U.S. is only days away until an 'absolute explosion' on inflation: Pollster Frank Luntz
VIDEO OF THE END
Chris Hedges | American Republic IS DEAD
THE DEMOCRAT PARTY OF BRIBES SUCKERS AND THEIR PARASITE BANKSTERS
https://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2022/06/joe-bidens-paymasters-at-blackrock.html
Jesse Watters: The Biden family business
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjCflVde7Gs
VIDEO
Ralph Nader: Biden's First Year Proves He Is Still a "Corporate Socialist" Beholden to Big Business
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jTIUtjkDss&t=28s
Hauser also didn’t like the prevalence of Big Law talent
on the Department of Justice team, which signaled to
him that the Biden administration could go soft on
corporate malefactors. Alexander Nazaryan
Climate Forum: Joe Biden Calls for ‘Transition’ to ‘Zero Emissions’ Cars to Combat High Gas Prices
President Joe Biden on Friday hosted a climate change forum at the White House, calling for a “transition” to electric vehicles to help reduce America’s dependence on oil.
“Russia’s war is driving up prices of gas, everybody knows that, hurting people in all of our countries,” Biden said.
The virtual conference featured some of the world’s biggest economies including China, Germany, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and the European Union.
The president spoke with world leaders and his administration’s climate change czar John Kerry, as Breitbart News reported.
He called high gas prices around the world an “immediate problem” he was focusing on, but indicated he would continue pressing for Americans to purchase electric vehicles.
“Over the long run we can remove the pain of volatile gas prices, and reduce transportation emissions by putting more zero-emission cars on the road,” he said.
Biden set a goal of half of all passenger cars sold in the United States to be “zero emissions” by the year 2030.
“The good news is that climate security and energy security go hand in hand,” he said.
But the president also boasted he had coordinated the “largest release of global oil reserves in history” to help reduce gas prices.
“The critical point is that these actions are part of our transition to a clean and secure and long-term energy future,” he said.
Kerry, who was recently criticized for saying the United States did not need to drill for more oil, reemphasized the importance of transitioning to green energy.
“This is the critical decade for accelerating our efforts to be able to reach net-zero in time to spare our people and our planet from the worst consequences, the most serious consequences of the climate crisis,” he said.
Flashback: Candidate Joe Biden Promised to Wage War on American Oil Industry
Then-candidate Joe Biden promised in 2020 to wage a war on the American oil industry by terminating subsidies and drilling feasibility.
“No more subsidies for the fossil fuel industry,” Biden stated on stage during a Democrat primary debate.
“No more drilling, including offshore. No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period,” Biden said of his energy policies if he’d win the presidency. “It ends.”
Biden has made good on his campaign promise to reduce oil drilling. Into Biden’s second year in office, his administration has driven up private and public financing costs of oil drilling, halted drilling on public lands, and canceled the Keystone pipeline.
Gas prices reflect his policies. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), Americans will pay $450 more for gas in 2022 than they did last year on an inflation-adjusted basis.
“Motorists in the US are now spending nearly three quarters of a billion dollars more on gasoline every day than a year ago,” GasBuddy estimated.
Defenders of Biden’s energy policies claim Biden was just referring to federal lands.
“Taken literally, the former vice president’s debate comments could be read to mean that he would end oil drilling. Or it could mean that he would not allow any new drilling, which is how the Biden campaign described the candidate’s position,” Democrat-allied PolitiFact stated.
On Wednesday, Biden sent a letter to Marathon Petroleum Corp., Valero Energy Corp., ExxonMobil, Phillips 66, Chevron, BP, and Shell, blaming them for the cost of gas. He also requested they produce more oil.
“In advance of that, I request that you provide the Secretary with an explanation of any reduction in your refining capacity since 2020 and any concrete ideas that would address the immediate inventory, price, and refining capacity issues in the coming months — including transportation measures to get refined product to market,” the letter read.
“Your companies need to work with my Administration to bring forward concrete, near-term solutions that address the crisis and respect the critical equities of energy workers and fence-line communities,” Biden wrote. “I have directed the Secretary of Energy to convene an emergency meeting on this topic and engage the National Petroleum Council in the coming days.
Biden’s reversal comes as polling shows 74 percent of respondents said Biden’s soaring gas prices are an “extremely/very important” factor in how they will vote in the midterm elections. Biden’s approval for his management of gas prices is only 27 percent.
Additional polling indicates 53 percent of voters believe Biden is trying to raise the price of gas to force citizens to use less fossil fuel, according to polling by Convention of States Action/Trafalgar Group.
Trump warned voters that if Biden won the 2020 election, the price of gas would reach at least $7.00 per gallon. “If Biden got in, you’d be paying $7, $8, $9. Then they’d say ‘get rid of your car!’”
Gas prices have averaged above $5 per gallon for six days.
JPMorgan commodities analyst predicted gas prices may increase to more than $6.00 per gallon before Labor Day.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter and Gettr @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
Scalise: Biden Has ‘The Whole Alphabet Soup of Federal Agencies’ Targeting Energy Companies
(CNSNews.com) - President Biden is sending regulating agencies and financial agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, after energy companies, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) said Friday.
“His regulating agencies and the financial agencies, the SEC, the CFPB, the whole alphabet soup of federal agencies are coming after energy companies,” the congressman told Fox Business’s “Mornings with Maria Bartiromo.”
“We had the heads of the oil and gas companies before the Energy and Commerce Committee a few weeks ago. I asked the head of Exxon Mobile as well as all the other heads. I held up a list of the mountains of regulations that Joe Biden’s put against American energy, and I said, is this hurting your ability to produce more and lower the price of gasoline? They all said, ‘Yes,’ of course, it is, and Joe Biden won't reverse that,” Scalise said.
“He campaigned saying he was going to end drilling in America. He bragged about it, and then he’s given AOC, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren all the radicals in Washington. He’s turned the policy over to them to go after American companies like energy companies, and then the prices went through the roof, and people got really angry, and he tried to blame everybody else,” he said.
“It’s Joe Biden’s policies. Everybody knows that he can change these policies today. He just won't because he is beholden to the radical left,” the congressman said.
Scalise that Biden is blaming everyone else for the record high gas prices - Russian President Vladimir Putin, oil companies, and oil refineries - but won’t admit that his policies are to blame.
“You know this is a disturbing pattern we've seen from President Biden on so many of the problems that he created that are hurting families is that he just blames everybody else. Maybe they don’t have mirrors in White house, but he’s looking around. He’s pointing fingers,” he said.
“He’s throwing spaghetti at walls, and nobody’s buying it, because they’re watching so many parts of the fabric of the country. Look at gasoline prices. Gee whiz. We’re over 100 percent higher than when Joe Biden took office, more than double over $5 a gallon, and look at the long list that he’s blamed instead of himself for that. It was Putin. It was the oil companies. It was the pandemic. He’s blamed refineries,” Scalise said.
“He supported a bill that passed by Speaker Pelosi to allow you to sue your local gas station if you don't like the price. The only thing they haven't seen done is support increasing production in America,” the congressman said.
“He’s going to fly to Saudi Arabia probably 5700 miles on Air Force One. Who knows what the carbon footprint of that flight’s going to be to beg them to produce more oil, but he won't let American companies produce oil here,” he said.
“He doesn't even have to fly less than a thousand miles to Port Fourchon, Louisiana, where they would say ‘Yes, we will drill here in America.’ Lower emissions, more money for America or lower gas prices at the pump, but he says no to that, and then he thinks he can blame other people,” Scalise said.
“Everyone knows that it’s Joe Biden's policies that are creating dramatically higher prices than we’re seeing anywhere else, and surely what we paid just two years ago when we had a great robust energy policy,” the congressman added.
Is America Really Producing More Oil Under Biden Than Trump? No, Obviously Not.
