10/7/2023 0 Comments Biden press conference gaffesIt’s as though Biden has forgotten the basics of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It’s like Biden can’t fathom the real pain and struggle Americans from the hills of Tennessee to the shores of the Great Lakes to the sunny streets of Los Angeles are feeling. That is, however, the only conclusion I can draw from his callous – and yes, I do believe that is a fair description – remarks. It does not bring me, a lifelong Democrat, joy to say that the Democratic President of the United States is out of touch with the American people. (No doubt Jen Psaki will run interference for him on MSNBC.) Unfortunately for Biden, his quote is real – and will be repeated ad nauseum on Fox News, and probably CNN too. His words ring as hollow as “let them eat cake” would have rang to the French peasantry had the apocryphal quote been real. Those voters could be forgiven for thinking that this is Biden’s Marie Antoinette moment. Nor is it going to happen before the November elections, when the voters who can still afford to drive to the polls cast their ballots. It is not, however, going to happen overnight. Ending our dependence on oil – foreign or domestic – is an admirable mid- to long-term goal. Certainly, climate change is something we should all be concerned about. Meanwhile, the president seemingly thinks this is nothing more than growing pains that our economy must endure in order to break our addiction to fossil fuels. Just this weekend a mass shooting near a CTA stop killed two people and injured seven others. Never mind the fact that crime on Chicago public transit has increased over the past year. The median income of Englewood, on the city’s South Side, is only $22,127.Įven with Chicago’s fantastic (by American standards) public transit – which, from experience I can tell you is not the most convenient way to get around the city, thanks to the layout of the train system – a car remains the best way to get around a city that stretches 25 miles north to south and 15 miles east to west. That number, of course, is skewed by the more affluent residents of places like Lincoln Park and Lakeview. Here in Chicago, the Census Bureau reports that the average commute time is 34.7 minutes, while the median income is only $62,097. In big cities, too, these prices are extortionate. Yet, we also make less than our urban counterparts. In rural America, where I live and where families live greater distances from amenities such as grocery stores and hospitals, geography necessitates we travel farther than city dwellers. That means Americans could be spending nearly 10 per cent of their annual income on gas alone. The median weekly income of full-time American workers is $989, which multiplied by 52 weeks that is $51,428 a year. This is negatively affecting the pocketbooks of workaday Americans, who are spending as much as $5,000 a year on gas. The national average for a gallon of gas is higher than it has ever been, even at the height of the Great Recession in 2008. The more immediate problem is that we’re… well, you can finish the quote. To paraphrase no less an intellect than Tyrion Lannister, our dependence on fossil fuels is indeed a problem. Joe Biden is taking a lot of heat for comments he made at a press conference with the Japanese Prime Minister, saying that “when it comes to the gas prices, we’re going through an incredible transition that is taking place that, God willing, when it’s over, we’ll be stronger, and the world will be stronger and less reliant on fossil fuels when this is over.” To the president of the United States, though, it is an “incredible transition”. To you, to me, and to the average American struggling to make ends meet, this is an economic emergency.
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