July 15, 2022
Permission to republish original opeds and cartoons granted.
Wave of resignations, civil unrest globally show it’s time for a change
By Robert Romano
Change is in the air. It’s not just the looming November midterms, which under the normalest of circumstances are no affair for the faint of heart for whichever party occupies the White House, and could see Republicans reclaim the House of Representatives for the first time since 2019, and the Senate, which has been locked 50-50 since 2021 as President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda has stalled.
But there is a global wave of governments toppling everywhere.
Boris Johnson has resigned as conservatives face a leadership election by members of Parliament in the United Kingdom.
Kaja Kallas has resigned as Estonia’s prime minister.
Mario Draghi has resigned as Italy’s prime minister, prompting Italy’s president to beg him to remain on as the inflation crisis worsens.
Sri Lanka’s government was overthrown by a mob of farmers who were fed up with the food shortages that were sparked by a foolish environmentalist policy to ban chemical fertilizers.
All this happened in little more than a week.
Change happens quickly, sometimes. And if it happens fast enough, occasionally, the outcomes can be revolutionary, realigning a country’s politics for years to come.
In the U.S., the cooling saucer that tends to work against civil unrest are Article I periodic elections, particularly, in the House of Representatives, where changes in the public mood can be registered once every two years.
Conversely, the Senate holds only a third of its elections every two years, as members sit for six years, shielding that branch of the bicameral legislature from sudden changes in the body politic. This prevents any one party from capturing too much power, too quickly — a testament to the wisdom of the Framers who sought to prevent the perils of one-party rule.
In an average year in midterm elections dating back to 1906 through 2018, the party that occupies the White House usually loses on average 31 seats in the House, and about three seats in the Senate. If that happens, Republicans should easily reclaim both the House and the Senate this year.
Sometimes, midterms bolster power. Following Franklin Roosevelt’s landslide election in 1932 as the Great Depression worsened, Democrats managed to pick up 9 House seats in the 1934 midterms, wiping out elected Republicans almost to the point of extinction. It is a feat only achieved again in 1998 and 2002, as the American people tired over the Bill Clinton impeachment and after 9/11. But these are the exceptions to the rule.
At this moment, the highly anticipated Red Wave is still building. It was seen in Virginia and New Jersey in 2021, where Glenn Youngkin was elected governor and Jack Ciattarelli nearly was, as public frustration over food and energy shortages, skyrocketing prices and long waits for goods and services amid the supply crisis and labor shortages, mounts.
If the election were held today, the generic ballot suggest Republicans would win. CNBC’s latest July 7-10 poll shows the GOP with a 44 percent to 42 percent lead over Democrats.
And with fresh economic data working against President Biden and Democrats — consumer inflation is climbing to fresh highs at 9.1 percent, and producer inflation stuck at 11.3 percent — that frustration, if Republicans figure out how to properly channel it, has the potential to reshape American politics for decades to come.
But recall, while midterms can show when realignment is about to occur, as it did in 1930 when Republicans lost a whopping 52 seats in the House. But the realignment itself would not happen until the presidential cycle in 1932, with Roosevelt on the ballot, Republicans lost 101 seats.
In the same CNBC poll, Biden — whose potential age would be 86 by 2028 if he were reelected in 2024 — registered just a 32 percent approval rating. He is the most unpopular president in modern history. Whoever runs against him in 2024 should have a better chance than usual of beating the incumbency advantage, and almost certainly because the problems occurring now — labor shortages, production shortfalls and supply problems — do not appear to be going anywhere anytime soon.
The mood in the air is for change. It is palpable. And it is coming to a Congressional district near you. How far it goes is up to you.
To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2022/07/wave-of-resignations-civil-unrest-globally-show-its-time-for-a-change/
Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government.
Biden attempts to repair U.S.-Saudi relations that he damaged
July 15, 2022, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia:
Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning: “President Joe Biden decided on day one of his administration to effectively declare war on Saudi Arabia. He did this by canceling the sale of defensive weapons like patriot missiles, ending the terrorist designation of the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, and undermining the Abraham accord by reinstating tariffs on U.A.E. aluminum. Now, Biden claims that he wants to establish better relationships between Israel and Saudi Arabia. President Trump already did that, and Joe Biden cannot pretend that he has done anything except fund Iranian terrorism aimed at taking down the House of Saud. I hope that President Biden has a successful meeting in Saudi Arabia., However, any problems or pushback he receives are the sour fruits of his disastrous middle eastern policy.”
