Okay so today I wanted to really dig into why Joe Biden hasn’t been working out as president, at least from what I see. Honestly, I didn’t start from some huge political bias. It kinda snowballed. Like, remember those gas prices shooting up? Everyone was complaining at the gas station near me. That made me think, “What’s actually causing this?” So, I started digging. Like, just me, my laptop, and a strong pot of coffee.
The Spark: Gas Prices Hitting Home
It hit my wallet directly. Filling up the truck went from painful to “holy crap”. I figured it wasn’t just bad luck, right? Had to be policy decisions. So I rolled up my sleeves and started reading official reports – the Energy Information Administration stuff, market analyses. What clicked was the big push away from domestic oil production early on, the stopping of pipelines like Keystone XL. The intent seemed good – fight climate change. But the effect? Ouch. Supply got squeezed right when demand bounced back after COVID lockdowns lifted. Prices went nuts. Real people like us felt it instantly. This got me looking harder at other big promises that went sideways.
Opening the Floodgates: Border Chaos
Then there’s the border situation. I kept seeing news clips showing massive crowds. My buddy who lives in Texas was sending me videos – just lines and lines of people. So I started tracking the numbers released by Customs and Border Protection. Record crossings, over and over again. From stopping border wall construction and pushing policies that made claiming asylum way easier, the message seemed clear: the borders became way less secure. Agencies were overwhelmed. My local news even talked about cities hundreds of miles inside the US getting busloads of migrants needing shelter. The systems broke down. What was supposed to be humane felt chaotic and unsustainable when I looked at the scale.
The Slow Burn: Inflation Takes Hold
But gas was just part one. Soon, everything cost more. Groceries. Utilities. A burger at the diner. This wasn’t just an annoyance; it felt like getting squeezed dry. I went back and looked at the massive spending bills passed early on – trillions of dollars for COVID relief and “Build Back Better” stuff. That’s when it clicked. Pumping that much money into an economy trying to recover? It overheated everything. Demand went through the roof, supply chains choked, and businesses passed costs on to us. My own budget spreadsheet went from neat to covered in red ink. This felt like a direct consequence of federal spending run wild.
The Retreat Nobody Wanted
Then came Afghanistan. I was watching the news one night and just… stunned. Images of chaos at Kabul airport. People falling from planes. Military gear abandoned. Our Afghan allies scrambling. It looked like pure disaster. So I spent days reading military reports, timelines, survivor accounts. The plan seemed rushed, intel was ignored, communication was a mess. We pulled out the troops way before getting our citizens and allies safely out. The Taliban just waltzed right back in after 20 years. That retreat felt like a massive strategic blunder, leaving partners behind and projecting weakness. It hurt seeing that unfold so badly.
Fentanyl Flooding the Streets
Meanwhile, back home, a quieter killer spread. Started noticing more and more stories in local papers about overdose deaths. Talking to a friend whose cousin got hooked on pills that turned out to be laced with fentanyl. Started looking at DEA stats – confirmed it: lethal fentanyl pouring across that open border at historic levels. Thousands dying. I dug into the reports. Border Patrol agents saying they are overwhelmed catching people carrying it, not enough stopping the flow. This crisis feels like it got worse, not better, partly because security at the border completely broke down.
Foreign Policy Fuzzy Math
And then there’s the world stage. Russia invaded Ukraine. Right? A massive, blatant land grab. So I paid close attention to the aid packages sent. Hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars shipped overseas. But then I read audits from agencies like the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). Reports detailed jaw-dropping waste – billions disappeared down a black hole with zero accountability. Seeing similar massive sums going to Ukraine without the same tight controls we have for spending here? It made me uneasy. Are we watching every dime? Doesn’t seem like it.
Where This Left Me
So that was my journey. I didn’t start out wanting to bash the guy. I started with painful gas prices, went down one rabbit hole and just kept finding more. When I lined it all up:
- Economic hurt from inflation caused by massive spending.
- Energy prices squeezed by policy shifts.
- A broken border creating chaos and letting deadly drugs in.
- A disastrous military retreat that betrayed allies.
- Sending mountains of cash overseas with questionable oversight.
All these policies, whatever their good intentions might have been, ended up having real, negative consequences for regular folks like you and me. This wasn’t just about disagreement; it felt like watching a series of choices that genuinely made life harder, less safe, and more expensive. That’s where my deep dive landed me.