Joseph Simonson • June 15, 2022 5:00 amThe White House and its allies are circulating a misleading talking point that the Biden administration is overseeing the most oil production in U.S. history.
Both White House chief of staff Ron Klain and President Joe Biden have used the talking point as a response to Republican criticism that Democrats are discouraging domestic energy production through regulation and not issuing new drilling permits. Earlier this month, Klain shared a chart on Twitter showing oil production under Biden—at an annual average of 11.18 million barrels a day—was higher than any of his five predecessors. In March, Biden said the United States was "approaching record levels of oil and natural gas production."
The claim from Democrats that domestic production is higher now than during the Trump administration is based on a comparison of four-year averages that includes the tremendous drop in economic activity at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Domestic oil production under Biden has yet to come close to the pre-pandemic levels reached under the prior administration, a more detailed Free Beacon analysis found.
The Free Beacon analysis of domestic crude oil production data shows that prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States produced just under 13 million barrels of oil per day at the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020. For comparison, that figure is more than 20 percent higher than the amount of oil the United States produced per day in September 2021. Energy industry expert James Wilson, who runs an oil and gas economics consulting firm, says the White House is abusing statistics to fit a narrative.
"You can claim anything with statistics," Wilson told the Washington Free Beacon. "When COVID hit, the price of oil dropped and then production dropped. Surprise, surprise."
The White House’s insistence on repeating the oil production claim bolsters the impression increasingly held by the public and some Democrats that the Biden administration is out of ideas to tackle rising prices. Even as the cost of gas skyrockets, the White House is sharing a months-old graph from liberal blogger Matthew Yglesias, a symptom of an office "defined by insularity," as Politico has described it.
Domestic oil production trends prior to the pandemic show how misleading these sorts of claims are. For example, the United States produced an average of a million barrels more per day between the start of 2019 to April 2020 than the 11.185 million barrels a day averaged under Biden.
Biden told a group of labor union leaders on Tuesday that "I'm doing everything in my power to blunt Putin's gas price hike" and blamed rising prices on "nothing else but that." Despite that claim, federal data show that average daily domestic oil production in March, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, was lower than in November of last year.
Unlike during Trump’s final year in office, consumer demand for energy is elevated today. Total U.S. petroleum consumption is estimated to rise 730,000 barrels per day this year over last, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Some industry analysts point to macroeconomic trends out of the Biden administration’s control, such as oil companies’ reluctance to invest in new drilling sites because of shareholder pressure, as reasons for lower domestic production. That explanation, Wilson says, does not tell the full story.
"Another thing that’s inhibiting these guys from drilling is uncertainty about what this administration was and is going to do," Wilson said, referring to new and potential future regulations against the oil and gas industry. "The bottom line is that when Trump was president, these companies started producing and oil was cheaper."
Earlier this month gas prices hit an average of $5 a gallon nationwide. Industry analysts expect that price to only increase throughout the summer when more Americans travel for vacation.
The rising price of gas and household goods is the driving force behind Biden’s plummeting approval rating. A majority of voters say the economy is their top concern in multiple surveys, and a RealClearPolitics aggregate of recent polls shows Americans' approval of Biden’s job performance is lower than at any time since he entered office.
Biden Writes to U.S. Oil Executives Urging 'Immediate Action to Increase Supply'
(CNSNews.com) - President Joe Biden reportedly has sent a letter to various U.S. oil and gas executives, "talking about record high profit margins, saying you need to raise your output, raise your refining capacity as well," CNBC's Brian Sullivan reported early Wednesday morning on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
Reading from the letter he'd just obtained, Sullivan said, quoting the president: "You and your companies have an opportunity to take immediate action to increase supply of gas, diesel, other refined products."
"He's trying to bring down prices," Sullivan continued. "And President Biden saying, quote, 'I've directed the Secretary of Energy to convene an emergency meeting on the topic and engage the National Petroleum Council in the next few days.'"
Sullivan summed up: "The president looking to bring down gasoline prices by pressuring refiners and oil companies to produce more, refine more. Will it work? I don't think so in the near term, simply because global demand is so strong, but they're trying, guys.
"This is an incredibly inflationary environment. Which is why, to your point, we are seeing the stock market tank. It's because inflation and the real risk of recession in the next year to 12 months or 18 months is out there," Sullivan said.
Domestic oil producers have endured months of hostility from Biden and his administration.
In fact, earlier this year, on March 18, a coalition of ten oil and natural gas trade associations sent a letter to Biden, urging him to join them in encouraging domestic production to ensure energy security.
"However, there is a key challenge standing in the way of unity: the words and actions of you and members of your administration," that letter said.
In particular, it’s regrettable that you and your White House team have continued to mischaracterize facts regarding our industry – often maligning our motives, and frankly, in some cases, advancing complete and total falsehoods.
"For example, you have said oil companies could be drilling right now because we have over 9,000 approved permits, a misleading statement at best…Also, just last Friday, you said that companies 'would rather take those profits and buy back their own stock rather than take that money and invest it in pumping new oil,'” the letter said.
Biden maligned domestic oil producers again last week, while speaking at the Port of Los Angeles:
"We’re going to make sure that everybody knows Exxon’s profits," he said.
"Exxon made more money than God this year. And, by the way, nothing has changed.
"And they’re not — by the way, one thing I want to say about the oil companies: They talk about how we have — they have 9,000 permits to drill. They’re not drilling. Why aren’t they drilling? Because they make more money not producing more oil. The price goes up, number one.
"And, number two, the reason they’re not drilling is they’re buying back their own stock — which should be taxed, quite frankly — buying back their own stock and making no new investments.
"So I — I always thought Republicans are for investment. Exxon, start investing, start paying your taxes," Biden said.
Forbes magazine reporter David Blackmon asked ExxonMobil for a response to Biden's criticism and received this reply:
"We have been in regular contact with the administration, informing them of our planned investments to increase production and expand refining capacity in the United States.
We increased production in the Permian Basin by 70%, or 190,000 barrels per day, between 2019 and 2021. We expect to increase production from the Permian by another 25% this year. We’re spending 50% more in capital expenditures in the Permian in 2022 vs 2021 and are increasing refining capacity to process U.S. light crude by about 250,000 barrels per day – which is the equivalent of adding a new medium sized refinery.
"We reported losses of more than $20 billion in 2020, and we borrowed more than $30 billion in 2019 and 2020 to support our investments in production around the world. In 2021, total taxes on the company’s income statement were $40.6 billion, an increase of $17.8 billion from 2020."
EVER HEARD OF THE PIPELINE SENILE JOE CANCELLED???
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday claimed the Biden administration has exhausted efforts to reduce energy costs for American citizens. “The administration has done everything that they can” to reduce energy prices, she claimed.
Biden Admin: Families Will Pay $450 More for Gas This Year
Americans will pay $450 more for gas in 2022 than they did last year on an inflation-adjusted basis, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimated this week.
“The share of disposable personal income allocated to gasoline expenditures reached its peak in 2008, just before the onset of the global financial crisis when oil prices were at record highs,” the agency stated in a report on its short-term outlook on energy prices.
Increasing another four cents overnight, gas prices on Wednesday reached an eleventh consecutive record high of $4.95, AAA data shows. Prices have risen 28 cents in one week and 64 cents in one month. Prices have doubled since Donald Trump left office.
Prices are expected to increase to over $6.00 per gallon before Labor Day, according to a JPMorgan commodities analyst. Prices are already averaging over $6.00 in California. Eighteen states are hovering around $5.00 per gallon.
In 2020, Donald Trump warned voters that if Biden won the presidential election, gas prices would reach at least $7.00 per gallon. “If Biden got in, you’d be paying $7, $8, $9. Then they’d say ‘get rid of your car!’”
