President Joe Biden is already preparing the American people for the next failure of his short presidency. He warned the public during a recent speech that there would be “costs” for Americans because of his decisions on foreign policy.
The president was focusing on what he had done regarding Russia and their bullying of Ukraine, along with other nations of the world. Almost while he was speaking, oil prices were rising significantly with increases that are almost at an unheard of number. National Public Radio reported that a barrel is approximately $100.
Biden announced just the first round of sanctions against Russia, but they did not go anywhere near Russia’s energy capabilities. The president said that his administration will use every tool that they have in their arsenal to protect American businesses. He also vowed to work hard to protect the American consumer from rising prices at gas stations.
“As I said last week, defending freedom will have costs for us as well, here at home. We need to be honest about that. But as we will do — but as we do this, I’m going to take robust action and make sure the pain of our sanctions is targeted at the Russian economy, not ours,” Biden declared.
The president said that his administration would keep an eye on energy supplies and watch out for economic disruptions. He spoke of a plan that will be in coordination with the people who produce and purchase oil so they can develop a collective investment that should keep stability within the global energy products.
Biden said that the United States would sanction Russian sovereign debt along with Russian elites. They would also sanction the Russian bank VEB along with the military bank. All these moves will be in response to the move Putin made to deploy troops inside several regions in eastern Ukraine.
The president also reminded the American people that he would continue working with Congress to provide additional measures that will address the impact of gas prices on American citizens. Daleep Singh, the Deputy National Security Advisor, spoke with reporters and said that the efforts to prevent gas prices from going even higher are now a part of ongoing work that is extremely sensitive. He explained that there is a four-pronged approach that will involve coordinating the moves that the major energy producers make. They will keep an eye on the reserves they have at their disposal and allow the producers to coordinate who has spare capacity. These companies will all work together to surge their capacities.
Singh said that he will make it clear to Putin that there will be consequences if Russia decides to “weaponize” energy. He was asked if Americans will feel the difference when they go to fill their gas tanks, but he said that he would not go into specifics.
“I’m not going to give you a timeline but the collective power of those actions … we think will be effective in bringing down the price of gas and price of oil,” Singh said.
This all became the focus when Russian President Vladimir Putin chose to recognize the Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics. They are now being led by Russian-backed separatists in the Donbas region of Ukraine. Lawmakers in Russia gave a green light to Putin’s request to use military force outside of Russia. That caused Biden to sign an executive order that blocked any new U.S. investment or trace from going into their two regions in Ukraine.
So get ready America…if you thought it couldn’t get any worse, the president just warned you that it will.
