Achieving bipartisan consensus on important issues in Washington, DC these days is about as likely as winning the lottery. However, in a rare form of bipartisanship, Republicans and Democrats are coming together to voice their outrage over the Biden administration’s foolish plan to buy oil from socialist tyrant Nicholas Maduro.
Of course, Biden’s half-baked plan to purchase oil from Venezuela, which the United States does not currently have diplomatic relations with, is due to the fact that he decided to ban Russian oil imports.
So, in a display of virtue-signaling gone awry, we are no longer buying oil from Putin, but we are about to purchase oil from Maduro.
Fortunately, lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle are making it clear that this is a very bad idea.
Consider.
Here is Rep. Mark Green’s (R-TN) assessment of Biden’s plan to support socialist Venezuela with American taxpayers’ dollars.
“The United States should not be directly or indirectly funding Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine by purchasing their oil and gas. At the same time, it would be outrageous to even consider buying oil from Iran or Venezuela. … It’s past time for us to take advantage of America’s abundant natural resources and become energy independent—and it’s time to cut off tyranny and totalitarianism at the knees around the globe.”
Amen, Rep Green.
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) concurs. According to a statement he released after learning that Biden sent a delegation to Venezuela to negotiate with Maduro’s regime:
“If the reports are true that the Biden administration is brokering the purchase of Venezuelan oil, I fear that it risks perpetuating a humanitarian crisis that has destabilized Latin America and the Caribbean for an entire generation. Nicolás Maduro is a cancer to our hemisphere and we should not breathe new life into his reign of torture and murder. As such, I would strongly oppose any action that fills the pockets of regime oligarchs with oil profits while Maduro continues to deprive Venezuelans of basic human rights, freedoms, and even food.”
Although I rarely agree with Menendez on policy matters, I am in full agreement with his stance on not purchasing oil from Venezuela.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) knows a thing or two about socialist dictators; his family fled Castro’s Cuba after the communist revolution. He thinks we should not replace “the oil we buy from one murderous dictator with oil from another murderous dictator.” Well said, Sen. Rubio.
Even Rubio’s likely opponent in the upcoming 2022 midterm election, Rep. Val Demings (D-FL) thinks it is crazy that we are even considering pumping U.S. tax dollars into the Venezuelan economy.
According to Demings, “We have multiple strong actions that we can take right now to bring down costs without enriching corrupt and murderous dictators like Nicolás Maduro.” For good measure, she added that she is “deeply skeptical of the new talks in Venezuela.”
The list of lawmakers who oppose the Biden administration’s plan to buy oil from Venezuela is long. And it should be. The fact that the U.S. government is even considering propping up a socialist thug, one who we don’t recognize as the true leader of Venezuela, is mind-boggling.
Instead of sending U.S. taxpayers’ dollars to enrich a socialist dictatorship, perhaps we should keep those dollars here at home while ramping up domestic production of oil and natural gas.
Not only would this create thousands of good-paying jobs. It would also reduce the price at the pump, which is at an all-time high. Moreover, it would ensure that socialist maniacs like Maduro do not get rich selling blood oil to the American people.
PHOTO: Nicolás Maduro. Photo by Eneas De Troya. Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0).
Chris Talgo ([email protected]) is the editorial director and a research fellow at The Heartland Institute, as well as a researcher and contributing editor at StoppingSocialism.com.
