EDITORIAL: Biden’s economic record an albatross for Democrats

As the November election looms, Democrats are in desperation mode, particularly as inflation and high gasoline prices dog voters as they cast their ballots. The president’s response has been to deny reality.

On Monday, the White House put out a release hailing a slight drop in prices at the pump over the past few weeks. “Gas prices have declined by an average of $1.22 per gallon nationwide since their June peak,” the statement gushes, “a decline of 24 percent over more than 18 weeks.”

If you’ve been in an unconscious state for the past 21 months, those numbers might look persuasive. While it’s true that gasoline prices have receded back below $5 a gallon in many places — although not Nevada — they remain, on average, a whopping $1.35 more per gallon than when President Joe Biden took office.

As for inflation overall, Mr. Biden has been so famously wrong at every turn that it’s a wonder his handlers let him talk about the subject at all. First, in July 2021, the president insisted that “there’s nobody suggesting there’s unchecked inflation on the way — no serious economist.” Today, with prices increasing at a 40-year high, Mr. Biden tries to sell Americans on the idea that a persistent month-to-month 8 percent annual inflation rate is a mark of progress.

Yet nowhere is the president’s incoherence more in evidence than when it comes to energy prices. After entering office by promising to drive oil and gas producers out of business and beefing up the regulatory state in an effort to keep fossil fuels in the ground, Mr. Biden was shocked — shocked! — when gasoline prices rose. Now, while blaming evil Big Oil for price gouging, the president manipulates the market for political purposes by once again tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to bring down prices before the election.

Analysts at the Institute for Energy Research summed up the situation nicely: “Biden has imposed constraints on domestic oil production while begging Saudi Arabia for increases in output. Since the latter did not work, Biden released oil from the SPR several times to avoid the political jam that his anti–oil-and-gas policies created, leaving the reserve’s inventory at a 40-year low. U.S. commercial oil in storage is now higher than oil stocks in SPR. While he is manipulating domestic gas and diesel prices by using the SPR, Biden wants to sue OPEC members for ‘price manipulation.’ This is after he restricted supplies by offering the fewest federal acres for oil and gas leasing since WWII.”

It’s no shock that the Democratic members of Nevada’s congressional delegation don’t want to be seen anywhere near the president as voting begins. But Nevadans shouldn’t forget that, when it comes to rising prices and energy policy, there’s no running from the fact that they’ve all been in lockstep with this foundering White House.