As More of Ukraine Falls, Congress Flees from Washington (and Responsibility)

AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky

Amid a global crisis, where we see our first major land war in Europe since World War II, Democratic leaders in the House and Senate have recessed for the weekend. They leave behind a Washington D.C. that has done nothing of any real substance on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer on Thursday gave lawmakers the weekend off, despite bipartisan calls for immediate congressional action on an emergency aid package for Ukraine.

Even some of Mrs. Pelosi’s and Mr. Schumer’s fellow Democrats were outraged, especially with Ukraine struggling to stave off collapse in the face of a multipronged Russian invasion.

“We need to pass it today. … They need to call us back in, and those who can’t come back can vote remotely, but we’ve got to pass it,” said Rep. Ro Khanna, California Democrat. “Every day, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians are dying. Today, there was a photograph of a father holding the body of his dead teenage son. It’s horrific. The least we can do is provide them with a fighting chance with weapons.”

Washington is left in the hands of a Biden administration more fearful of its polling numbers than the national security risk posed by dependence on foreign oil. Congress could try to force his hand by passing their own sanctions against Russia, but other than Nancy Pelosi joining the call to sanction Russia’s energy exports, nothing is being done in Congress.

The White House maintains that doing so will hurt American consumers while also claiming that we’re not dependent on Russian oil because only about 10 percent of what we export comes from there. Oh, and we have to continue investing in green energy because that will solve all our problems.

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The administration is not a serious group of people. The biggest national security risk to the United States right now isn’t our border or China or Islamic extremism or Russia. It’s our dependence on other countries to meet our energy needs. Prior to Biden coming into office, our nation was a net exporter of energy as opposed to being depending on Russia, OPEC, etc. But the Biden administration is more fearful of higher gas prices hurting Democrats even more than they already are currently.

You know who doesn’t care about gas prices, but does care about the Russians launching an unjust war? Ukrainians.

APTOPIX Ukraine Invasion
AP Photo/Vadim Zamirovsky

California topped $5 per gallon of gas. Where I am in south Louisiana, we’re nearing $4 per gallon, which is more than double where it was just a couple of years ago. Will sanctioning Russia’s oil exports make it worse? Absolutely. But if you polled Americans, I don’t think you’d find resistance to the idea that we need to make that sacrifice to help Ukraine.

However, it’s not even a situation we should be in. We should be producing our own oil.

What’s more, we shouldn’t be seeking out new sources of oil to be dependent on, as Chris Hayes of MSNBC and others have begun suggesting.

Iran, of all places. A country that would use that oil revenue to fund terror groups attacks our allies and interests in the Middle East (in a best-case scenario)? That’s just absurd.

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But the Biden administration has no actual plan here. You can say all options are on the table, but if you’re not actually considering all the options because it will hurt your party’s electoral chances, then you’re pretty much lying, right? That’s the Biden way, apparently.

So, it comes down to Congress. They should be doing something. Put forward sanctions of their own. Start pushing for American energy production. Something. But they won’t so long as Democrats are in charge and too scared of climate change to secure us against these global crises. Even Nancy Pelosi gets it, but she can’t do anything about it because the most progressive activists have overrun her party.

Congress, instead, will flee Washington D.C. and all responsibility so that its leaders avoid an intra-party fight. Because that, too, will hurt them in November.

Cowards.

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