Biden's bum rap over rising prices

I grew up in Delaware — the first state. And like most Delawareans, I harbor a certain fondness for Joe Biden. He was always “Uncle Joe” to us. We knew him to be a kind and decent man who rose from the working class. He believes government should give the underprivileged a leg up and provide a safety net to help the middle class weather life’s vagaries. That’s why he is a Democrat. All of which is not to say he is the best president we’ve ever had. But he’s far from the worst.

Granted, Biden has had his share of senior moments, some of which have been alarming. But contrary to what some allege, he is far from senile. I’ve witnessed the course of Alzheimer’s disease in five family members, and I even helped care for one. I know from personal experience that a seriously impaired person could not have read from a teleprompter for very long, much less give the kind of coherent and spirited delivery Biden gave on January 5 in Valley Forge. He said what needed to be said about Trump and January 6, and he said it well.

I just wish Biden had dropped his nice-guy persona and cultivated the art of rhetorical self-defense early in his term. A case in point is the bum rap he has gotten over his energy policies.

Contrary to MAGA doctrine, we were not energy independent under Trump. We were importing 9.3 million barrels of a day throughout Trump’s presidency. (Robert Rapier, “U.S. energy independence soars to highest level in over 70 years,” Forbes, May 2, 2023.)

Granted, Biden should not have completely barred drilling on federal land. That was ill-timed and impolitic. He got out ahead of hard-pressed Americans in his heartfelt commitment to protecting the environment. But he has since reversed course. In March, he angered environmentalists by approving an $8 billion drilling project in Alaska. He has also auctioned off 73 million acres of federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas drilling.” (Tom Kertscher, Politifact, Apr. 13, 2023).

And according to the Bureau of Land Management, the Biden administration approved more oil and gas leases in the first two years of his administration than the Trump administration did — 6,430 compared to 6,172. (Ben Adler, “Yahoo! News, Jan. 25, 2023)

Biden’s environmental idealism, moreover, was tempered by “world events and domestic priorities.” Sen. Joe Manchin made more drilling a condition of his supporting the Inflation Reduction Act. The Ukraine War also got in Biden’s way. Oil and gas prices shot up, and Russia stopped selling natural gas to Europe. We supplied it to help keep Europeans warm throughout the winter of 2022. It was no time to curtail drilling. (Breanne Deppisch, Washington Examiner, Dec. 20, 2023)

It is true that Biden, on occasion, is too candid for his own good. At the final Trump/Biden presidential debate in October 2020, Trump bated Biden by asking if he intends to close down oil companies. “The oil industry pollutes significantly,” Biden replied. “It has to be replaced by renewable energy over time.” (John Miltimore, FEE Stories, Oct. 23, 2020.)

Some believe Biden’s remarks on that occasion put a damper on oil company investment. If so, it was temporary. According to Yahoo! Finance’s Rick Newman, “big oil is thriving under Biden.” Energy stocks have “soared over the past two years,” fueling a “mega-merger consolidation” of some international oil companies. ExxonMobil has offered $64 billion to buy Pioneer Natural Resources, and Chevron bid $53 billion for Hess. Clearly, big oil is not lacking for major investors. Biden has not scared them away.

Far be it from big oil to trickle any of that money down to us, of course. And as a friend recently reminded me, when energy prices go up — as they have under Biden — most prices go up. But I doubt rising fuel prices were the major factor in our inflationary spiral. A worldwide pandemic limited production and all but shut down supply lines. There was an ensuing labor shortage. It’s basic supply and demand. When goods and services become scarce, prices go up.

Frankly, I don’t know what Biden could have done to offset inflation. Experts tell us his Inflation Reduction Act will have little effect. More drilling early on might have helped, but I doubt we could have offset the rising prices of the oil we had to import. Nixon in 1971 imposed wage and price controls. Today’s Republicans wouldn’t stand for that.

I recently heard the comedian Wanda Sykes aptly sum up Biden’s predicament and that of Democrats in general in the age of Trump. “We’re handcuffed to facts and reality,” she said, “while the other side can just make s**t up.” Sykes may be overstating the case — but not by much.

Biden has his faults, but I believe him to be an honest and principled man who means well. Can we say that about Trump? And he is from Delaware. There is that.

Contact Ed Palm at majorpalm@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Biden's bum rap over rising prices