Billy Long: Bidenflation a result of terrible economic policy

(From Seventh District Congressman Billy Long)

Runaway inflation in the United States is wrecking our economy and bringing tremendous hardship on American families. It's also not taking any prisoners as prices from gas to groceries and everything in between are going through the roof. 

Our farmers have been hit extremely hard with huge price hikes on all manner of production. The cost of energy, equipment, fuel, feed, fertilizer, and everything else required to run a formerly profitable operation has greatly increased. 

One devastating effect of 'Bidenflation' is you'll be paying a lot more and getting a lot less at the grocery store. Another tragic outcome is we are sure to see family farms waving a white flag and the huge corporate farms will grow larger still. Not a good combination and that's not to mention the straw man ownership by foreign countries of much of America's farmland. 

And if something isn’t done about this, it will lead to food shortages everywhere. When farmers are losing money due to inflation, it’s hard to produce the same amount of food they normally do.

The survival of farms and farmers has been tenuous for years and now it's become a lot more problematic. A farmer who hasn't been on a vacation in years if not decades may be placed on permanent vacation involuntarily. 

According to the US Department of Agriculture, net farm income is projected to decrease by $5.4 billion this year, roughly 5% lower than last year’s $113.7 billion. 

One of the driving factors of this lost revenue is fertilizer prices. Due to supply chain shortages last year, and higher fuel prices, the cost of fertilizer has been nearing record highs the last several months, and that was before Russia invaded Ukraine. 

The invasion has only worsened the issue, since Russia exports about 14% of the world’s fertilizer. The price of the raw materials used in fertilizer are also increasing. This cost is then passed on to the consumer.

Fuel prices reached record highs after the invasion of Ukraine, which led President Biden to loosen regulations on the use of ethanol in gasoline, in an attempt to lower the price. This is great for corn growers, as 40% of all corn grown in the United States is used to make ethanol. 

The ethanol decision has not been great for meat producers though. With more ethanol being used in gasoline, the price of corn has gone up, and there is less of it to use in livestock feed. It's a double- edged sword as not only does the cost of corn go up, but so does meat.

All of this is the predicable result of bad economic policy. The 'Bad News Biden' Administration has implemented a series of terrible policies, from reducing domestic oil production to printing and spending more money than we have. 

This caused an inflation crisis which only got worse whenever President Biden tried to fix it. Instead of loosening regulations on ethanol, which will have a marginal effect on gas prices, we should be increasing domestic oil production. 

This no brainer of an idea would lower the cost of fuel, along with easing the pressure we have put on our farm families. This in turn will reduce the cost of groceries. 

If the president doesn't unshackle oil production in our country it will only result in more and more inflation, causing food shortages in the United States. Unfortunately, President Biden has shown no sign of easing up on his radical Green New Deal policies that got us here in the first place.

Anyone know what Bill Gates plans to do with the thousand and thousands of acres he is buying up? Asking for a friend.