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told reporters on Thursday that American drivers will have to pay at least $4.00 a gallon for the foreseeable future. “The price of gas is likely to remain above $4 per gallon,” she estimated based on Department of Energy data.
The Biden administration’s energy policies have fueled gas price hikes. These policies include driving up the private and public financing costs of oil drilling, halting drilling on public lands, and canceling the Keystone pipeline. Instead, Yellen blamed coronavirus and the war in Ukraine for the price spikes.
Despite Biden’s war on American energy, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen claimed on Tuesday that the Biden administration has exhausted its options to reduce energy costs for American citizens. “The administration has done everything that they can” to reduce energy prices, she said.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter and Gettr @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
Democrat Senator Says Gas Prices Don’t ‘Matter’ to Her as Millions Impacted by Record-High Prices
Democrat Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) said that gas prices “didn’t matter” to her because she drives an electric vehicle while millions of Americans feel the financial burden of record-high gas prices.
Stabenow’s remarks came during Tuesday’s Senate Finance Committee hearing about President Joe Biden’s fiscal year 2023 budget.
“On the issue of gas prices, after waiting for a long time to have enough chips in this country to finally get my electric vehicle, I got it and drove it from Michigan to here this last weekend and went by every single gas station and it didn’t matter how high it was,” Stabenow said.
“I’m looking forward to the opportunity for us to move to vehicles that aren’t going to be dependent on the whims of the oil companies and the international markets,” she added.
Although the 25-year D.C. veteran has “enough chips in this country to finally” get an electric vehicle, a $56,437 car does not make financial sense for the typical Michigan resident, where the average household income is $59,234, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Electric Vehicles can also be inconvenient for families who take road trips or people who commute to work, as the Wall Street Journal’s Rachel Wolfe detailed in an article titled: “I Rented an Electric Car for a Four-Day Road Trip. I Spent More Time Charging It Than I Did Sleeping.”
The Michigan Senator’s remarks came on the same day gas prices hit a record high for the tenth consecutive day. The average price of one gallon of gas is $4.91. However, Michigan’s average is more than 20 cents higher than the national average, at $5.17 per gallon, according to AAA.
Gas prices have more than doubled since Biden’s inauguration last January when Americans paid $2.39 per gallon on average.
Stabenow joins other Democrats in the Biden administration who are calling for Americans to switch to high-priced electric vehicles to avoid the woes of “Putin’s price hike,” as Biden calls it.
Biden’s Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, urged Americans to transition to electric vehicles during a press conference alongside Vice President Kamala Harris in March.
While Biden continues his war on American energy by taking measures like canceling the Keystone pipeline and prohibiting new drilling on public lands, the administration is seemingly taking no action to reduce gas prices.
White House National Economic Council director Brian Deese claimed there was “no amount of domestic production we can do to reduce” rising gas prices. Biden’s Energy Secretary, Jennifer Granholm, said she expects gas prices to be “rough” for the remainder of the year.
Gas Prices Soar to 11th Consecutive Record-Day High of $4.95
Gas prices on Wednesday reached an eleventh consecutive record-day high of $4.95, AAA data shows.
Increasing another four cents overnight, prices have risen 28 cents in one week and 64 cents in one month. Prices have doubled since Donald Trump left office.
According to a JPMorgan commodities analyst, gas prices are expected to increase to more than $6.00 per gallon before Labor Day. Gas prices are already averaging over $6 in California. Eighteen states are hovering around $5 per gallon.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday claimed the Biden administration has exhausted efforts to reduce energy costs for American citizens. “The administration has done everything that they can” to reduce energy prices, she claimed.
But Yellen ignored President Biden’s war on American energy, which includes driving up private and public financing costs of oil drilling, halting drilling on public lands, and canceling the Keystone pipeline. Instead, Yellen blamed coronavirus and the Ukrainian war for the price spikes.
As gas approaches $5 per gallon, Biden’s Chief of Staff Ron Klain celebrated last year when he discovered gas prices would sink below $3 per gallon. Seven months later, gas prices have soared with the November midterm elections just around the corner.
According to Sunday polling, 74 percent of respondents said Biden’s soaring gas prices are an “extremely/very important” factor in how they will vote in the midterm elections. Gas is expected to cost Americans an extra $450 in 2022.
Similarly, 80 percent of Americans said inflation is an “extremely/very important” factor in how they will vote in the midterm elections, a recent ABC News/Ipsos poll revealed.
Inflation will cost American households on average an extra $5,200 in 2022, or $433 per month, according to Bloomberg. Inflation will also delay 25 percent of Americans from retiring, a BMO Real Financial Progress Index survey revealed.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter and Gettr @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
Gas Station in California Nears $10 per Gallon
A gas station in the Northern California town of Mendocino is reportedly charging nearly $10 per gallon, making it the most expensive gas station in the country, as fuel prices continue to climb nationwide.
As locan ABC affiliate KFSN-30 in Fresno, California, reported:
Schlafer’s Auto Repair is selling regular gas for $9.60 for a gallon.
But that’s not the worst part, if your car requires plus then you’ll have to shell out $9.69 and if you need supreme, well, get ready to pay $9.91 for just a gallon of gas.
According to GasBuddy, it’s the most expensive gas in the country.
That is far higher than the state average of $6.371 as of Tuesday, which is the highest in the country; nationwide, the average is $4.919, according to the American Automobile Association.
There are many reasons for the high price — such as the fact that Mendocino is fairly remote, and that California as a whole pays higher prices due to hight taxes and a relative lack of refineries.
The owner, Judith Schlafer, explained further to SFGate.com:
Running a small town, independent gas station is “a real hard business,” said Schlafer. Because she buys in comparably small quantities compared to high-volume stations in the city or places like Costco and Safeway, the price she pays, she says, has gone “sky high.” For years, she said, she carried up to $80,000 in debt for the Chevron gasoline she was buying. “I said, ‘I can’t keep going like this.’” Now she prices it to pay for a truckload in 10 days.
Another contributor to the high costs, she says, is the fact that her station sells only gas and offers basic maintenance, like wiper replacements and brake light repairs. Other stations, she notes, have convenience stores. “It’s really hard up here to stay in business,” Schlafer said. “I don’t have a convenience store to mark up the food and the trinkets.” At one point, she said, she was offered the opportunity to attach a convenience store to the station, but it would have cost $100,000. She didn’t have it, she said.
She professed to be surprised that her gas station was the most expensive in the country, and said she could not afford to lower her price.
WH: We're Doing 'Everything That We Can' to Lower Gas Prices, But 'I Don’t Have Anything to Preview For You'
(CNSNews.com) - As gasoline prices continue breaking records almost daily now, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre suggested on Monday that Americans should be consoled by the fact that other countries are paying even more than we are.
"But we’re going to continue to do everything that we can. I don’t have anything to preview for you," Jean-Pierre said in the same breath. "But, you know, one thing also I want to say: The Rescue Plan has really been able to help us put — put us in a — in an economic — a place where we’re stronger."
But even President Biden once alluded to the inflationary pressure caused by the Democrats' $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.
Signed into law on March 11, 2021, the "rescue" act provided stimulus checks of $1,400 per person to millions of qualifying Americans. It also provided monthly payments of $250 to $300 per child to millions of families.
President Biden, speaking at the Port of Baltimore in November, acknowledged that because of him, "people have more money now," and that "creates a real problem" because with "more people with money buying product and less product to buy, what happens?...Prices go up," he said.
"But the answer ultimately is -- ultimately meaning the next three or four years -- is investing in renewable energy."
As for rising gasoline prices, President Biden has previously indicated he can't flip a switch to lower them.
"I must tell you, I don't have a near-term answer," Biden said in October. "There's a possibility to be able to bring it down, depends on -- a little bit on Saudi Arabia and a few other things that are in the offing."
