson represents Georgia’s 3rd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives and serves as the chief deputy whip for the House Republican Conference.
