November 26, 2022
A collection of high-ranking European officials are fed up with the Biden administration for what they view as war profiteering during the conflict in Ukraine.
The comments come amid rising gas prices and mounting tension toward US legislation that offers tax credits to those who “Buy American.”
Meanwhile, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is pushing European economies toward recession while the US is benefitting, some officials claim.
“The fact is, if you look at it soberly, the country that is most profiting from this war is the US because they are selling more gas and at higher prices, and because they are selling more weapons,” one senior EU official told POLITICO.
The European Union has turned to the US for gas to reduce reliance on Russian fuel — but the price the EU is paying is reportedly four times higher than what Americans are shelling out for the same product.
AP
“The United States sells us its gas with a multiplier effect of four when it crosses the Atlantic,” Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for the Internal Market, said on French TV on Wednesday. “Of course the Americans are our allies … but when something goes wrong it is necessary also between allies to say it.”
The Biden administration has adamantly denied price-hiking accusations and instead blamed the high costs on the Ukrainian conflict.
“The rise in gas prices in Europe is caused by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and Putin’s energy war against Europe, period,” a spokesperson for Biden’s National Security Council told Politico.
REUTERS
The dispute is compounded by Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, a massive tax, health care and climate package that offers tax credits to those who buy American-made electric vehicles, sparking concern among European car manufacturers.
“Nobody wants to get into a tit-for-tat or subsidy race. But what the US has done really isn’t consistent with the principles of free trade and fair competition,” Irish Trade Minister Leo Varadkar said during an emergency EU Commission meeting on Friday, according to Fortune.
“The Biden administration has adamantly denied price-hiking accusations and instead blamed the high costs on the Ukrainian conflict.”
This isn’t as clear-cut as it seems.
Certainly, Biden is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. He is a lifelong career politician who hasn’t performed an honest day’s of work. He has no inkling of what it’s like to work for a living.
Anyhow, his policies have made the US from a net exporter of energy into an importer. He even stooped so low as to go begging to the Saudis to up their production. Shameful!!! Yet, he is helping Europe in their hour of need. We’ll ignore Biden’s open border policies, his Afghanistan fiasco and his hesitant and weak response to face mafia land for now.
That said, the fault for the exorbitant energy prices is also Europe’s. Here, too, we have politicians who should rather be janitors or hot dog vendors than causing harm with idiotic policies. For decades, they’ve been snoozing instead of working out a viable plan on how to get away from fossil fuels and making green energy much more feasible. Germany has been especially stupid in this regard. Thanks to their political clowns, the Germans pay have the world’s highest costs for electricity. Half of the continent’s millions of rooftops could be covered with solar panels by now, for instance, especially since the start of all this talk about global warming 20 or 30 years ago. No, instead, it was much easier to suckle on more Russian gas and oil, and more profitable, no doubt.
We don’t have to mention the criminal rat for having his fair share of fault in this. But, truthfully, it’s only thanks again to the Eurocrats, who swallowed his energy bait, hook, line, sinker and fishing rod. Being chicken shit last year during Vlad’s military buildup didn’t help one bit, either. Acting lethargically and with mini-steps with military aid to Ukraine is also at fault, for this only drags out the war and thus energy woes.
But, regarding this article and with everything else, it’s always easier to point fingers when a problem is faced, instead of looking into a mirror!
Since we are only about the dacts let clarify a few.
“He is a lifelong career politician who hasn’t performed an honest day’s of work. He has no inkling of what it’s like to work for a living.”
He praticsed law from 68 until his first election in 71. Including work as a public defender.
Also from wiki:
“From 1991 to 2008, as an adjunct professor, Biden co-taught a seminar on constitutional law at Widener University School of Law.[82][83] The seminar often had a waiting list. Biden sometimes flew back from overseas to teach the class.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Biden
So yeah he has actually worked for a living.
I don’t consider what he did to be honest work for a living, as what a construction worker or miner must do.
Interesting that this tiny, obscure school of law is ranked 147th out of 192. It would be almost embarrassing to admit you’re a professor there, even more so just an adjunct professor.
Actually he was very lucky to get even that small job because he only graduated 76th out of 85 in his class. And somehow he made millions and millions of dollars, hmmm…
I’d say rather Biden is more affiliated with the interests of working people than most other politicians. Criticizing his alleged ‘open border policy’ is not relevant to the discussion of Ukraine.
If the EU wants more revenue from arms sales, why simply do they not spend more. The reason is that the US is not making money from giving arms to the Ukraine. It costs money to do so.
It’s always seemed odd to me that the EU went on with business as usual from the initial invasion years ago.
And about Afghanistan, if there is no will among the Afghans to keep the Taliban from power then honestly what can be done.
Sure though yeah, a tax credit to buy American seems a little questionable but that actually points to how Biden tries to protect US workers – eligible vehicles must be assembled in North America.
Nothing new about that. FDR structured Lend-Lease to make it a highly profitable business. America was the only country in the world to come out of WW2 richer than when it started.
FDR: who saw himself ideologically as being closer to Stalin than Churchill, gave the equivalent in today’s money of $200bn to Stalin, but did not require it to be repaid. In contrast, we (the U.K.) were still paying ours ($350bn at today’s rate) back right up until 2006!
I don’t care if America comes out of putler’s Holocaust richer, as long as Ukraine wins, wins big and putlerstan goes right down the shitter.
My wish list also includes a more prosperous U.K, with no socialism and huge new trade deals with our allies, including of course Ukraine and Georgia.
“The United States sells us its gas with a multiplier effect of four”
That’s not “the United States”, and it’s not the “Biden administration”. It’s the companies that extract the gas, and the companies that ship the gas.
(And you have to expect it to cost more to compress it and ship it across an ocean than to just distribute it domestically via pipelines.)