More recently -- last Wednesday, in fact -- Biden said he's not "aware" of any "immediate action" that would reduce food and fuel prices.
"There’s a lot going on right now, but the idea we’re going to be able to, you know, click a switch, bring down the cost of gasoline, is not likely in the near term, nor is it with regard to food," Biden said after a meeting with baby formula manufacturers.
"[W]e can’t take immediate action, that I’m aware of yet, to figure out how we bring down the price of gasoline back to three dollars a gallon. And we can’t do that immediately with regard to food prices, either."
Biden said lower child care costs and lower prescription drug price could "compensate" for higher gas prices. "But we can compensate by providing for other necessary costs for families by bringing those down. That reduces the inflation for that family," Biden said.
Biden's three-part plan to ease inflation includes respecting the independence of the Federal Reserve, which uses interest rates as a brake on the economy; lowering prices other than gas and food for families; and raising taxes on the wealthy.
He's also pressing ahead with his "clean" energy agenda, invoking the Defense Production Act "to accelerate domestic production of clean energy technologies."
Here is the full transcript of Jean-Pierre's remarks on Monday, as well as the question that precipitated them:
Question: "On gas prices, I understand what the administration has done up to this point on the policy side of things. I also understand it’s a global marketplace. Given the fact that they keep hitting new highs, are there new initiatives, new policy proposals that your team is working through right now that could possibly have an effect or that you could roll out in the weeks ahead if prices continue where they’ve been?"
Jean-Pierre responded:
"So, everything is on the table, as you heard us — as you heard us say the last couple of weeks. But I do want to say: Look, you know, if you look at what happened when Putin started amassing troops on the border with Russia, the price of gas has increased by $1.51.
"And I also want to add — because this is really important so that people understand and flag that similar issues are happening around the world.
"In the EU, gas is $8.15 per gallon. It has increased by $1.74. In Germany, gas is $8.88 per gallon. It has increased $2.16. In Canada, gas is $6.23 per gallon. It has increased $1.93. And all of this has happened since December of 2021.
"This is — to your point, Phil — which is — this is a global challenge. This is something that everyone is feeling across the globe. And — but we understand that prices — these gas prices, including food prices in particular — those two things, as we look at inflation and trying to make sure that we’re fighting inflation in every way that we can, is hurting families — is hurting families, especially as they sit around their kitchen table.
"But we’re going to continue to do everything that we can. I don’t have anything to preview for you. But, you know, one thing also I want to say: The Rescue Plan has really been able to help us put — put us in a — in an economic — a place where we’re stronger.
"And we saw that with the jobs numbers on Saturday — I’m sorry, on Friday — and that is an important thing to note as well. Because when the President walked in — and this is — you know, this is something that we have to really continue to remember — we were in an economic crisis.
“And the President met that moment by putting forth the American Rescue Plan, by Democrats on the Hill voting for that plan, and really putting us in a place where we look at today in a much stronger economic situation where we can actually deal with inflation head on.
"We have a lot of work to do, and we understand what the American people is feeling, but we are in a stronger place to take that on."
DON'T EXPECT THE BANKSTERS' SLUT JOE BIDEN TO GO AFTER BIG OIL, OR ANYOTHER WALL STREET CRIMINAL!
Buttigieg Blames Big Oil, 'Ridiculously Profitable,' for Record Gas Prices
(CNSNews.com) - President Joe Biden and his administration continue to blame Russia's war on Ukraine for spiking gasoline prices. But some administration officials also blame oil industry profiteering.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told ABC's "This Week" that "the price of gasoline is not set by a dial in the Oval Office."
"And when an oil company is deciding, hour by hour, how much to charge you for a gallon of gas, they're not calling the administration to ask what they should do; they're doing it based on their goal of maximizing their profits.
"It's been very striking right now to see these oil companies, who have become almost ridiculously profitable, and you hear these oil executives on the record talking about how they're not going to increase production. Why would they? They're doing great right now.
"It's why the president has called for a "Use it or lose it" policy, where, if you're sitting on these thousands of permits like these oil executives have been, and you're not doing anything with them, then you're going to be held accountable for that.
"Now, so far congressional Republicans have blocked action to do something like that. But we think that's another step that would make a difference, among the many, many steps the president's already taken."
Buttigieg mentioned that oil companies are "not going to increase production."
But around the same time Sunday morning, economist Gene Sperling, a senior advisor to the president, told "Fox News Sunday" that U.S. oil companies are planning to increase production:
"In terms of oil production here in the United States, first of all, we are at record production for natural gas. We're near record production for oil. The president has talked to the major oil companies who have committed that they are going to increase production by a million barrel by October," Sperling said.
"And in the meantime, the president is releasing 1 million barrels a day through the Strategic Petroleum Reserve."
Host John Roberts noted that the release of oil from the SPR "doesn't appear to be having much effect."
"Well, I don't really agree with that," Sperling said -- as gasoline prices hit new records. "I think it is having a positive effect, but I understand that if prices are still high or even going up, again, as I understand, it's not much comfort to an American family going to the gas pump."
Sperling said he's "sure" the record gasoline prices "will be reflected in the inflation report that we will get this week."
Gas Hits $9.45 Per Gallon in Mendocino, CA
California has high gas prices -- especially in Mendocino County, home of Schlafer’s Auto Repair. As Matt LaFever points out:
"If a driver was to fill up at Schlafer’s, they could find themselves paying the highest price for a regular gallon of gasoline ever documented in the history of the United States: $9.45.
"Patrick De Haan, the Head Petroleum Analyst for GasBuddy, confirmed that Schlafer’s is currently charging the most in the United States for gasoline. Being that California stands as the priciest market during a time when the United States has the highest gas prices in history, De Haan agreed that $9.45/gallon could 'very possibly' be the most expensive gallon of gas in the history of the United States....
"In a past interview, Judy Schlafer, the owner and proprietor of the service station, told us her prices are influenced by the fact the shop acts as an independent business, not a franchise of Chevron. Her business does not sell food and drink, the goods that most often bring profit to gas stations across the United States.
"Currently, California’s average price for a gallon of gasoline is $6.19/gallon with multiple locations reportedly selling their gas at more than $7.25/gallon, a watershed price superseding the federal minimum wage.
"The North Coast of California currently is one of the most expensive regions for drivers with Humboldt County being the highest average price on the North Coast at $6.69/gallon."
Gas prices continue to rise despite Joe Biden partially emptying the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. As the Daily Caller reported, gas prices rose every time Joe Biden released oil from the reserve, showing that it achieved nothing except leaving less in the reserve to deal with a future emergency.
Biden's release of oil from the reserve is just a political gimmick designed to make it look like he is trying to cut oil prices. Critics have argued that Biden's releases of oil were illegal, because they weren't in response to an emergency.
In a recent gaffe, Biden suggested he actually likes high gas prices, because they push people away from using fossil fuels. In his gaffe, Biden celebrated the high gas prices Americans now face as part of an "incredible transition."
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which was designed to store 714 million barrels of oil for emergencies, already contained less than 600 million barrels, its lowest level in 20 years. Biden’s current release of 180 million barrels will take the reserve to its lowest level ever, without even having much impact on oil prices.
Thanks to Democrats’ past decision to keep President Trump from expanding the reserve back when oil was dirt cheap, the amount of oil in the reserve is just too tiny to have much effect on gas prices. America could have refilled and expanded the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in 2020 when oil was cheap, and then sold the oil later at a time of high prices, for a hefty profit.
In March 2020, President Trump proposed adding oil to the strategic petroleum reserve when oil cost only $14 per barrel, but Democrats blocked him from doing that. Now, oil is more expensive, $120 per barrel. Not buying oil back in 2020 cost the U.S. government the opportunity to make billions of dollars reselling the oil today at a profit of over $100 per barrel. If Congress had authorized the purchase of several hundred million barrels of oil for $14 back in 2020, the federal government could sell that oil today for over $100 per barrel, making tens of billions of dollars in profits (if Congressional authorized such a non-emergency sale, as it probably would).
