Since the time that Rahm Emanuel uttered the words “you never want a serious crisis to go to waste,” it has become the Democrats’ unspoken rule. We have seen it in the approach to the COVID pandemic, using it to pay out more and more government resources while advancing the liberal idea of greater government control. We have witnessed it after tragedies, like times of violence in which people are killed by unstable individuals using a firearm. The reaction is to go after Americans’ Second Amendment rights.
It now appears that they have found the ultimate use of this theory as it relates to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
For more than a year, the Biden administration has been working to implement its liberal agenda while at the same time trying to avoid any political downside. It has opened our southern border while claiming that all is well. Deportations fell to its lowest level in years while the number of people illegally entering the country has skyrocketed.
The administration advanced its massive spending bill — the so-called American Rescue Plan — that even liberal economists said would negatively affect the fragile economy by causing a spike in inflation. As predicted, the excessive spending indeed sparked a new bout of inflation and when teamed with the already existent supply chain issues has turned the rise in inflation into a 40-year high inferno.
The Biden administration also launched, on day one of occupying the White House, an assault on America’s energy industry. As a result, gas prices began rising significantly, with most Americans now paying more than $4 per gallon at the pump.
The administration’s search for the right answers weren’t easy to begin with because they failed to take responsibility for skyrocketing inflation. Then a crisis on the international stage gave them the diversion they needed. The administration’s failed anti-energy energy policies and botched Afghanistan withdrawal gave Putin the encouragement he needed to decide that now was the time to make good on his long-held desire to launch a brutal assault on Ukraine’s sovereignty. Putin’s war and the sanctions against Russia caused an immediate spike in the global oil market. The administration now had the crisis it had been waiting for to try to deflect from its inflation disaster.
You may think this is a cynical assessment of the Biden administration’s response. But just look at the administration’s own words. In the last few days, it has transitioned to using phrases such as “Putin’s gas hike,” “Putin is the cause for the price increase” and “blame Putin.” These lines are then spread by the mainstream media and enhanced by influencers on social media strengthening the belief that it is not the Biden administration’s fault — it’s Putin’s fault. Their only problem: the facts say otherwise.
The price of gas was skyrocketing well before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. From banning the Keystone XL Pipeline, to freezing new oil and gas leases on federal land, to discouraging investment in private companies that invest in energy exploration, the administration’s hostility to America’s energy sector has had a chilling effect. It also should be noted that while the White House claims publicly that the rise in prices is a result of Putin’s invasion, it recognizes that this is a political issue it must fix. We know this because the administration is going hat in hand to countries like Venezuela, Iran and Saudi Arabia to purchase more oil.
Never letting a crisis go to waste may be a good political strategy, but it is harmful to the American people feeling the effects of the Biden administration’s failed policies every day. While Americans must live with the ever-increasing costs of runaway inflation and higher gas prices, the administration is content to use the tragedy of war to deflect from its own self-inflicted troubles.
