Biden Promises Investment in Global Infrastructure, Neglects US

President Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi co-hosted the 2023 G20 Summit in New Delhi, India, on September 9-10. It seems whenever a member of the current administration with a last name starting with “B” goes traveling, there is an obligation to spend an amount of taxpayers’ money starting with a “B.” In the first two weeks of September, the B-boys, Blinken and Biden, went on a spending spree with Americans’ hard-earned money.

On September 6, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Ukraine, bringing a billion dollars for Kyiv’s valiant fight against the Russian invasion, now well into its 19th month with no end in sight. As Liberty Nation has reported, Americans don’t begrudge the money to the Ukrainians if there is some discernable strategy. Meanwhile, President Biden goes to the G20 confab and promises a billion dollars of US taxpayer money for a trans-Euro-India-Middle East railroad.

Biden Promises a Billion Plus

“The White House promised more than $1 billion of US funding – with much more to come – during Biden’s meetings with the leaders of India, the European Union, Saudi Arabia, and others representing the world’s largest economies,” Mary Kay Linge explained, writing for the New York Post. “’ This is a big deal. This a really big deal,” Biden gushed at the G20 meeting. The notion is that the US will help create a rail line of communications that links India, the Middle East, and Europe. The infrastructure-building program will also include ports for significantly increased shipping.

According to a White House press statement:

“Through the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, we aim to usher in a new era of connectivity with a railway, linked through ports connecting Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The United States and our partners intend to link both continents to commercial hubs and facilitate the development and export of clean energy; lay undersea cables and link energy grids and telecommunication lines to expand reliable access to electricity; enable innovation of advanced clean energy technology; and connect communities to secure and stable Internet.”

The thinking is that this initiative will establish an alternative to China’s ever-growing Belt and Road global economic plans. What the White House press flacks didn’t explain in detail was just how this investment reaps a return for the US taxpayers who are funding it. This free-wheeling spending for the benefit of foreign countries is particularly annoying when one of Biden’s first acts was to cancel the Keystone Pipeline, eliminating over 10,000 American jobs. Furthermore, it’s hard to see where the Biden ATM for foreign enterprises will lower the runaway inflation on the most common staples in American households.

American Taxpayers Last

To throw coal on the fire of Biden’s disinterest in the welfare of the individuals who pay for the president’s cavalier generosity, three days earlier, the White House press office announced that the president was:

“Canceling all remaining oil and gas leases issued under the previous administration in the Arctic Refuge and protecting more than 13 million acres in the Western Arctic will help preserve our Arctic lands and wildlife, while honoring the culture, history, and enduring wisdom of Alaska Natives who have lived on these lands since time immemorial.”

So, let’s unpack what just happened to the American billpayers. With a weak economy back home, Biden pledged to spend billions so the Middle East, which supplies a big part of the oil Americans use, can improve its economy while global oil prices are surging. Coincidentally, Biden has put a prohibition on US oil companies taking advantage of US petroleum reserves. Having given up the notion of energy independence when he stepped into the White House, the chief executive is ensuring that households already paying inflated prices for gas at the pump and nearly everything else will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

Last year, to bring down prices at the gas pump for political purposes, Biden pilfered the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) of 180 million barrels of stored petroleum, creating a 40-year low. Remember, the “strategic” part of SPR also supports national security needs. But that was then. This is now. “Oil prices are surging again, but the Biden administration’s biggest weapon (the SPR) for bringing them down has much less ammunition,” according to Jason Ma in Markets Insider. Therefore, it doesn’t look like oil prices are going down any time soon.

For all its protestations to the contrary - while cozying up to wealthy nations - the Biden administration provides the American people no demonstrable evidence it has their interests in mind. Quite to the contrary, other countries benefit from Biden’s foreign policy at the expense of Americans. That “at the expense” part should be taken literally.