But the oil reserve is nowhere near full, and no effort was made to expand its capacity when oil was cheap. Now, there is too little oil in the reserve to have much effect on oil prices, and the price of a barrel of oil could be even higher in a few months.
Hans Bader practices law in Washington, D.C. After studying economics and history at the University of Virginia and law at Harvard, he practiced civil-rights, international-trade, and constitutional law. He also once worked in the Education Department.
Brian Kilmeade: Is Biden's luck running out?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0EVUGJsBM4
Bank of America Warns that the Summer of Hell is Coming
Even Elon Musk is Getting Worried About the Economy - Prepare Now
Gas Prices Have Doubled Since Joe Biden Assumed Office
Gas prices on Saturday had more than doubled since President Joe Biden assumed office, AAA data shows.
Gas prices reached a seven day record average of $4.81 on Saturday, doubling the $2.39 per gallon price on Biden’s inauguration day.
Since Biden assumed office, the nation has suffered from his energy and fiscal policies, supply chain woes, and 40-year-high inflation. On Thursday, the Washington Post admitted Biden’s “$1.9 trillion rescue package in March 2021 was too large” because it fueled inflation.
Biden has repeatedly said he is doing everything he can to lower costs for Americans. Yet Biden has not reversed course on several key stifling energy policies, Breitbart News reported:
Biden has waged war on both public and private financing of oil drilling while subsidizing green-new-deal-like energy plans. As a result, American oil production is down from 2019, the year before the pandemic. Hard numbers suggest 2022 oil production is 12 million barrels per day, or eight percent less than in 2019.
Biden has made it increasingly more difficult for oil companies to gain financing to drill on private lands. He has also halted new drilling on public lands and terminated the Keystone Pipeline project that would have transported vast amounts of oil to American refineries.
President Biden’s Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told reporters on Thursday that Americans will have to pay at least four dollars a gallon for the foreseeable future. “The price of gas is likely to remain above $4 per gallon,” she estimated based on Department of Energy data.
Granholm has said in the past that high gas prices will encourage people to transition to more expensive, fuel-efficient vehicles.
In April, Biden suggested Americans can save money by purchasing an electric vehicle. “Under my plan, which is before the Congress now, we can take advantage of the next generation of electric vehicles,” he said. “A typical driver will save about $80 a month from not having to pay gas at the pump.”
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter and Gettr @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
Gas Hits $9.45 Per Gallon in Mendocino, CA
California has high gas prices -- especially in Mendocino County, home of Schlafer’s Auto Repair. As Matt Lever points out:
"If a driver was to fill up at Schlafer’s, they could find themselves paying the highest price for a regular gallon of gasoline ever documented in the history of the United States: $9.45.
"Patrick De Haan, the Head Petroleum Analyst for GasBuddy, confirmed that Schlafer’s is currently charging the most in the United States for gasoline. Being that California stands as the priciest market during a time when the United States has the highest gas prices in history, De Haan agreed that $9.45/gallon could 'very possibly' be the most expensive gallon of gas in the history of the United States....
"In a past interview, Judy Schlafer, the owner and proprietor of the service station, told us her prices are influenced by the fact the shop acts as an independent business, not a franchise of Chevron. Her business does not sell food and drink, the goods that most often bring profit to gas stations across the United States.
"Currently, California’s average price for a gallon of gasoline is $6.19/gallon with multiple locations reportedly selling their gas at more than $7.25/gallon, a watershed price superseding the federal minimum wage.
"The North Coast of California currently is one of the most expensive regions for drivers with Humboldt County being the highest average price on the North Coast at $6.69/gallon."
Gas prices continue to rise despite Joe Biden partially emptying the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. As the Daily Caller reported, gas prices rose every time Joe Biden released oil from the reserve, showing that it achieved nothing except leaving less in the reserve to deal with a future emergency.
Biden's release of oil from the reserve is just a political gimmick designed to make it look like he is trying to cut oil prices. Critics have argued that Biden's releases of oil were illegal, because they weren't in response to an emergency.
In a recent gaffe, Biden suggested he actually likes high gas prices, because they push people away from using fossil fuels. In his gaffe, Biden celebrated the high gas prices Americans now face as part of an "incredible transition."
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which was designed to store 714 million barrels of oil for emergencies, already contained less than 600 million barrels, its lowest level in 20 years. Biden’s current release of 180 million barrels will take the reserve to its lowest level ever, without even having much impact on oil prices.
Thanks to Democrats’ past decision to keep President Trump from expanding the reserve back when oil was dirt cheap, the amount of oil in the reserve is just too tiny to have much effect on gas prices. America could have refilled and expanded the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in 2020 when oil was cheap, and then sold the oil later at a time of high prices, for a hefty profit.
In March 2020, President Trump proposed adding oil to the strategic petroleum reserve when oil cost only $14 per barrel, but Democrats blocked him from doing that. Now, oil is more expensive, $120 per barrel. Not buying oil back in 2020 cost the U.S. government the opportunity to make billions of dollars reselling the oil today at a profit of over $100 per barrel. If Congress had authorized the purchase of several hundred million barrels of oil for $14 back in 2020, the federal government could sell that oil today for over $100 per barrel, making tens of billions of dollars in profits (if Congressional authorized such a non-emergency sale, as it probably would).
But the oil reserve is nowhere near full, and no effort was made to expand its capacity when oil was cheap. Now, there is too little oil in the reserve to have much effect on oil prices, and the price of a barrel of oil could be even higher in a few months.
Hans Bader practices law in Washington, D.C. After studying economics and history at the University of Virginia and law at Harvard, he practiced civil-rights, international-trade, and constitutional law. He also once worked in the Education Department.
Don't Fall for Biden's Inflation Bunk
President Biden, desperate to provide lift to his sagging approval ratings, has released his "plan for fighting inflation" and it’s a doozy.
For too long, the president didn’t have a plan, because it served his interests to say inflation was only “transitory.” “Who you gonna believe,” he seemed to ask us, “me and [Federal Reserve Chair] Jay [Powell], or your lyin’ eyes at the grocery store?”
To reassure us that he’s serious about this, he took to the pages of The Wall Street Journal.
Biden’s first exaggeration appears in the opening line of the third paragraph: “In January 2021, when I took office, the recovery had stalled.…“ In that and succeeding paragraphs, he takes credit for all manner of things: “The job market is the strongest since the post-World War II era," “A higher percentage of Americans reported feeling financially comfortable at the end of 2021 than at any time since the survey began in 2013," “Business investment is up 20%," “The U.S. is in a better economic position than almost any other country," and “The U.S. economy may grow faster this year than China’s economy for the first time since 1976.”
Biden’s assertion that the economy had “stalled” is important. So is the presence (absence?) of the dog that didn’t bark – that is, the shutdown-induced retrenchment in the economy. Together, they build the foundation for the rest of his argument.
A weak foundation it is.
First, by what measure does Biden allege the recovery “stalled”?
A look at U.S. economic growth on a month-by-month basis reveals important data. Before the coronavirus arrived, the economy was humming along nicely, hitting a peak of $21.92 trillion at the end of February 2020. Then came the shutdown-induced retrenchment, driving our economy to a low point of $18.51 trillion in April 2020. That was followed by a robust recovery, so much so that the economy had recovered fully, and surpassed its previous peak, reaching $22.02 trillion by the time Biden arrived in January 2021.
During those nine months of recovery, in only one of them – November 2020 – did economic growth “stall.” In the other eight months, the economy was roaring back, full steam ahead.
