In 2020, former President Donald J. Trump often warned voters that Joe Biden would put “America Last” if he ever became president. In both his 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns, Trump ran under the banner of putting “America First,” and while it can be debated how successful and consistent he was at achieving that goal, it seems that Trump was prescient as to how Biden would treat his country and the people in it once he came into power.
Biden’s “America Last” approach has impacted no area of the American way of life more than the energy sector. To this very moment, it is evident that Biden wants to make us dependent other countries’ natural resources for fossil fuels. On the other hand, America is actually the last place he would ever look for that oil, even as prices push higher and higher on a daily basis.
When Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, there was an immediate consensus that the war would impact gas prices in the United States as well the European Union due to both actors’ use of Russian oil.
Many experts wanted sanctions placed on Russian energy exports, in hopes that hitting Putin’s pocketbook would dwindle war funds and end the conflict. The cost of more expensive fuel would be worth the price to pay if it meant defeating Putin, they argued.
On Monday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz squashed that idea. Europe is too dependent upon Russia for its energy, Scholz suggested, and the punishment was impossible because Russian energy is “essential” for the EU to function.
But, Biden has always left the door open to such sanctions to impact Russian’s energy market. On Tuesday, The Daily Wire reported that Biden has now banned the importation of Russian oil.
The White House has been keen to note that America only relies on Russia for 10% of its daily oil consumption. Still, that is 10% we now will not be having.
One would think given a nation as naturally prosperous as the U.S. is, that the simple solution would be to be pump more oil from our own lands. But just last week, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that course of action was a “misdiagnosis” and that the present crisis illustrates “why we need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, on oil in general … and we need to look at other ways of having energy in our country and others.”
The Biden administration is intent on moving the American people off of fossil fuels and is instead pushing toward green energy domestically — no matter the pain it causes. Increasing oil here seems to be the last thing they would ever do.
In December, when asked what the the Biden team would do to increase U.S. oil production, Department of Energy Secretary Jen Granholm literally laughed out loud at the very idea. Even on Monday, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg cheekily remarked that if Americans simply bought an electric vehicle, they would not have to worry about high gas prices — as if working moms and dads have an extra $50,000 laying around for a new Tesla.
So if the U.S. is not looking inward for oil, where are they looking? Well, according to reports, the U.S. has been reaching out to Saudi Arabia, Iran, and even Venezuela to ramp its production and craft new trade deals.
But all of this is backwards. The only reason the Biden team would be taking such actions is if they genuinely believe putting America Last — leading from behind, as Biden’s former boss President Barack Obama might say — would benefit the American people.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio (R) strongly rebuked the idea of looking elsewhere for fossil fuels, tweeting that, “We import 200,000 barrels of oil a day from Russia. America can easily produce another 200,000 barrels a day.”
“We don’t need oil from a terrorist Ayatollah in Iran or narco-terror Maduro Regime in Venezuela,” he added.
We import 200,000 barrels of oil a day from #Russia
America can easily produce another 200,000 barrels a day
We don’t need oil from a terrorist Ayatollah in #Iran or narco-terror #MaduroRegime in #Venezuela
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) March 8, 2022
“Venezuela produces less than 1% of the worlds oil because it is mismanaged by corrupt & incompetent criminals. An oil deal with the Maduro to will have an insignificant impact on our gas prices,” Rubio explained. “But it will provide Maduro Regime with millions of dollars for them to steal.”
#Venezuela produces less than 1% of the worlds oil because it is mismanaged by corrupt & incompetent criminals
An oil deal with the #Maduro to will have an insignificant impact on our gas prices
But it will provide #MaduroRegime with millions of dollars for them to steal
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) March 8, 2022
That U.S. taxpayer money instead should be used to help Americans get new jobs, ramp up oil production at home, and lower gas prices through the increased supply.
This is something that should have been done throughout 2021, but instead Biden did the opposite. He discouraged oil investment, closed new oil leases, and his team promised laid-off Americans they could get a new job in the green energy business.
The odd part about that strategy is not that the Left believes in green energy or wants to cut down American production of oil. That has been the case for quite some time.
The peculiar thing about all this is that Biden pushed that strategy while supposedly operating off intelligence that Russia would invade Ukraine and interrupt the oil market.
“Vladimir Putin has been planning this for months, as I’ve been — as we’ve been saying all along,” Biden said after the invasion.
But he if were expecting Putin’s war and knew it would cause an increase in gas prices for the American people, then why didn’t he take the steps needed to ensure cheap fuel to avoid added burden for the nation?
Well, it seems obvious that he did it because he truly does operate from an America Last standpoint.
Not only does he not want us to be first in oil production, he puts the American people last by placing the immediate need of cheap fuel behind the progressive’s lofty goal of zero emissions, as Vice President Kamala Harris said on Monday.
It is asinine and it is purposeful. For the Left, the ends always justify the means.
And unfortunately for the American people, the end result they are seeking is a green energy utopia that will never come while the means are hurting the American worker, family, and motorist with high energy prices for the foreseeable future.
America Last, indeed.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.