President Joe Biden, 79, showed why he’s the propagandist-in-chief, blaming the oil industry for price-gouging, driving voters away from the Democrat party only days before the Nov. 8 Midterm election. Biden wants the public to believe he’s outraged by the high oil prices which he blames on the oil industry. But the inflation in energy prices, spreading to every other commodity and service, started Feb. 24 with the way Biden handled the Ukraine War. Instead of working with U.N. peacekeepers to get Russian President Vladimir Putin to retreat from Ukraine, he started a proxy war using Ukraine troops to topple the Russian Federation, fueling the worst inflation seen in the global economy in 40 years. When Biden talks of a war dividend for the oil industry, he’s kidding himself, after his proxy war against the Russian Federation created worldwide oil shortages and skyrocketing prices.
Biden now talks tough before the Midterm election, essentially saying the high energy prices and inflation are not his fault. When Biden came to office, he had his AOC [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] agenda to stop what former President Donald Trump did to make the U.S. energy independent. Biden cancelled the Keystone XL pipeline, effectively gutting the fracking or tar-sands industry, making in more difficult to make profits. Once AOC got her grip on Biden’s energy policy, it left the U.S. vulnerable to any outside oil shock that happened when Biden announced March 8 a boycott of all Russian oil and natural oil. Biden imposed the same requirement on the European Union [ED], driving the same shortages and skyrocketing energy prices in Europe. High energy prices translated into inflation at all commodity levels, especially energy and food, leaving the world reeling from the Ukraine War.
Biden’s focus on the oil industry’s profits takes the focus off his decision to prosecute a proxy war against the Russian Federation. “Record profits today are not ecause they’re doing something new or innovative. The profits are a windfall of war,” Biden said at the White House, standing beside Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Energy Secretary Janet Granholm. When Biden talks of the “windfall of war,” he’s admitting that the Ukraine War has fueled the runaway energy prices and inflation, not primarily the energy prices. As oil prices rise precipitously because of worldwide shortages and skyrocketing prices, the oil industry naturally makes more profits. But the main driver to the runaway inflation is the Ukraine War. Going into the ninth month, Biden has no plan with his proxies in Kiev to end the war. Biden made a decision to topple the Russian Federation.
Biden likes to shift the blame for the economic mess on everyone else. He’s been asked by many foreign leaders, industrialists and members of Congress, in his own progressive caucus, to end the Ukraine War. Biden has doubled down on feeding Kiev unlimited cash-and-lethal weapons, thinking he could break the Russian military, something that hasn’t happened. Ukraine’s eight months of war resulted in a 25% loss of its sovereign territory, now scrambling, through various counteroffensives, to get back the lost territory. But like most holes, 44-year-old Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky just keeps digging deeper. Zelensky complains daily about Russian war crimes but does nothing to resolve the conflict at the peace table. Putin has made numerous overtures to move the conflict from the battlefield to the peace table, all of which rejected by Biden and Zelensky.
So, when it comes to runaway inflation and soaring energy prices, it can be primarily attributed to the Ukraine War. Biden says the oil industry should “act beyond their narrow self-interest,” to “invest in America by increasing production and refining capacity” to support “their consumers, there community and their country,” blaming all the increased prices on the oil industry. No one told Biden he must spend $70 billion on Kiev to topple the Putin government. Zelensky said recently the wouldn’t enter into any peace talks with Putin leading the country. So what’s the world supposed to do, wait until Zelensky gets enough revenge on Putin to satisfy his need for blood? Biden’s attempt to blame the oil industry ignore his decisions on the Ukraine War that’s left the U.S. and the world in the worst inflation in 40 years. Ending the war would help resolve the current energy and inflation crisis.
Biden’s chances to getting a “wind fall profit tax” out of Congress are slim-and-none. Instead of blaming the U.S. oil industry, it’s time the White House look at their Ukraine War policy that feeds Kiev unlimited cash-and-lethal weapons to fight a bloody proxy war against the Russian Federation. If Biden wants to curb high energy prices and inflation, he needs to let U.N. peacekeepers move the conflict off the battlefield onto the peace table. Improving the global oil supply requires oil-producing countries like Russia to sell their oil into world markets. Keeping the war going only adds to the worldwide shortages and skyrocketing prices. Biden and Zelensky may despise Putin but he’s turned Russian into one of OPEC’s leading oil exporting nations. Ending the war and working out a lasting peace would return the world’s energy supplies to a normal level, lowering prices and reducing inflation.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