Second, in virtually all of the things he takes credit for, he fails to mention that each metric is relative, not absolute, and is compared to what came before – where “before” is the trench at the bottom of the retrenchment. Measuring from such a low starting point has the effect of enhancing the achievement.
For instance, Biden claims credit for the strongest job market since World War II, and for the fact that “manufacturing jobs are growing at their fastest rate in 30 years.” But he fails to mention that the shutdown-induced retrenchment cost us 22 million jobs. When you’re starting so far behind, even 30 miles per hour looks like Indy-car speed.
Perhaps most insulting is the assertion that our economy may grow faster than China’s in 2022 for the first time since 1976. For what does he take us? Biden drops that on us as if he and his economic team had anything to do with that, when, in reality, if that actually comes to pass, it will be because of a slowdown in China’s economic growth, courtesy of policies imposed by the Chinese Communist Party – because of which, China’s shutdown-induced retrenchment is hitting it in 2022 rather than two years ago, when it hit the rest of the world.
Then comes Biden’s biggest mistake, cloaked as an achievement – his renomination of Fed Chair Jay Powell.
As Fed chair, Powell was the government official most responsible for keeping inflation under control.
Overseeing the worst inflation in 40 years is, to put it mildly, failing at keeping inflation under control.
Yet Biden chose to renominate Powell for another four-year term at the helm of the Fed. There’s no amount of window-dressing that can hide that fundamental fact.
All in all, it’s the standard drivel we’ve come to expect from Team Biden. Save yourself the effort, and put your time to better and more productive use – go see “Top Gun: Maverick.”
Jenny Beth Martin is honorary chairman of Tea Party Patriots Action.
Granholm: SPR Release Is ‘Doing Its Job’ – But Gas Prices Will Be ‘Rough’ ‘Through the End of the Year’
During portions of an interview with ABC News released on Friday, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm argued that the release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is “doing its job.” Because the point of the release “is to stabilize the global market” for oil and warned that gas prices will increase over the summer and gas prices will be “rough” “from now through the end of the year, really.”
Granholm stated, “The point of this — it’s doing its job. Because it is to stabilize the global market. I mean, we happen to have the largest tool of any country in terms of the volume of our strategic petroleum reserves.”
ABC News Correspondent Alex Presha then asked, “Do you feel like we’re close to that stabilization? Do you think things are still going to still continue to tick up?”
Granholm answered, “Well, we are starting the driving season, not just in the United States, but in other parts of the world, too. That means demand for oil products like gasoline goes up.”
She also said, “The driving season is beginning. There will be more demand for gasoline, more demand for oil. That will cause additional upward pressure, like it does every year, but now it’s on top of already high prices. So, this is going to be a rough — from now through the end of the year, really.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
Biden: The Economy Isn’t Bad, You Just Can’t See How Good It Is
Maybe if we tilt our heads and squint.
Old Joe Biden has been a liar his entire public life, from his plagiarism in law school and on the presidential campaign trail to his lies about the accident that killed his first wife and the innumerable lies he has told while pretending to be president. It is no exaggeration to say that Joe Biden is one of the most untrustworthy men on the planet. On Friday he reinforced that reputation with a major speech on the May jobs report, in which he had the breathtaking audacity to say that the smoking ruin of an economy over which he is presiding, and which his far-Left policies created, is actually doing great. Maybe if we tilt our heads and squint, we’ll be able to see it.
Speaking on his home turf in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, Biden touted “today’s excellent jobs report and unemployment remaining at a near-historic low of 3.6 percent.” He admitted, however, that “even with today’s good news, a lot of Americans remain anxious,” and “high prices, particularly around gasoline and food, are a real problem for people.” However, because of his ace leadership, all is really well: “Because of the enormous progress we’ve made on the economy, the Americans can tackle inflation from a position of strength. Still a problem, but we can tackle it from a position of strength.”
Biden claimed, with a straight face, that “today, thanks to the economic plan and the vaccination plan that my administration put into action, America has achieved the most robust recovery in modern history just two years removed from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.” You thought Old Joe was heading us into another Great Depression, but he’s here to tell you that he has just led us out of one, and he wouldn’t lie to us, now, would he?
The putative economic wizard added disingenuously that “the job market is the strongest it’s been since just after World War Two. We’ve got more evidence of that today. We learned that in May the economy added another 390,000 new jobs, bringing the total since I took office to 8.7 million new jobs — an all-time record.” He did not acknowledge, and has never acknowledged, that these new jobs his policies have supposedly created are for the most part people returning to work after the COVID hysteria, and nothing to do with his policies at all.
Biden’s lying didn’t stop there. “Since I took office,” he claimed, “families are carrying less debt; their average savings are up. A recent survey from the Federal Reserve found that more Americans feel financially comfortable than at any time since the survey began in 2013.” Really? More Americans feel financially comfortable with gas prices through the roof, food prices not far behind, baby formula nearly impossible to find and more food shortages coming, and dire warnings that much, much worse is coming soon?
Directly contrary to Biden’s soothing lies, CNBC reported on May 18 that “Americans are more stressed about money than they’ve ever been, according to the American Psychological Association’s latest Stress In America Survey.” That stress is because of Old Joe’s inflationary policies: “‘Eighty-seven percent of Americans said that inflation and the rising costs of everyday goods is what’s driving their stress,’ said Vaile Wright, senior director of health care innovation at the American Psychological Association.”
But Old Joe is oblivious to all this, or hopes that we are. In his world, the U.S. is an unmatched economic powerhouse: “In fact, America is stronger economic — in a stronger economic position today than just about any other country in the world. Independent experts have projected that the U.S. economy could grow faster than China’s economy this year. That hasn’t happened since 1976, nearly one half century ago.” And it’s all because of his wise, capable, steady leadership: “The point is this: We’ve laid an economic foundation that’s historically strong. And now, we’re moving forward to a new moment where we can build on that foundation, build a future of stable, steady growth so we can bring down inflation without sacrificing all the historic gains we’ve made. And that’s what we’re beginning to see in today’s jobs report.”
So why is everyone feeling anxious, as even Biden admitted? Well, Biden said, it’s all because of the “Putin price hike.” Of course! The Democrats have been blaming the Russians for nearly everything, real and imagined, since 2016. Why stop now? Clearer heads than Old Joe’s would counsel caution in that, not wanting to get us embroiled in a world war. But clearly Joe has no worries. Our booming economy will overwhelm those Russkis in no time! If only we could all live inside Joe’s head, where everything is swell. But there is so very, very little space there.
Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He is author of 23 books including many bestsellers, such as The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), The Truth About Muhammad and The History of Jihad. His latest book is The Critical Qur’an. Follow him on Twitter here. Like him on Facebook here.
Yes, Biden Deserves Blame for Inflation
From top to bottom, the administration is as wrong as any could be.
President Joe Biden has written an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal detailing his plan to fight inflation.
Well, perhaps the word "detailing" is too generous. The preponderance of the column features Biden taking credit for economic growth that can be attributed to the reopening of the economy that was shuttered by the governing class during COVID. Biden, of course, not only championed those closings but was critical of Republican governors who opened their states before he deemed it appropriate.
But with midterms approaching, there's been a concerted effort underway to exonerate the president, and thus Democrats, of any culpability for rising prices. Biden sycophant "Morning Joe," for example, contends that anyone who blames the president for more than a "passing impact" on inflation is a "lying hack or an ignorant rube." One wonders if that group includes former Obama adviser Steve Rattner, who argues that inflation has been driven by government putting "too much money in people's pockets"? Or Obama's onetime Director of the National Economic Council Larry Summers, who had been warning for more than a year that cash infusions would exacerbate inflation? Or Jeff Bezos, who correctly pointed out that the "administration tried hard to inject even more stimulus into an already over-heated, inflationary economy"?
