Remember when wages were growing and gas was $2.50 a gallon? OPEC — that cartel of generally nasty nations lucky enough to sit on top of vast oil reserves — didn’t like the situation very much.
That was way back in 2019, when oil went for an average of $64 a barrel and America was a net energy exporter. Then the pandemic hit and the unnecessary lockdowns cratered demand, gas dropped to under $2 per gallon, and a barrel of oil cost about $42. But we can’t really count the lockdowns as a period of normal activity, so let’s try and forget they ever happened.
Hard, isn’t it?
Anyway, now Americans are struggling to make ends meet as inflation outpaces our wages and the economy technically entered a recession earlier this year.
And yet a barrel of oil costs a third more than it did in 2019 and a gallon of gas is now 50% more expensive — and headed higher.
How did we go from a situation where the economy was strong and prices were low to a weak economy and high prices?
There are a number of reasons, but all of them have been exacerbated by the America-hating stupidity of Presidentish Joe Biden and the Democrat party.
American oil production has yet to recover to its peak under President Donald Trump, due entirely to Biden’s on-purpose mismanagement. That’s why, with supply down, prices up, and our Strategic Petroleum Reserve depleted to levels not seen since we were first filling it up, Biden went hat-in-hand to OPEC to beg for more oil.
But he can’t get no respect because he ain’t worthy of any. Now, with our economy wobbling, wages shrinking, and inflation rising, OPEC did the exact opposite of what Biden wanted.
They’re cutting oil output by a massive two million barrels per day.
TWO. MILLION. BARRELS.
That’s a small slice of daily production, but with supplies already tight, prices are sure to take a big bounce. And a bigger chunk out of your paycheck, every time you fill’er up.
It gets worse, though. Because with Biden, it always does.
As recently as Monday, CNBC reported that OPEC was considering cuts of only a million or so barrels.
“Nah,” OPEC said. “Let’s just double that. Because we can.”
I guess they weren’t too moved by Biden’s pleadings.
The Daily Mail says “the major cut is an abrupt turnaround from months of restoring deep cuts made during the depths of the pandemic and could help alliance member Russia weather a looming European ban on oil imports.”
More money for Russia? All this time I thought Biden was at least on Ukraine’s side, if not ours.
The White House was “having a spasm and panicking” the day before the cuts were announced, according to a CNN report.
Nevertheless, a National Security Council spokesweasel had the temerity to insist that “Thanks to the President’s efforts, energy prices have declined sharply from their highs and American consumers are paying far less at the pump.”
Gas cost a little more than two bucks when Biden assumed (and I do mean “assumed”) office. Now the average is about $3.80 — and $6.70 in California, which serves as America’s test lab for bad ideas.
Falling gas prices were the only thing keeping inflation from accelerating even faster over the last two or three months, but it seems even that poor excuse for “the good old days” is over.
Thanks, Joe — just don’t come begging for my vote in 2024.
Recommended: Biden Must Resign, Period
Join the conversation as a VIP Member