Biden Diplomacy Falls Short in Middle East

Joe Biden has always claimed that he was the best option for President because of his years of experience in the Senate. His claim, like most of his Presidency to date, was bogus. Biden continues to fall flat on the global stage, and his most recent failure is with Saudi Arabia. In July, Biden visited the rich desert country and fist-pumped the crown prince. This show of friendship was with a man that Biden had called a pariah. Mohammed bin Salman approved the 2018 murder of former Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. In 2019, Biden promised he would make Saudi Arabia “the pariah that they are.” Biden was in Saudi Arabia to beg for oil to ease the crisis in America brought about by Biden’s poor energy policies.

When Joe Biden took office in 2021, the average cost of gasoline was $2.35. In less than two years, that average rose to over $5.00 until he started a withdrawal program from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve. He signed an order to release one million barrels daily for six months. This 180 million barrels, along with reduced demand, did reduce gas prices temporarily, and Biden took credit for the falling prices. About ten days ago, the prices started rising again, and Biden panicked. Biden, and all Democrats, cannot afford costs to spike before the midterms.

This week, OPEC Plus, which is the Middle Eastern oil producers plus Russia, announced they would be cutting their output by two million barrels daily. This is a shocking development for Biden as he felt his diplomacy had secured support from OPEC. Biden now has to dip again into the SPR as he negotiates with other sources of crude. He has already begun to bolster his standing with the rogue regime that controls Venezuela, including a prisoner swap this week. We do not recognize Venezuela as a legitimate country, but Biden is desperate.

The SPR is at its lowest level in forty years. The reserve was put in place to protect our supply of crude in the case of war or natural disaster. It was never meant to be used to manipulate cost. Biden has also sold some of the SPR crude to China. This was never the intent and is another example of how China controls our President.

Yesterday, Administration spokesman John Kirby flat-out lied about domestic fuel output. He claimed that we are producing more crude in America than at any time in our history. He is wrong. We are 50 million barrels less than we were in 2019. Under Donald Trump, we were at record-high production levels and were exporting energy, not begging our enemies for oil. We are jeopardizing our national security to patch bad policies from Joe Biden.

Energy costs/Inflation are high on the list of concerns for voters going into the midterms. Biden thought he was going to see prices continue to fall and make energy a winner for Democrats. He was wrong, which is very common with this President. There are no positives for Democrats in 2022, which makes it difficult to understand why any Democrat is leading in any race. The polls have been shaky for many election cycles. I think they will look foolish again, and the only poll that counts will be the votes cast on November 8th.