While America’s families struggle with record gas prices and 40-year-high inflation, it seems there are more Joe Biden energy scapegoats than Will Smith slap memes. High atop Biden’s list of villains are the energy companies who he has been targeting from day one. Yet the actions of one Biden-supporting Democratic governor proves the President’s strategy of blaming producers is as hypocritical as it is just plain wrong.
Let’s first take a quick look at the last four months of the Biden’s merry-go-round of deflection when it comes to his economic failure.
On November 2, 2021, OPEC was to blame for your high gas prices, even though it was Biden who spent the previous 11 months enacting a slew of anti-energy executive orders. On November 27, high inflation was “transitory” and the result of Covid-19. On March 8, 2022 high oil prices are entirely Russia’s fault even though the price at the pump skyrocketed over 48 percent prior to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The White House even had Press Secretary Jen Psaki host a slick video and tried to utilize big tech to get #PutinsPriceHike to be a thing.
Just over a week after the #PutinsPriceHike failure, the White House, Senator Chuck Schumer and their green disciples settled in on their latest target: oil companies.
Fun fact: Many of us are old enough to remember all the way back to 2018 when Schumer and others blamed the previous president for high gas prices. So, the next time a Democratic buddy tries to convince you the President doesn’t have a say in gas prices, share this inconvenient truth with them.
As Team Biden feels they have finally picked a winner in the latest episode of “The Bachelor: Scapegoat,” they probably won’t mention what the those “evil” oil companies are doing for the President’s political ally in New Mexico.
Starting next week, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham will call the state legislature into a special session because she wants to send rebate checks to her constituents. Here’s the rub for Team Biden: tax dollars from the oil and natural gas industry make up 35 percent of New Mexico’s entire state budget. In the last fiscal year, the oil and gas industry delivered more than $5 billion to state coffers. New Mexico’s Governor is very proud that she’ll be sending some of that money back to the people as well as a plan for free college. What she won’t say is that it would all be impossible without the revenue from the very oil companies Joe Biden demonizes
Just like Biden, Governor Lujan Grisham’s approval rating is in the 40s, but unlike the President, she has to face voters this November. Biden’s New Mexico disciple has led her state to the worst unemployment in the nation, forced families to wait in breadlines, and had to pay out $150,000 in a massive sexual harassment settlement. There’s a reason why this Biden ally is considered one of the most vulnerable Governors this year and that’s the reason she suddenly cares about massive energy prices.
To summarize: A Democratic Governor is using money from oil companies to fund rebates to compensate for Joe Biden’s energy failure for which he blames…oil companies. Got all that?
Don’t worry, I’m sure it makes sense to the “experts” in the White House.
America’s families need real and permanent relief. Quick (some would say “transitory”) election-year payouts aren’t the answer. If struggling politicians are looking for the real answers, they need to listen, and they’ll learn Americans want out energy independence back.
On the same day Team Biden was working to make #PutinsPriceHike trend on Twitter, Americans were responding to a CBS News/YouGov poll, and the results are clear. A whopping 63 percent want the President to increase domestic oil production to help with energy prices and only 31 percent approve of his handling of inflation.
It’s clear Biden’s merry-go-round of blame isn’t fooling the American people. As leaders of his own party rely on oil companies to fund rebates, perhaps it’s time for Biden to blame the real culprit for this disaster.
But that would require a mirror.
Larry Behrens is the Communications Director for Power The Future, a non-profit that advocates for America’s energy workers. You can find him on Twitter @larrybehrens or you can email him: larry@powerthefuture.com
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