Don't feed the pander-bear

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As poll after poll shows President Joe Biden's re-election campaign struggling to gain traction with the American people, the White House has increasingly resorted to blatantly manipulating policy in a desperate effort to buy votes. It's unseemly, even for this administration.

On Wednesday, the White House announced that it will sell 1 million gallons from a strategic reserve in the Northeast in an effort to lower gasoline prices as the summer travel season approaches. It's all flash and no dash. Upon taking office, the president openly declared war on the domestic petroleum industry, but was later reduced to begging our foreign adversaries to pump more oil when U.S. prices pushed $5 a gallon. Now, with gas prices soaring again and an election looming, Biden makes a production of trying to manipulate the market to further mask the ramifications of the policies he implemented.

It matters not a whit that this tactic will have virtually no impact on national gasoline prices, according to most analysts. The point is simply to deceive voters into thinking that Biden is actually doing something about a problem of his own making.

A similar dynamic is at work in the administration's effort to attract the young vote by saddling taxpayers with student loan obligations. This week, the Department of Education announced that it will wave its magic wand and forgive another $7.7 billion in student loan debt. The White House bragged that it has now canceled $167 billion in loans held by college students and graduates. Never mind that the U.S. Supreme Court held that the executive branch had only limited authority to act in this regard without the consent of Congress. Biden's political survival is far more important than bedrock principles such as the separation of powers.

Finally, we see the White House last week trolling for union support in Michigan and elsewhere by announcing steep tariffs on Chinese electric vehicle imports along with batteries and parts. This policy directly contradicts the administration's heavy-handed efforts to eliminate internal combustion cars and trucks. Biden maintains that global warming poses an "existential threat," but that peril clearly withers in the face of the president's quest to preserve his political life.

A trade war will also be damaging in the long run, hampering efforts by U.S. auto manufacturers to sell goods in one of the world's largest markets, while protecting them from competition that might drive down prices and foster innovation. "Making cheap electric vehicles in the U.S. is getting even tougher," a Wall Street Journal column noted. Watch for the Biden administration to now propose even higher federal subsidies for EV purchases.

Don't expect this tangled web of incoherence to concern Biden. His priority remains pandering for the votes needed to save his hide.

(COMMENT, BELOW)

Previously:
• 'Grading for equity' leads to less learning
• Report again highlights need for entitlement reform
• Wage law is good news for . .. the robots
• Joe Biden should commit to presidential debates
• Biden tax plan would pummel average Americans
• Iran's brazen attack on Israel was 'utterly unsuccessful'
• More free stuff
• Biden proposes another massive spending spree
• Dems increasingly desperate over No Labels
• Biden hams it up during stemwinder
• Economies roar in red states
• To establish 'absolute tyranny over these States'
• Biden condemns himself in attack on shrinkflation
• If only Taylor Swift were dating the national debt
• Biden bows to Putin, environmentalists
• Defenders of 'democracy' want Voter ID off ballot
• 'No one is safe if they had any hand in' Oct. 7
• Biden infrastructure bill: A failure to launch
• US government revenues hit record highs
• Why Biden can't convince voters he's beat inflation
• Why Biden can't convince voters he's beat inflation
• Biden needs to stop the mixed messages
• The hating class as brave defenders
• Blinken only emboldens Hamas terrorists
• White House green Slush fund throwing around cash
• Biden immigration policies souring even Dems
• Dems fret as the bad news mounts for Biden
• Billions in coronavirus money still sitting around
• Senate delegation reassures Israel; where's the House?
• Senate delegation reassures Israel; where's the House?
• Chicago takes victim blaming to an absurd new low
• The utter failure of money to improve education
• Group identity drives American division
• The downside of Biden's drug price control scheme
• WARNING: Here's why top insurers are fleeing
• 'They even laughed in my face'
• Red states power Biden's economy
• 'If you have private insurance, you can' … OOPS!
• Ignoring the Bill of Rights when its convenient
• Hunter cops a plea --- but the Biden probes continue
• Will we every truly know the depth of pandemic fraud?
• Hello there, Big Brother! Please, come right in
• Its not perfect, but it's a start on immigration reform
• IRS wants to branch out
• Gas stove ban conspiracy theory comes true
• Biden's busy bureaucrats beef up regulatory state
• Don't even dare think of emulamating New Yawk!
• Where have all the nation's college students gone?
• Soft-on-crime policies hit hard wall of political reality
• Joe Biden and Monty Python is no comedy
• Global warming was supposed to wreak havoc on polar bears. Looks like someone forgot to tell the polar bears