Don’t Accuse Joe Biden Of Having A Little Mind

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen…” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson 180 years ago. No one can accuse Joe Biden of such foolishness or, if he has his way with History, of being a “little statesman”. He has recently issued a spate of orders designed to re-introduce competition to sectors of the economy much in need of such a long-overdue injection. At the same time, he is doing all he can to enhance the power of the Opec oil cartel to set monopoly prices for its crude oil by repressing drilling for oil and gas in the United States to develop reserves that act as a constraint on the inflated prices set by the OPEC cartel. And pressing for a new cartel to set minimum corporate tax rates and reduce inter-national competition for new businesses.

The President is urging OPEC to step up the availability of crude oil while at the same time canceling a major pipeline that would bring more of the stuff to U.S. refineries and hold down gasoline prices that are rising so rapidly as to put a dent in the budgets of the middle class he claims as his major concern.

And he is pressing for the formation of a tax cartel that would have the world’s nations set a minimum charge for doing business in their countries, rather than competing for that business. In the process he is doing serious damage to the economy of a country that he claims is near and dear to his heart, Ireland, a country that has maintained a high standard of living by competing successfully for the headquarters of major companies.

The tax cartel would enable the President to push through large tax increases on American corporations. Those increases will be paid for eventually by the citizens he wants to protect from high prices charged by major corporations he is forcing to raise prices to cover the taxes he is levying.

He wants to accelerate research for new and better vaccines while calling for an end to the patent protection pharmaceutical companies have been granted as an incentive to spend millions on research and development.

He wants to reduce the nation’s carbon emissions but refuses to consider taxing them or the gasoline that fuels the vehicles that emit them. He wants to unite the fractured nation but stirs resentments by signaling out specific ethnic groups for special favors and grants. He wants to get more people back to work while paying them for staying at home.

There’s more, but you get the idea. He is relying on his dog-eared copy of Walt Whitman to provide the description of himself that he prefers. “Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.”