For Biden: The Buck Stops … Somewhere Else Charles Lipson
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2022/04/19/the_buck_stops__somewhere_else_147488.html
When my kids were little and something went wrong, they always pinned the blame on an absent friend. If there was a crayon drawing scrawled on the bedroom wall, they pointed to their buddy, Michael S. When an avalanche of toys came tumbling down the stairs, it must have been Michael’s fault. My boys seemed oblivious to the fact that Michael and his parents had been living in France for over a year.
Joe Biden’s explanation for America’s troubles is about as convincing as my 4-year-old twins’. Let’s consider a few of these self-inflicted troubles, beginning with the surge of illegal immigration.
Not that the administration dares call it illegal. They call it “irregular immigration” and, like all progressives, use the term “undocumented.” They simply forgot their documents. That Orwellian doublespeak is commonplace in the media, universities, and Washington.
The plain truth is that the Biden administration has exacerbated illegal immigration by overturning a series of successful, Trump-era policies on the southern border. The administration opened the door to hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants, leaving the Border Patrol overwhelmed and the Biden team without answers. The numbers are reaching historic highs. To make matters worse, the administration has just announced it will jettison Title 42, a public health policy used to curb mass immigration during the early days of the pandemic. So, even worse days are ahead.
Since the administration can’t find anyone to blame for this catastrophe, they simply ignore it. The mainstream media follows suit.
How to explain the rise of deadly crime in cities? Shift the blame to guns, racism, and bad policing. But illegal guns have been readily available to criminals for years. As for legal firearms, there is no clear evidence they increase crime, and they may well deter it. Racism has declined steadily for decades, and policing is far more controlled. There are now significant numbers of black officers and many departments are led by them. What is more prevalent is video proof of problematic incidents, extensive coverage on cable TV, and political groups ready to mobilize around any alleged misconduct. Also commonplace are “Justice DAs” who favor lenient or nonexistent sentences, and immediate release of dangerous, repeat felons, which they call “bail reform.” Not to be mentioned in polite society are the real sources of rising crime: severe social breakdown in poor, minority communities; dreadful public education which leaves students ill-prepared for today’s jobs; and the failure to catch and punish those who break the law, especially those who break it violently and repeatedly.
If crime and illegal immigration are major problems for voters, inflation is an even bigger one. When Biden took office, prices were rising about 2% annually. That rate had held steady through the Trump years, even when the economy was strong, before COVID. Now, they are rising at more than 8% annually. Wholesale prices are rising even faster, portending more pain to come for consumers. Nowhere is the rise more obvious than at the gas pump. When Biden took office, gas was $2.42 a gallon, according to U.S. government statistics. In January 2022, before Putin invaded Ukraine, it was one dollar higher. Less than two months later, it was $4.32.
“Who wears the jacket?” for this mess, as they say in Chicago. Biden says it’s Putin and COVID.
He’s not entirely wrong. COVID has affected supply chains, though it had done so for a year before Biden took office. The Russian invasion did raise gas prices. But the crayon was scrawled on the wall well before Putin launched his war. Gas prices had risen substantially and overall inflation was surging. Remember, Biden actually wanted higher fuel prices as part of his Green Energy agenda. The idea was to drive consumers to alternative fuels and encourage manufacturers.
Progressive Democrats loved Biden’s policies to crush U.S. energy production, which began as soon as he was inaugurated. He killed the Keystone pipeline on Day One, stopped drilling on public lands and offshore, and tightened the bureaucratic noose on fossil fuel production and distribution. Unfortunately for Biden and the American public, he badly overshot. Energy prices went well beyond what consumers could tolerate. Voters are angry, and they don’t buy Biden’s effort to pin all the blame on Putin.
Nor can the president wash his hands of responsibility for the Ukraine war. After America’s incompetent withdrawal from Afghanistan, Putin sought to exploit the administration’s weakness and ineptitude. His judgment was reinforced when Biden did nothing as Russia assembled over 100,000 troops on the Ukrainian border during the year before the invasion.
How did the Biden administration react to this build-up? By offering Russia crucial concessions and giving Ukraine very little help. Putin wanted to complete a major gas pipeline to Germany, which President Trump had blocked. Chancellor Angela Merkel wanted it, too, and Biden gave it the thumbs up – a lifesaver for Putin. At the same time, the Biden administration stopped an alternative gas pipeline to Europe from Israel and Greece. When energy shortages did appear, Biden tried to get Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to pump more. No dice. They were furious because Biden had turned his back on them while negotiating a weak nuclear deal with Iran. Fearing Biden was endangering their security, they flatly refused to take the president’s phone calls. Biden’s next step was to see if America’s enemies, Iran and Venezuela, might fill the energy gap. So far, that hasn’t worked either. In fact, Biden has tried everything but the obvious answer: Unleash America’s own domestic production. The most Biden has done is take a few small steps, and then only reluctantly. His incoherent energy policy has driven prices up and consumers beyond the breaking point.
These weak policies didn’t deter Putin. The threat of economic sanctions failed. By early 2022, it was clear Russia planned to invade and Ukraine was begging for arms. Once again, the administration erred. They feared more weapons would only provoke Putin, and that Ukraine would lose anyway. That’s when Joe Biden called Volodymyr Zelenskyy and offered him a safe ride out of the country. Zelenskyy famously responded that he wanted ammunition, not a ride.
What did the Biden administration think would actually deter Putin? According to their public statements, the answer was some unspecified economic sanctions if Russia did invade. Senior administration officials made that point repeatedly, led by the vice president, the secretaries of defense and state, the press secretary, and, at times, the president. Wrong. Catastrophically wrong. When their error became obvious, the president simply denied his administration had ever said any such thing. A friendly mainstream media didn’t embarrass them with the damning videos.
As Putin began mobilizing his forces, the U.S. still refused Ukraine’s request for arms. Why? Because the CIA, like the Kremlin, predicted Russia would win the war within a week. Sending more weapons wouldn’t really help the Ukrainians and they would quickly fall into Russian hands, just as American weapons had fallen to the Taliban in Afghanistan. So, once again, the U.S. and NATO stood pat. Bad choice. So also was the reluctance to send Ukraine the heavy weapons they need for the battle for Donbas. Fortunately, the U.S. and NATO are gradually opening the spigot for those essential weapons.
The fate of Ukraine is still unclear. What is clear, though, is the Biden administration’s parade of policy failures at home and abroad – and their feeble attempts to shift the blame. Only about 1/3 of American voters now think the president is going a good job. Independent voters have left his camp in droves. Not that the administration accepts responsibility. Joe Biden doesn’t have the sign Harry Truman proudly displayed on his Oval Office desk, “The buck stops here.” Biden’s sign would say, “Don’t blame me … I just work here.”
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