The Kingdom’s unwillingness to cave to Washington’s insistence that it increase crude supply to world markets was hardly a surprise to those who track the Middle East. Instead, it resulted in a fiasco when the administration failed to secure Saudi output increases, and global crude prices soared. But the visit was also intended to facilitate an end to America’s domestic crisis at the gas pump. Biden’s trip to Riyadh in July 2022 could have easily been mistaken as an effort to shore up U.S. Then a colossal spike in gasoline prices exacted a costly toll on American families – signaling economic failure from coast to coast.
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On the domestic front, an energy crisis, rampant inflation, and persistent economic stagnation sparked a sustained fiscal panic across the nation. For the Biden administration, it was the start of a sort of litany of things that didn’t go as well as they would have drawn up on the whiteboard,” observes John Gans, a former Pentagon official. “Every president has a crisis early in their terms.
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withdrawal from Afghanistan in the summer of 2021 may have been a turning point for the Biden presidency. Many Americans perceive these as mortgages on America’s future, not investments – and a sizable number are dissatisfied with the leadership they are witnessing from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The Inflation Reduction Act, newly passed by the Senate and signed into law this week, was pitched by Democrats as a “historic down payment on deficit reduction to fight inflation.” In actuality, the law authorizes massive entitlement spending on climate and health care initiatives, measures necessitating new taxes to offset spending. Americans, it seems, are less enthused with Biden’s legislative accomplishments, and more troubled by his repeated stumbles.