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Let’s not be distracted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Gas and food prices were skyrocketing long before Russia’s invasion. Gas prices headed north immediately after President Biden signed executive orders reducing the amount of oil and gas we were producing by about 20%. Food prices started rising shortly thereafter. That was a full year before Russia’s invasion. So please don’t be one of the small brain people who believe the President and the media when they blame Russia. Putin’s invasion only exacerbated a problem that we initiated with imbecilic energy policies. The one thing I despise more than a complicit media, and gullible people, is a President who looks directly into the camera and lies to us. President Biden said he understands our pain, and that he is doing everything in his power to give us some relief. That is a total lie! If he was serious about reducing the cost of gas, and other goods, he would simply reverse his destructive Executive Orders (EO) that shut down oil and gas production in the U.S. It is literally that simple. Prices would start coming down in a very short period of time. Don’t ever forget that Joe Biden’s harmful energy policies are directly responsible for the crushing prices we are paying from the gas pump to the grocery store. And it is going to get increasingly painful.

If you hate fossil fuels I get it. But let’s not be totally insane. As I write this post there are reports of our President, or his envoys, having discussions with Venezuela, and Iran. Are we really asking the murdering leader of Venezuela, and Iran, the leading funder of global terrorism, to pump more oil to help meet the increase in demand? Does our President really want to fund these evil people? Nobody produces cleaner, more environmentally friendly, crude oil than the U.S. Does our President really prefer dealing with Venezuela and Iran, as opposed to Texas and Alaska? This is absurd!

The law of supply and demand is the most basic, and simple, explanation of why prices go up and down. Gas prices will continue to rise as long as there is a greater demand for it than there is a supply of it. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, as of 2020, the 10 largest oil producing countries in the world are: United States, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Iraq, China, United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Iran, and Kuwait. These countries combine to produce over 70% of the world’s oil. Under the energy policies of President Trump the U.S. became the number one global producer of oil and gas. We were energy self sufficient, and were actually net exporters of energy, for the first time since the 1950s. In his first few days in office, President Biden signed EOs that effectively reduced our current and future production of oil and gas by about 20%. That caused a reduction in the supply of gasoline. Coming out of the pandemic lockdowns Americans began taking vacations, and traveling again. Economic activity was beginning to pick up. This combined to create an increase in demand. When reductions of supply are paired with increases in demand, prices always go up. It is axiomatic in a free market capitalist system. If Biden were to reverse his EOs tomorrow we would experience a small reduction in gas prices immediately. The real reductions would come when drillers started producing more oil from new wells. To reverse his EOs would be to admit he made a mistake in issuing them. The higher up the political ladder we ascend, the less likely it is there will be such an admission. Thus we are, at best, a few months away from real relief at the gas pumps. We are experiencing but the tip of the iceberg in another portion of our economy.

That is the food and grocery sector. It is going to get more painful because the inputs our farmers use to grow the products we eat have gone up substantially. The diesel gas that farmers use to power farm equipment, is up about 40% in the last year. Fertilizer costs have more than doubled, and potash prices have increased by about 50%, in the same time frame. The costs of raising the cattle, hogs, and chickens that end up on our dinner tables are at record highs. Given the above, one needn’t be Nostradamus to predict significant price increases are in the offing. A farmer, responsible for farming some 3,000 acres of land in Wisconsin, predicted that some families could be paying an additional $1,000 a month for groceries by this fall. To the President, and most of the members of Congress, this is but a hiccup. But it would crush poor and lower middle class Americans. More people will be forced to visit food pantries. More people will become homeless. People’s despair will encourage the government to borrow a few trillion dollars to rescue the very people that government policies put into despair. A few trillion dollars more pumped into the economy will cause inflation, and prices, to go up again. Thus the cycle renews.

There is one last variable that will cause prices to go even higher. That is the war in Ukraine. Ukraine is a global leader in the production of many agricultural goods. Ukraine is known as the “breadbasket of Europe”. They are the world’s largest producer of sunflower oil, and the 5th largest producer of maize, 3rd largest producer of potatoes, 8th largest producer of wheat. They are in the top ten global producers of sugar beets, barley, rapeseed, cabbage, pumpkins, cucumbers, carrots, dry peas, rye, and buckwheat. What do you suppose will happen if the war continues beyond planting season? What if they can’t get their planted? When you understand the law of supply and demand, you know prices for all of the above mentioned products must increase. What we don’t know is by how much.

Don’t forget there are as many as 6,000 products we use every day that are petroleum based. Things like vitamin capsules, shampoo, antihistamines, toothbrushes, aspirin, and telephones, to mention just a few necessities. The packaging for additional products, and all plastics, are petroleum based as well. As the price of petroleum goes up, we must expect the cost of all of these products to go up. Living is going to continue to get exponentially more expensive.

In closing, I must say that I am angry. Over the last two years our government has been responsible for ruining countless American lives. It has crushed dreams and bankrupted millions of Americans. The conscious decision to hurt more citizens with idiotic energy policies is inexcusable. Any Econ. 101 student could have predicted much of what would follow the curtailing of our energy supply. The above are not unintended consequences! It was not accidental. It was premeditated and designed to force more of us into governmental dependence. To blame the Russians is nothing more than a pathetic attempt at gaslighting us. We must take our anger at rising gas and food prices with us into the voting booth in November. It is time to begin purging socialists from our government.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you found it informative and/or motivational pleas tell your friends about it. Bob