Even if we were to concede that there is no good way to quantify exactly how much recent spending helped propel inflation — which is outpacing other Western nations — it's clear that the Biden administration completely mismanaged what should have been a slam-dunk recovery.
The Federal Reserve's easy monetary policy may not be the president's fault, but what about Washington's showering the economy with cash during a recovering economy? Democrats threw $2 trillion in "stimulus" into the economy and continued expanding the terms of unemployment benefits (even as the job market was recovering). All of this after the $3 trillion bipartisan "COVID relief" bill had passed.
With an assist from some Republicans, Democrats then approved another trillion-plus-dollar infrastructure bill. The president says that "tackling inflation" is his top domestic priority, but for more than a year most of his efforts, witnessed in the near-constant media coverage, were used to try to pass progressive reforms. It was Republicans — with help of two often-vilified, moderate Democrats — who stood in the way of Biden pushing through another nearly $5 trillion in social spending. The president still wants more "relief."
Biden can blame Vladimir Putin for creating disruptions in the energy market, but price spikes predate Russia's invasion of Ukraine. And surely one of the jobs of the president is to put the United States in a stronger position for economic shocks. Instead, Biden signed a slew of executive orders pausing government leases on public lands, shutting down the Keystone XL pipeline, and stymieing drilling in the Gulf of Mexico over concocted "social cost of carbon" externalities. Despite the (extra) uncertainty that came with a post-pandemic economy, all of this was done in the first weeks of his administration.
Biden is now calling these energy spikes, embedded in essentially all economic activity, a needed "transition." Virtually every action Biden has taken is conceived to make fossil fuels more expensive. That's the president's fault. Concerns over the availability of future energy production are baked into today's prices.
As a political matter, Democrats, obsessed with the idea of historic expansion of the welfare state, spent a year dismissing and mocking apprehensions over spiking prices. "There's nobody suggesting there's unchecked inflation on the way — no serious economist," Biden famously claimed.
As prices spiked and poll numbers dropped, Biden officials began to cynically use rising prices as a justification for more spending. Biden and his National Economic Council Director Brian Deese argued that Build Back Better — which you might recall costs "zero" dollars — would help combat inflation. The entire administration pushed the notion that the best prescription for alleviating inflation was more spending. Even today, as the president is poised to "forgive" student loans, pumping hundreds of billions into the economy to bail out rich kids, Deese maintains the impact "on inflation, in the near term, is likely to be quite small." Sure.
In any event, I assume Ron Klain isn't laughing off inflation as a "high class problem" anymore.
So, while it's true that inflation is a complex, multifaceted problem that isn't entirely any one person's or administration's or event's fault, it is fair to say that the Biden administration, from top to bottom, was as wrong as an administration could be on the issue. They ignored it. They weren't prepared. They exacerbated it. At the very least, Biden deserves a lot more credit for inflation than he does economic growth. If you're going to take credit for the latter, you deserve blame for the former.
David Harsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist. Harsanyi is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of five books — the most recent, "Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent."
SHOCKING VIDEO:
If Joe Biden is the answer….what’s the question?
Banks Preparing for 2022 Recession (NO MORE LOANS)
THE NEXT HOUSING CORRECTION WILL NOT BE PRETTY! MIDDLE CLASS GOING BROKE, BUYERS WILL BE THE WEALTHY
It takes someone in the tank, if not brain-dead, to call this a 'Goldilocks econony'
Nonfarm business sector labor productivity decreased 7.3 percent in the first quarter of 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today, as output decreased 2.3 percent and hours worked increased 5.4 percent. This is the largest decline in quarterly productivity since the third quarter of 1947, when the measure decreased 11.7 percent. (All quarterly percent changes in this release are seasonally adjusted annual rates.) From the same quarter a year ago, nonfarm business sector labor productivity decreased 0.6 percent, reflecting a 4.2-percent increase in output that was outpaced by a 4.8-percent increase in hours worked.
CEOs warn that US households are burning through savings at an alarming rate, and could run out within months
Consumer credit card debt and annual percentage rates are heading to an all-time high
Less than 30% of the public believe the country is heading in the right direction.
The share of Americans in poverty in 2019 declined and median incomes were the highest on record, a Census Bureau report showed.
French Open semi-final halted as protester ties herself to net
VIDEO
If it’s illegal…..they won’t do it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiuhA84ut-8
THE ECONOMIC DECLINE IS BEGINNING TO WAKE UP THE MASSES! THE FINANCIAL STORM GETS DARKER, PRICE PAIN
VIDEO
20 Signs Of The Staggering Decline Of The American Middle Class Family
We just got more evidence that the middle class is being systematically destroyed in America. At this point, millions of people out there have already grown accustomed to barely scraping by from month to month. But that is not what being “middle class” is supposed to be about. Middle-class families should be able to make more money than they have to spend on everyday necessities because is only by doing so that they can build long-term wealth. Unfortunately, income growth has not kept up with the pace of the rising cost of living, and millions of households have taken massive amounts of debt. At the same time, the labor market doesn't offer good-paying jobs that support middle-class life, and the lack of these positions has been contributing to the decline of this income group all across the country. In the early 1970s, the middle class accounted for around 60 percent of the population, but now middle-income households are rapidly becoming a minority in the United States. And as economic conditions continue to deteriorate, millions of hard-working families all over America are being stretched financially like never before. “In America, the middle class can no longer afford retirement. Middle-class Americans face sharp economic inequality, with ownership of financial assets highly concentrated among the wealthy,” explained Tyler Bond, NIRS research manager. “Now that we have a retirement system largely built around the individual ownership of financial assets in 401(k) accounts, middle-class Americans are struggling to accumulate sufficient financial assets during their working years. This means the retirement outlook for many in the middle class is bleak at best.” Since the onset of the health crisis, the U.S. economy has been decaying at an alarming pace. Over the past two years, the middle class has gotten smaller and smaller in this country, and now it seems that another economic downturn is upon us once again. So many families are already living on the edge right now. Recent surveys have exposed that well over 50% of the population is living paycheck to paycheck and that most Americans don't have emergency savings or a financial cushion to fall back on. When you are living on the edge, there is always a danger that you could fall over. Since 2020, we have never seen so many middle-class Americans falling straight into poverty. In other words, unless dramatic changes happen in America, the middle class is going to be absolutely eviscerated in the next decade. We must wake up now. The middle class is dying right before our eyes, and if we want to save it, we must take action now. Today, we compiled a series of new numbers that expose the rapid downfall of the U.S. middle-class.
Economic Gloom Hits Worst Level in 50 Years
A severe pessimism grips the U.S. economy and Americans report the highest level of dissatisfaction with their financial situation in at least half a century, poll results released Monday show.
Eighty-three percent of Americans describe the state of the economy as poor or not so good, according to a Wall Street Journal-NORC Poll. Only one percent describe the economy as “excellent.”
The poll results show just how much inflation has damaged the U.S. economy and the perceptions of Americans about their own financial well-being. The Consumer Price Index in March was up the most in 40 years and the April inflation rate was close behind it. The government will release figures for May’s price level on Friday.
Thirty-five percent said they are not at all satisfied with their financial condition, the highest level of dissatisfaction since NORC began asking the question every few years starting in 1972.
Sixty-three percent of Americans say they are extremely or very concerned about the price of gas. Fifty-four percent say they are extremely or very concerned about the impact of high grocery prices on their household’s financial situation. Just 13 percent say they not very or not at all concerned about gas prices and 19 percent about grocery prices.
The share of Americans who think they can improve their standard of living has plunged. Just 27 percent now say they have a good chance of improving, down from 47 percent a year ago. Forty-six percent say they don’t have a good chance of improving their standard of living.
Only 38 percent of Americans say they are generally optimistic about the opportunity for most people to achieve the American dream. Sixty-eight percent say they are generally pessimistic.
