Did you ever believe that a day would come when an American president would be asking farmers to boost production due to food shortages?
In America. Food shortages. Somehow, there’s a disconnect between those words. The mind rejects them because it’s a preposterous idea that a nation that grows and produces enough food to feed 10% of the planet is actually experiencing food shortages.
Related: Here Comes the Food Shortage!
It’s the war, don’t you know, claims Biden. The president, who fancies himself a wartime leader, said to a group of farmers in Kankakee, Ill., “Right now, America is fighting on two fronts. At home, it’s inflation and rising prices. Abroad, it’s helping Ukrainians defend their democracy, and feeding those who are left hungry.”
Ukraine is not America’s war and America is not fighting it. Someone should whisper that in the old man’s ear. Ukraine is a distraction for Biden. If Kyiv were to lose, it would be tragic but it would not be an existential threat to America.
It would, however, damage Biden’s prospects for re-election.
In an attempt to quell food shortages, the Biden administration said it plans to increase the number of counties eligible for insurance for double cropping, which is when farmers plant a second crop on the same land in the same year.
“Double cropping comes with real risks,” the president said. “If the weather conditions aren’t ideal, or at least good … then the timing of everything is thrown off.”
“But it’s a risk we need to take,” Biden added. “That’s why my administration is looking at how to extend crop insurance coverage to give financial security to farmers.”
All of these measures Biden is taking are not specifically to increase food production for Americans. He wants to increase the food supply available to export to parts of the world where there are shortages.
This is an admirable impulse but — begging your pardon, Mr. President — shouldn’t the government take care of its own citizens first and then worry about starving Africans?
Food prices will soar by 22.9% this year, highlighted by a 40% rise in wheat prices, according to the report issued late last month.
Biden assured in his remarks that his administration “can make sure that American agriculture exports will make up for the gap in Ukrainian supplies.”
And leaving the farm in Illinois, Biden told CNN that inflation is “going down,” after the latest data from the Consumer Price Index revealed that US inflation increased at a slower pace than in previous month.
“They’re going down,” Biden said. “Got a lot more to go down.”
Biden is delusional if he believes a two-tenth of a percentage point drop in inflation from March’s record high is akin to prices “going down.”
As the shortages continue and worsen, Biden will switch gears and begin to blame “greedy farmers” for wanting to make a buck. He will blame anyone for the economic mess this country is in — except himself.
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