To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2022/07/biden-attempts-to-repair-u-s-saudi-relations-that-he-damaged/
Diana Furchtgott-Roth: Biden Can Lower Gasoline Prices Now
On Saturday, as Americans were preparing for Independence Day celebrations, President Biden tweeted: “My message to the companies running gas stations and setting prices at the pump is simple: this is a time of war and global peril. Bring down the price you are charging at the pump to reflect the cost you’re paying for the product. And do it now.”
The bad news: gasoline prices won’t go down with President Biden’s tweets. The good news: the President could reduce gasoline prices if he changed his policies.
Through executive orders and rules from his agencies, President Biden has inhibited oil and natural gas from being produced and refined in the United States, resulting in oil prices over $105 per barrel.
This can be reversed as fast as it was put into place. By announcing a new policy focused on increasing rather than decreasing American energy production, President Biden could change expectations about the direction of U.S. energy production, resulting in an immediate decline in the price of oil. Prices are set on expectations of future production, not on present production.
That’s why oil prices rise when a hurricane is forecast in the Gulf of Mexico, before one single rig has been harmed by the storm. An honest change in direction—not band-aids such as drawing down the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, using the Defense Production Act to increase renewables, temporarily eliminating the Federal gas tax, or tweeting at gas station owners to reduce prices—would change expectations, lowering prices.
We’ve seen this script before—undue governmental overreach shuts down supply, prices rise, the President tries to tweet prices down.
When the Food and Drug Administration closed the Abbott factory that produced 42 percent of America’s baby formula, resulting in shortages and higher prices, President Biden on May 13 tweeted, “Parents looking to feed their child should not be taken advantage of by retailers unfairly jacking up prices. I'm calling on the FTC and State Attorneys General to crack down on price gouging and unfair market practices related to the sale of infant formula.”
President Biden is deliberately limiting domestic oil production and pipeline construction while at the same time calling on Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and Iran to expand their production of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels produced abroad affect global emissions as much if not more than fossil fuels produced here at home.
The price of gasoline rose by 49 percent between May 2021 and May 2022, and the price of energy rose by 35 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Energy commodity costs have risen much faster than the average annual inflation rate of 8.6 percent. New data for June will be released on July 13.
The United States, as the world’s largest oil and gas producer, has demonstrated the ability to affect the price of oil. A dramatic transformation in energy production took place between 2008, when the United States was producing just 5 million barrels per day in 2008, and 2020, when production reached over 12 million barrels per day.
In March, only 662 oil and natural gas rotary rigs were in operation, according to the Energy Information Administration’s data series, compared to 790 in March 2020, 1,023 in March 2019 and 989 in March 2018. (In 2020 and 2021 demand was lower due to the pandemic.) Excluding the pandemic and four other years, the figure of 662 rigs in operation is the lowest March count since the Energy Department began keeping count in 1973.
President Biden reduced oil and gas production by expanding the boundaries of the Grand Staircase-Escalante, Bears Ears, Northeast Canyons, and Seamounts Marine National Monuments, preventing oil and natural gas production there.
He placed a moratorium on leasing activities in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and revoked the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have brought 850,000 barrels of oil per day from Canada to be refined in U.S. refineries.
Using existing pipelines, Canada could supply the United States with an additional 250,000 to 400,000 barrels a day, which is refined by U.S. refineries, creating jobs and contributing to GDP growth.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a new policy on February 17, 2022, that will make it even harder to put new pipelines in place to carry oil and gas from the interior of the country to the coasts, where it can be exported. FERC will now “consider a proposed project’s impacts on existing pipelines” as well as the environmental effects of the new pipeline.
In November 2021, the Interior Department called for fewer leases, higher royalties from oil and gas leases, and a more thorough bidding process to screen buyers, making drilling more difficult. The Interior Department proposes that oil and gas drilling not be a priority.
In April the Council on Environmental Quality reversed changes that President Trump had made to National Environmental Policy Act regulations. The new regulations, effective in May 2022, made it more difficult to build infrastructure, including for energy production.
Even the Securities and Exchange Commission wants to regulate energy production. On March 21, 2022, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler proposed rules to require companies to disclose information about governance and management of climate-related risks; how climate related risks will affect companies’ strategy and outlook; and the effects of climate events such as hurricanes and wildfires on financial statements.
President Biden is complaining about high prices even as his executive branch agencies are restricting oil and gas production in multiple ways. Rather than tweeting, how about a change in the agenda?
To view online: https://www.forbes.com/sites/dianafurchtgott-roth/2022/07/06/biden-can-lower-gasoline-prices-now/amp/