One of the most disingenuous narratives pushed onto the American economic story is that President Biden has the power to control the price of gas at the pump. It’s false. Even the notion that the Keystone XL Pipeline could bring down gas prices is a lie, and if only the Biden Administration allowed more drilling on public lands gas prices would come down. That is a lie.
Gas prices are determined but the market established by oil producing countries. Whatever the price per barrel they establish, will be the basis for prices set by American oil companies. Don’t believe it ask yourself if Biden could control oil prices why are US oil companies reporting record profits. Didn’t Biden have plans to tax those profits? Every Republican in the Senate and two Conservative Democrats; Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have rejected that part of the Biden economic agenda.
(https://www.npr.org/2022/05/07/1097177459/big-oil-exxon-earnings-gasoline-prices-crude)
“Biden has ordered the release of millions of barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to boost supply, pushed for nations in the Middle East to boost production, lifted restrictions on the sale of fuel with higher ethanol content, and promoted renewable energy sources such as electric vehicles and solar power.
But the reality, as even some Biden administration officials acknowledge, is the president has little sway over day-to-day gas prices, which are often at the mercy of global supply chains and have been impacted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“This is, in large part, caused by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s aggression,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on CNN this week. “Since Putin moved troops to the border of Ukraine, gas prices have gone up over $1.40 a gallon, and the president is asking for Congress and others for potential ideas. But, as you say, the reality is that there isn’t very much more to be done.”
Friday delivered another blow to the Biden administration with the release of a poor inflation report that showed consumer price growth spiked in May. The Labor Department’s consumer price index rose 1 percent last month alone and 8.6 percent in the 12-month stretch ending in May.
Republican strategist Doug Heye argued the Biden administration has had a lackluster response to inflation that has contributed to the hit his approval rating has taken and the low marks he has received on the economy.
“There seems to be, on some of these issues, just a shrugging of the shoulders, and that’s why you see, overwhelmingly, Biden’s handling of the economy is unpopular,” he said. “Obviously what’s happened in Ukraine has caused a spike, and there’s nothing wrong with talking about that, but that seems to be the entire explanation when inflation has gone up every month that Biden has been president.”
Biden on Friday stressed that he is sympathetic to the impact of high inflation on American families.
“I understand Americans are anxious, and they’re anxious for good reason,” he said in remarks at the Port of Los Angeles.
“Make no mistake about it: I understand inflation is a real challenge to American families,” he added. “Today’s inflation report confirmed what Americans already know: Putin’s price hike is hitting America hard. Gas prices at the pump, energy and food prices account for half of the monthly price increases since May.”
He called on Congress to pass legislation to cut shipping costs and the costs of energy bills and prescription drugs as well as tax reform so big corporations pay more.
Part of the challenge for the White House, however, is that many Americans don’t realize Biden doesn’t control gas prices, said Matt Bennett, a strategist with centrist think tank Third Way.”
The Biden Administration also took steps to help relieve supply chain issues to get imported products into American ports and shipped to stores. However, a lot of the backlog is happening in countries that produce the goods due to continued issues with mutating strains of the COVID virus. It’s not just a problem hitting the markets of the US, its global. Why do we feel it here, well back in 1990’s and early 2000s US companies and their investors began offshoring jobs and manufacturing to countries that paid their workers less and offered little if any healthcare protection. Now in the face of a global pandemic those companies cannot keep enough healthy workers to fill the demand of consumers, and the US investors in companies continue to expect a fat return on their investments, so they push up prices to make up for the product shortfalls.
A Reasonable Point of View 