". . . and having done all . . . stand firm." Eph. 6:13

Commentary

LANKFORD: Biden’s Policies Are Taking Us in the Wrong Direction

Seventy-two percent of Americans say we’re headed in the wrong direction under President Biden’s leadership. I am one of them, and it’s pretty likely you are too. 

In Oklahoma, and much of the nation, everyday life is harder and less safe under President Biden’s economy and policies. Groceries, rent, and crime rates are up, but retirement savings are down. More people are forced to live paycheck to paycheck. These are the areas we should focus on solving. 

We finally convinced the Biden administration to restart construction on the southwest border wall and to start dealing with the open border asylum policy he created. I spent hours over the past few days meeting with immigration officials and asylum officers to lay out practical ways to stop illegal immigration. The administration has the tools to stop illegal immigration; they have just chosen not to do it. 

When the California-based Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapsed, the administration panicked. We need calm leadership that will confront bad management at one of our nation’s largest banks but not cause bank problems in well capitalized banks like what we have in Oklahoma. It’s clear now that this administration is willing to put a new fee (read: tax) on every bank, and by default every person with a bank account, to cover the losses of big California and New York banks who are more concerned with their ESG score than their liquidity and good management.

After passing the forced government price controls in the partisan so-called “Inflation Reduction Act,” at least four drug manufacturers have pulled new drugs, many being cancer treatments, from development in the last six months because they can’t make them work under President Biden’s new overreaching law. So, the new drug-pricing scheme from the president has already started reducing the number of new cancer treatments available to Oklahomans. More government control often means fewer options for Americans, and it’s already proving true on the new drug pricing policy. 

In the same “Inflation Reduction Act” and in President Biden’s latest State of the Union address, he told everyone that we were going to “buy American.” But the new Japanese, German, and Canadian green energy projects will all be called “American” projects for the special tax treatments and purchasing under the Inflation Reduction Act. I bet you never thought about Japan, Germany, and Canada when the president stated that he would “buy American.”

There are solutions to bring down the price of drugs by increasing competition, not government controls. I’ve proposed solutions to address our debt and deficit and waste in federal spending. I continue to push the Department of Homeland Security to enforce the border and address the loopholes in our immigration laws. We have a stable banking system in Oklahoma, but we need national leadership that does not undermine our economic health.

I hear my neighbors in Oklahoma who also see the problems and want solutions. I will keep pushing to help make life better for every American, so we can get our nation headed back in the right direction and people can stop worrying about the future of the greatest nation that has ever existed on God’s earth.

James Lankford has served as a U.S. Senator for Oklahoma since 2014.