Inflation was not an issue until Joe Biden swept away all Trump policies by Executive Order and then it started accelerating almost immediately. All last year, Biden and his media apologists dismissed inflation as transitory and nothing more than right-wing propaganda. As bumbling Biden and a crazy Congress passed one profligate spending bill after another drowning the treasury in debt and flooding the economy with cheap money, they shrugged off any concerns, but Biden’s inflation steadily surged. Biden just surpassed Jimmy Carter with 7.9% inflation. Perhaps the greatest driver of Biden’s inflation is his anti-energy policies that reversed Trump’s achievement of energy independence in just months.

Skyrocketing fuel prices affect all prices. The price of oil and gas about doubled before Putin ever fired a shot in Ukraine, but the Democrat Media Complex is insisting it’s all Putin’s fault. Putin does bear some blame because he has created instability and uncertainty, but Biden still holds the bulk of the blame because he provides no solutions nor any confidence that he can solve this crisis or any crisis for that matter. So with Biden helpless and ineffective, fuel prices just continue to rise and it seems no one knows when or where it will stop.

Americans are facing very difficult economic times with soaring fuel prices, but just 15 months ago America was energy independent. Certainly, we can do it again! The USA has as much or more oil reserves than the rest of the planet and our better technologies like fracking allow us to drill ample oil, produce it abundantly, and process it cleaner than anyone else in the world. Simple, unleash the American energy industry and problem solved. You would think, but no!

Leftists and radical environmentalists have been crying about climate change and decrying fossil fuels for decades, so when Biden came to power, they wasted no time in attacking the American energy industry, impeding exploration, and stifling production. Under the banner of the Green New Deal, Democrats were going to save the planet by making oil so expensive that electric vehicles would start to make economic sense. They were making good on that threat, but now the Russian invasion has spiked prices further and spooked the public.

Even Democrats are panicking about tripling energy prices, so they reticently admit we need more oil – just not American oil. Biden went begging to Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Venezuela for more oil. Swearing it’s about saving our environment, they are going to our enemies to buy oil. Democrats would rather prop up a South American tyrant or support Iranian terrorists than risk letting any American roughnecks getting their jobs back.

Iran is still exporting terrorism, trying to assassinate John Bolton, and literally just launched a missile attack on an American installation in Iraq, but Biden still wants to stuff their pockets with American cash for oil and resurrect the Iranian Nuclear Deal! Iran is still at war with us, but leftists want to give them nuclear weapons! And, who is negotiating the Iran Nuke Deal? THE RUSSIANS! Putin knows Biden needs him in Iran, so he expects a pass in Ukraine.

Biden’s policies are so absurd and illogical as to be unbelievable, so what’s really going on here? Biden and Putin have developed a symbiotic relationship. Putin is stumbling through Ukraine, so he needs NATO to be in disarray and divided while he takes too long to conquer Ukraine. Biden’s incoherent policies and utter lack of leadership are Putin’s best guarantee he won’t face a cohesive and effective NATO response. Biden needs a scapegoat, so now every Biden failure is Putin’s fault. And Biden needs a distraction from his disastrous record. Putin’s cruel naked aggression has all but pushed his historic inflation, supply chain disruptions, illegal border invasion, and more bad domestic news from the headlines.

While it seems Biden only needs Putin to distract from his abject failures, Biden is exploiting the Russian invasion to cover his nefarious goals. Biden and his cabal of ultra-leftists ascended to power determined to destroy the American energy industry and eviscerate the middle class with high energy prices. When America is dependent on foreign oil, the USA is weaker and our enemies stronger which leftists hope will make America more receptive to globalism. And they also hope to make an economically oppressed middle class more dependent on government and thereby make socialism inevitable.

Biden’s missteps on Ukraine are so glaring; one has to wonder if the entire sad scenario is not intentional. Perhaps, but now it’s obvious Biden and his radical handlers have been waging a green war on average Americans since he was installed in the Oval Office. Americans are suffering, but Biden clings to leftist climate change fantasies. His adamant refusal to consider common sense measures like rekindling American energy lay bare his malevolent designs on the America’s economy. Biden may consider Russia an adversary, but his actions make it clear the American middle class is the enemy of his socialist agenda. Biden is working harder to defeat average Americans than facing down Putin’s brutal belligerence.

“Whereas my father made your yoke heavy, I will add to your yoke. Whereas my father scourged you with whips, I will scourge you with scorpions” (1 Kings 12:14).

Pete Riehm is the host of Common Sense Radio heard 8 pm every Thursday on FMTalk106.5 or streaming at fmtalk1065.com. Email him at peteriehm@bellsouth.net or on MEWE @PeteRiehm or read all his columns at http://www.renewamerica.com/.