Agricultural News
Cole Statement on President Biden's State of the Union Address
Wed, 02 Mar 2022 08:08:14 CST
Congressman Tom Cole (OK-04) released the following statement after President Joe Biden delivered his State of the Union address this evening before a joint session of Congress.
"At such a perilous time in the history of the world, I was encouraged that President Joe Biden used his State of the Union address to further condemn Vladimir Putin's unprovoked aggression and to commit additional lethal and humanitarian aid to support the Ukrainian people in their heroic defense of democracy," said Cole. "Indeed, Americans stand united with freedom loving people everywhere against this tyrannical bully and thug. In the days ahead, the United States must demonstrate clear resolve and unyielding leadership - with President Biden doing everything in his power to punish Putin and his criminal and repressive regime for the egregious act of aggression against an innocent neighbor.
"Sadly, prior foreign policy decisions and actions taken by the Biden Administration have emboldened our adversaries and resulted in other bad actors testing the limits of the world order, particularly after the completely botched withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan. While there is certainly no predictable outcome of the Ukrainian crisis, we cannot gamble with the possibility of further aggression from Putin and other likeminded countries such as China tomorrow. There is no room for President Biden to propose underfunding of our national defense, and I wish his speech had provided assurances that he planned to reverse that error in his previous budget.
"Unfortunately, I believe President Biden tried to use his speech to rewrite his first year and paint missteps and failures as successes. Indeed, President Biden and Democrats have peddled trillions of dollars in social spending and proposed Green New Deal-like policies that have left our country in a far worse place than we were at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. It is no accident that Americans are experiencing the highest inflation we have seen in 40 years and empty shelves nationwide in grocery stores and supermarkets. This inflation is directly attributable to misguided policies and runaway spending initiated and promoted by the Biden Administration. Additionally, our southern border continues to be overwhelmed by migrants trying to illegally enter our country, including the flow of bad actors and dangerous drugs. Indeed, Biden's open border crisis has caused opioid overdoses in our nation to drastically spike.
"Finally, I am also disappointed that President Biden did not use this opportunity to ban the buying of oil from Russia and restore our nation's energy independence. Amid an energy crisis at home, created by the president's cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline and moratoriums on new oil and gas leasing on federal lands, continuing to rely on Russia for oil leaves America more vulnerable to foreign threats. At any time, Putin could choose to retaliate on the dozens of countries, including our own, that have imposed sanctions on him and his regime by simply turning off the spigot. The United States has the ability to produce enough liquid energy for ourselves and our European friends that need it most. President Biden should end the ongoing vilification of America's oil and gas industry and ensure an all-of-the-above energy policy that paves the way for American energy independence."
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