Wednesday, July 6, 2022

Biden’s Dumbest-Ever Tweet? by Dan Mitchell

 I’ve been wondering about Biden’s stupidest-ever tweet. Was it the one about corporate taxes, the one about class warfare, or the one about the deficit?

The answer may be “none of the above.”

That’s because this tweet about gas prices now may be in first place. I’ve highlighted the most absurd parts.

What’s sad is that Biden may not even know his tweet was laughably wrong.

If we had some decent reporters at the White House, they would ask if he really thinks gas station have the power to set prices. And if Biden said yes, I can only imagine how amusing it would be to ask a follow-up question about why they didn’t use that magical power to raise prices before Biden got elected.

The Wall Street Journal editorialized about Biden’s clueless tweet.

President Biden’s…tweet over the weekend ordering gas stations to lower prices betrayed a willful ignorance about the private economy. …It’s embarrassing for the leader of the free world to sound like he’s channeling Hugo Chávez. A Chinese state media flack praised Mr. Biden’s tweet: “Now US President finally realized that capitalism is all about exploitation. He didn’t believe this before.” Or maybe he did, and nobody wanted to believe it. …The President’s economic ignorance isn’t a one-off. In recent months he has accused oil and gas companies of price gouging and demanded that they increase production even while his Administration threatens to put them out of business.

Kevin Williamson of National Review was similarly dumbfounded by Biden’s statement.

President Biden has been dunning U.S. gas stations to lower their prices in order to help him solve his main immediate political problem. His misunderstanding of how the gasoline business works…paints a portrait of a man out of touch. …contrary to what the Biden brain trust seems to think, wholesale gasoline prices do not move in lockstep with crude oil prices. And retail gasoline prices do not move in lockstep with wholesale gasoline prices. …As anybody who has ever sold anything for a living can tell you, you don’t get to set your own margin. The market does that for you. …The urge to blame retailers for the results of inflationary fiscal policies — and destructive energy policies — in Washington is ugly, demagogic, and, given Biden’s creepy history, maybe even a little bit racist.

I don’t know if Biden is clueless or a demagogue.

But the net result is the same. We are governed by idiots.

P.S. My attack on Biden is not partisan. On the issue of trade, some of Trump’s tweets displayed jaw-dropping stupidity and ignorance.

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