RUTHFULLY YOURS

Did the United States suddenly become a socialist basket case? It’s hard not to come to that conclusion after reading about the endless shortages plaguing the nation. Each of which President Joe Biden either seems clueless to resolve or determined to make worse.

Let’s start with the biggest one: the shortage of diesel fuel. While Biden was busy draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to tamp down gas prices before the midterm elections, the real worry was that supplies of diesel fuel have been running short.

Two years after the short-lived COVID lockdowns ended, diesel inventories continued to trend downward to their lowest levels since 2008. The cost for a gallon of diesel fuel is 46% higher than it was a year ago, according to AAA, and now costs more than $5 a gallon.

That affects every corner of the economy because, while passenger cars mostly use regular gasoline, diesel powers just about everything else that makes the economy move, and many homes, especially in the northeast, rely on heating oil – a related product – to keep their families from freezing to death.

The American Farm Bureau Federation tried to alert Biden to the scale of this problem weeks ago. “Our nation’s food supply is driven by diesel. High diesel prices are severely impacting our farmers and ranchers, causing increased costs to consumers, and adding to food insecurity.”

One big factor for all this: declining refinery capacity. After trending upward for years, it has fallen off each year since. A big reason: Biden’s war on fossil fuels.

“If you are a refiner forecasting billions in losses — and you require massive investments in order to keep your refinery operating safely and in compliance with the laws — you may very well simply make the decision to close down,” writes Robert Rapier in Forbes.

So, what does Biden propose to rectify this situation? Is he recommending easing restrictions on refineries to encourage more supply, reverse course on his environmental radicalism?

Nope. He wants to require fuel suppliers to maintain a minimum amount of diesel in their inventories this winter. In other words, pull more diesel off the market, which will probably result in panic buying, increase shortages, and cause prices to spike even more.

Genius.

Look around and you see shortages everywhere you turn.

The Food and Drug Administration reports a shortage of liquid amoxicillin, an antibiotic often prescribed to children to treat upper respiratory infections as they surge.

And one reason for the increased infections? The lockdowns imposed by Biden’s Democratic colleagues that kept children isolated for nearly two years and compromised their immune systems.

“What we’re seeing now is the impact of having decreased immunity over the last couple of years,” Dr. Rishi Lulla of Rhode Island’s Hasbro Children’s Hospital told The Hill.

We’ve also come to find out that pharmacies are critically low on Adderall and its generic equivalents, which are used to treat hyperactivity and impulse control.

Leo Beletsky, a professor of law and health sciences at Northeastern University, says that “the scarcity is going to last for many more months because of supply chain problems as well as federal restrictions on manufacturers and imports.” (Emphasis added.)

“The FDA has powerful tools at its disposal to ease the Adderall shortage,” Beletsky says. “This includes attracting and fast-tracking approval for international manufacturers and helping rapidly develop domestic production.”

How many of those tools do you suppose Biden is pushing the FDA to use?

Meanwhile, a shortage of Tamiflu – an antiviral used to treat the flu – might be on its way. WXIA-TV in Atlanta reports that “demand is outpacing supply of Tamiflu in Georgia and you might encounter a pharmacy that is low or even temporarily out of the medicine you need to avoid serious illness.”

And, despite promises from Biden that he was on top of this, there are still shortages of baby formula around the country.

As Politico reported earlier this month, “Biden administration officials are still grappling with baby formula supply challenges across the country, eight months after a key formula plant shuttered and sparked widespread shortages.”

Did you know there’s been an alarming scarcity of concrete, too? Some 43 states are reported to be experiencing a concrete shortage due to a limited supply of materials used to make it, which has delayed road work and other construction projects around the country while adding to their costs.

The Rochester, Minnesota, Post-Bulletin reports that “EPA restrictions on coal plants and the shortage of rail cars hauling cement,” a component of concrete, “are two factors that caused the shortage.” (Emphasis added.)

The Biden administration has known about this shortage for months. Back in June, the Associated General Contractors of America called on Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez to “intervene in the increasingly dire supply for cement in the U.S. before major economic disruptions occur.”

There’s even concern about a butter shortage as the number of dairy cows dwindles and milk production falls. The cost of butter has skyrocketed by nearly 27% since last year.

Even if you like federal regulations, now would be the time to loosen any rules that are standing in the way of production to get supplies of goods and services increasing.

But the only thing that isn’t in short supply these days are dumb ideas that keep spilling forth from the White House. The question is, are these dumb ideas the result of bad advice from economic ignoramuses surrounding Biden? Or are these endless disruptions intentional, part of some plan by the left to increase government control over the economy?

We’re not conspiracy mongers here. But given the way things have been going in Biden’s America these days, we’re not sure we can entirely rule out the latter possibility.