JOE BIDEN: FOREIGN POLICY FOR POLITICAL GAIN. It’s obvious that a midterm election loss would be devastating for President Joe Biden. Even if Republicans only win control of the House of Representatives, whatever remains of a Biden legislative agenda, if there is such a thing, will be instantly dead. If the GOP also wins control of the Senate, even narrowly, Biden’s ability to win confirmation for his judicial and other nominees will be greatly diminished. So while the president and the leaders of the Democratic Party want to appear cool and confident about the elections, there is more than a little desperation behind the scenes.
That’s the backdrop to the Biden White House’s dealings with Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing nations. The president is angry at the Saudis for cutting production, which will raise politically sensitive gas prices and thus hurt Democratic chances in the final weeks before the midterm elections. And now we learn the administration pushed the Saudis to put off their decision for a month — just long enough so that it would have little or no effect on the elections. And now that the Saudis have refused, Biden and other Democrats are talking about punishing Saudi Arabia.
Should the president’s domestic political needs dictate the nation’s foreign policy? In an ideal world, no. But that appears to be what is going on here. Consider Biden’s situation:
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The president is beholden to a climate-obsessed environmental constituency that wields a lot of clout in the Democratic Party. Its goal is to eliminate the use of fossil fuels in the United States. Democratic environmental activists want people driving electric cars or taking electric mass transit and using renewable energy in their homes and workplaces. If that change does not happen naturally and quickly — and it will not — the activists want to force people to use new sources of energy by making fossil fuels so expensive that the public will see little choice but to buy a new, and heavily subsidized, electric vehicle.
In the meantime, the environmental lobby does not want the U.S. to be energy independent if that independence is won by producing more oil and gas. The problem, of course, is that the country runs on oil and gas. That has forced the Biden administration to beg foreign sources to produce more so the U.S. can buy more. It’s crazy, but that is the political reality in Washington today.
To cite one example of how bizarre the situation is: You likely have seen reports of growing sales of subsidized electric cars. But here is the thing. According to a recent survey in Car & Driver, there are about 250 million cars, SUVs, and light-duty trucks on the road in the U.S. today. About 1% of them are electric. It does not take a math genius to note that about 99% of those vehicles are not electric. The glorious clean energy future is still a ways off when 99% of U.S. vehicles are running on gasoline.
And that makes the price of gas a volatile political issue. Biden “came into office with the most ambitious climate change agenda of any president in history,” wrote the New York Times. For example, Biden campaigned on a pledge to end oil and gas drilling on federal lands. When he moved into the White House, he immediately issued an executive order banning oil and gas leasing on public land, although he later backed off somewhat. He promised much more action. Not too long ago, he finally passed a big climate bill misleading named the Inflation Reduction Act.
From the start, Biden’s policies, and the prospect of future action, began to push up the price of gas. The average price of a gallon of all grades went from $2.42 in January 2021 to $3.61 in February 2022, according to figures compiled by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Then Russia invaded Ukraine. The price of gas shot up further, to $5.03 a gallon in June. Always looking to point a finger somewhere else, Biden blamed it on what he called “Putin’s Price Hike.” But the fact is, the price of gas had been rising dramatically before the Ukraine war started. Biden’s actions weren’t the only factor involved in price increases, but his environmental agenda, combined with massive spending passed by Democrats in Congress, was definitely part of it.
Gas prices declined some in the late summer, but now they appear to be poised to rise again. That’s where the Saudis come in. On Oct. 5, OPEC+, the oil-producing cartel led by Saudi Arabia that also includes Russia, announced that it will cut production by 2 million barrels per day. That will definitely send the price of gas higher. The president was very unhappy.
Now, we learn that the Biden administration made an “urgent appeal” to the Saudis in the run-up to the OPEC production announcement. According to the Wall Street Journal, the administration asked the Saudis to delay for a month the decision to cut production. Just a month, that’s all we need, Biden officials said.
It was more than just a request. The administration warned the Saudis that bad things would happen if Riyadh went ahead with the announcement of production cuts as planned in October. From the Wall Street Journal: “U.S. officials warned Saudi leaders that a cut would be viewed as a clear choice by Riyadh to side with Russia in the Ukraine war and that the move would weaken already-waning support in Washington for the kingdom.” The Wall Street Journal continued: “Saudi officials dismissed the requests, which they viewed as a political gambit by the Biden administration to avoid bad news ahead of the U.S. midterm elections.”
“Holding off on the cuts would have likely delayed any rise in gas prices until after the elections,” reported the Associated Press. Nevertheless, the Biden administration denied that it had any political motive. Who, us? Political?
OPEC defied Biden and went ahead with the Oct. 5 announcement. Despite the administration’s denial of a political motive, the fact remains: Had the Saudis done what Biden wanted, there would have been little or no effect on gas prices before Election Day. That would have been a political reprieve for Democrats.
But now, the announcement has been made, and production cuts are in effect. And Biden and Democrats are threatening to punish Saudi Arabia. “There will be consequences,” said Biden. And what might those consequences be? First and foremost, apparently, is cutting off U.S. military aid to the Saudis.
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) “promised to use his position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to block any future arms sales to the Saudis,” reported the Associated Press. Also, “Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Rep. Ro Khanna of California introduced legislation that would immediately pause all U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia for one year,” the Associated Press continued. “This pause would also halt sales of spare and repair parts, support services and logistical support.”
So there is a price to be paid for ignoring an urgent preelection entreaty from the president of the United States. Which raises a question. In 2019, Democrats impeached then-President Donald Trump for withholding U.S. military aid for Ukraine in order to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into announcing a corruption investigation of the Biden family’s dealings in Ukraine. At the time, of course, Joe Biden was Trump’s political rival. Democrats called the episode an abuse of presidential power.
What Biden is doing today with the Saudis is not the same. No two episodes ever are. But there are some similarities, and they are not favorable to Joe Biden.
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