Afghanistan was handled poorly assumption that Afghanistan army and leadership was poor assumption with no timely backup plan. I could find little info on number of allies left behind that were slaughtered, congress gives themselves raises not Biden administration , we’ve always supported other democracies across the world . Other than supporting Ukraine in its defense of Russian invasion I’m not sure how different WW spending is different from Trump. Trump did highlight fair share spending in NATO, that was a good thing. Give this a read on reasons for gas increases. Looks sound to me.
The Real Reasons for High Oil and Gas Prices
Dispelling myths is step one. Step two is understanding why clean energy is the only long-term solution to rising gasoline prices.
March 28, 2022
Courtney Lindwall

Gas prices are advertised at more than $5 a gallon on February 28, 2022, in Los Angeles.
Anthony Behar/Sipa USA via AP Photo
In the wake of the devastating Russian invasion of Ukraine, U.S. gas prices soared, averaging $4.25 a gallon. Now f****l f**l companies and their political allies have seized the opportunity to suggest that additional f****l f**l investment is the solution. Their arguments are rife with misinformation. This is calculated, of course, meant to pad the industry’s pockets and lock more generations into f****l f**l dependence. That would, in turn, further delay the clean energy future necessary to achieve real energy independence. Here are some of the myths to look out for and the facts that refute them.

Myth: Drilling for more oil in the United States would lower high gas prices.
Fact-check: Drilling for more oil in the United States will not lower gas prices because the production of U.S. oil does not set the price of gas—the global price of oil does. Oil and gas are global commodities, subject to the whims of notoriously volatile global markets. Their prices are particularly sensitive to geopolitical events and investor sentiment. So everything from war to p******cs to e******ns can and regularly do cause rapid price swings. That’s why, even though Russian oil made up less than 2 percent of the U.S. supply, ending Russian oil imports still hit U.S. consumers hard. In other words, this is not simply about balancing supply and demand.

In fact, in this case, sky-high gas prices came from a confluence of events. As C****-** restrictions eased and economies rebounded rapidly, demand for oil spiked. P******c-related supply chain disruptions exacerbated the situation, causing gas prices to go up. Then, more recently and perhaps most saliently, Russia.

Oil markets were roiled when Russia, a petro-state whose exports supply 8 percent of the global oil supply, used its f****l f**l earnings to finance another unjust war. The response by the oil and gas industry was to perpetuate the lie that more drilling would ease the impact on the United States. Of course, they didn’t note that ending our dependence on oil is the clearest way to distance ourselves from the volatility of global oil markets. (Should European allies decide to ban Russian oil, we’ll see another wild swing in prices.) And they ignored the ugly reality that this very dependence on oil and gas has routinely contributed to sowing political chaos and bloodshed like what we’re seeing in Ukraine.


Oil pumpjacks in an oil field near Neftekamsk, Russia
Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Myth: Gas prices are rising because Biden banned oil drilling.
Fact-check: President Biden did not ban oil drilling. In fact, his administration issued more than 3,500 new permits to drill on federal lands in its first year. That’s 34 percent more than the Trump administration did in its first year.

Representatives for the oil and gas industry still exploited the crisis in Ukraine to call for drilling expansion and suggested this would address current gas price issues. The t***h is that even if the United States handed out additional oil drilling permits and every oil company went to town, that wouldn’t offer any immediate relief to consumers. On average, it takes more than 10 years from the time a federal drilling lease is issued until it’s producing salable quantities of oil or gas.

What U.S. oil companies and their allies did not suggest was an increase in their current output, which remains at pre-C***D levels. That’s because internally, many of these companies have already said their production is likely to remain flat for reasons that include prioritizing shareholders. Basically, high prices are good for the bottom line.

One step that Biden did take as part of a flurry of climate actions upon taking office last January was to temporarily pause new oil and gas leasing on federal lands and waters in order to review the Trump-era leasing program. But that decision was thrown out by a federal judge last June and had no impact on current gasoline prices.

Myth: The cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline caused high gas prices.
Fact-check: We can safely say the Biden administration’s decision to cancel the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline (KXL), an extension of the fully operational Keystone Pipeline System, had no impact on current oil prices. 

Yes, allies of the oil and gas industry—from Fox News hosts to former vice president Mike Pence—are claiming that the pipeline would have buffered Americans from high gas prices and reduced U.S. reliance on Russian oil. That’s false on multiple levels.

First, it would have taken years for KXL to be fully operational, so its increased supply would have no bearing on current gas prices. Second, the 830,000 barrels of tar sands oil it would have carried daily were intended to head directly to refineries on the Gulf Coast—and then likely to markets overseas.