President Joe Biden is reportedly “seething” over his failing presidency as his approval numbers have tanked due to the overwhelming pessimism over the economy. A separate poll by ABC/ISPOS showed that 61 percent of Americans disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy, 71 percent disapprove of his handling of inflation, and 72 percent disapprove of his handling of gas prices. Sixty-one percent also disapprove of Biden’s tax policies. Twenty-one percent say inflation will be their single most important issue when they vote in the midterms.
Migrant enclaves already are at the top of the U.S. lists for bad places to live - 10 of the 50 worst places in America to live according to this list are in California, and all of them are famous for their illegal populations.
MONICA SHOWALTER
THE NEXT HOUSING CORRECTION WILL NOT BE PRETTY! MIDDLE CLASS GOING BROKE, BUYERS WILL BE THE WEALTHY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRqfdbJOVrg
With Biden in office, America’s southern border
has vanished entirely.
https://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2022/06/is-joe-bidens-open-borders-destroying.html
So, while we in America are getting a fair number of sex traffickers; mountains of fentanyl; low skilled, illegal workers who drive down wages; and more welfare mouths to feed, the Latin Americans who come here mostly want to work and mostly hew to traditional western, Christian values. ANDREA WIDBURG
AS IN MOST CITIES OF AMERICA, MOST CRIME IN CALIFORNIA IS PERPEATRATED BY BLACKS
California's Crime Wave - What's the Problem? | Full Documentary
LOS ANGELES: MEXICO'S SECOND LARGEST CITY
Lost Angeles: City of Homeless
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJt3xuTPRVU
We Are Witnessing A Last Minute Mass Exodus Before The Final Collapse Of Our Major Cities
California County Sees Average Gas Price Soar Above $7 per Gallon
California is maintaining its status of having the highest gas prices in the nation, with one county in particular seeing prices soar above $7.00 per gallon for regular fuel.
The nationwide average price for gas jumped yet again on Monday, breaking another record of $4.865 per gallon. That reflects a nearly $0.25 cent jump in the last week, a nearly $0.59 rise in the last month, and a $1.81 rise in the last year.
Mid-grade gas has hit a national average of $5.218, and premium is now $5.510. Diesel also hit another record on Monday, reaching $5.645.
No state in the nation is seeing an average price below $4.00, and several states have an average of $5.00 or more. Those states now include Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Washington, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Hawaii, Alaska, and California, the last of which has the highest gas price average in the nation — $6.341, which is more than $1.47 higher than the average price nationwide. San Francisco County, for instance, is seeing an average of $6.590 per gallon. Mono County is experiencing the highest gas price average in the country, with prices soaring over $7.00, standing at $7.044.
According to AAA, the demand for domestic gas rose last week in the midst of Memorial Day weekend, despite one-third stating that the price of gas affected their Memorial Day plans.
“People are still fueling up, despite these high prices,” AAA spokesperson Andrew Gross said in a statement. “At some point, drivers may change their daily driving habits or lifestyle due to these high prices, but we are not there yet.
Oakland neighborhood plagued by brazen crimes
San Francisco jeweler closes shop after multiple burglaries
An FBI report on ‘Active Shooter Incidents’ in 2021 shows that California was the number one state for such incidents, with six incidents total.
California is also number one for gun law strength, the Mike Bloomberg-affiliated Everytown for Gun Safety noted.
According to the FBI, there were 61 “active shooter incidents” across the country in 2021 and 12 of the incidents met the definition of a “mass killing.”
California led the nation with six “active shooter incidents.”
California has universal background checks, an “assault weapons” ban, a “high capacity” magazine ban, a 10-day waiting period on gun purchases, a red flag law, gun registration requirements, a “good cause” requirement for concealed carry permit issuance, a ban on carrying a gun on a college campus for self-defense, a ban on K-12 teachers being armed on campus for classroom defense, a background check requirement for ammunition purchases, and a limit on the number of guns a law-abiding citizen can purchase in a given month, among other controls.
Additionally, ammunition purchases are only allowed if made through a state-approved vendor.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.
Biden blasts oil refiners for record high gasoline prices, profits
By Trevor Hunnicutt and Jarrett Renshaw
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday demanded oil refining companies explain why they are not putting more gasoline on the market, sharply escalating his rhetoric against industry as he faces pressure over rising prices.
Biden wrote to executives from Marathon Petroleum Corp , Valero Energy Corp and Exxon Mobil Corp and complained they had cut back on oil refining to pad their profits, according to a copy of the letter https://docsend.com/view/qpg3e8a2s3fbxi3a seen by Reuters.
The letter is also being sent to Phillips 66, Chevron Corp, BP and Shell, a White House official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.
"At a time of war, refinery profit margins well above normal being passed directly onto American families are not acceptable," Biden wrote, adding the lack of refining was driving gas prices up faster than oil prices.
U.S. energy companies are enjoying bumper profits as the Russian invasion of Ukraine has added to a supply squeeze which has driven crude oil prices above $100 a barrel, and as fuel demand has remained robust, despite record high gasoline prices.
U.S. refining capacity peaked in April 2020 at just under 19 million barrels per day (bpd), as refiners shut several unprofitable facilities during the coronavirus pandemic. As of March, refining capacity was 17.9 million bpd, but there have been other closures announced since.
U.S. refiners are running at near-peak levels to process fuel - currently at 94% of capacity - and say there is little they can do to satisfy Biden's demands.
“Our refineries are running full out,” Bruce Niemeyer, corporate vice president of strategy and sustainability at Chevron, told Reuters on the sidelines of a New York energy transition conference on Tuesday, before Biden’s letter was made public.
Biden said the industry's lack of action is blunting the administration's attempts to offset the impact of oil-rich Russia's invasion of Ukraine, such as releases from the nation's oil reserves and adding more cheaper ethanol to gasoline.
On Friday, the president accused the U.S. oil industry, and Exxon Mobil Corp XOM.N in particular, of capitalizing on a supply shortage to fatten profits after a report showed .nL1N2XY03V
INFLATION WOES
Biden has been intensifying attacks against oil companies as gas pump prices race to record highs above $5 per gallon and inflation surges to a 40-year record. [nL1N2XX1VP]
Privately, White House officials have been reaching out to refiners to inquire about idled plants and spare capacity and whether there are other ways to increase gasoline supply, according to two sources familiar with the discussions.
Rising gas prices have helped drive unexpectedly persistent consumer price inflation and voter anger before Nov. 8 midterm elections where Biden's Democratic Party is defending its control of Congress.
U.S. consumer inflation unexpectedly accelerated in May, leading to the largest annual increase in four decades. White House officials have hotly debated how to respond to a problem they once thought would fade and now see as largely out of their control.
Biden has attributed rising oil prices primarily to U.S.-led sanctions that took Russian energy supplies off the global market after its invasion of Ukraine.
But he has also taken the fight to major oil companies, which are riding rising energy prices to record earnings, and giving those profits to investors rather than spending on new drilling and refining capacity.
"Exxon made more money than God this year," Biden said last week.
Exxon's first quarter profit doubled from the previous year's to $5.48 billion, and the major told investors it would increase share buybacks.
U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm plans to host an emergency meeting on how refiners can respond to higher prices, Biden said, asking for a response from the oil companies beforehand.
She said they should provide "concrete ideas" to increase oil refining along with an explanation for why they may have cut such capacity in the last two years.
"We're on a war footing," Granholm said in an interview with MSNBC. "The price of oil and the price of gas is precipitating the high cost, the high percentage of inflation around the world."
"We're not against profit," Granholm said, but added that when there is a 225% increase in profit year after year it means something else is going on.
(This story refiles to remove extraneous paragraph 10)
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Jarrett Renshaw and David Gaffen; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Heather Timmons and Marguerita Choy)
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