With Baby Formula and Beyond, Biden's Only Formula is to Whine

The Biden Administration’s M.O. is now clear: see a problem, do nothing; talk about the problem, do nothing; wait for the problem to become a crisis that harms Americans, then blame the Trump Administration. We saw this in Afghanistan, with inflation and energy prices, with Ukraine, with supply chain problems and more. The ongoing baby formula shortage is just the latest iteration of this pattern of irresponsibility. The Biden Administration does not offer solutions; it only offers commentary.

The vast majority of baby formula is supplied and sold through a government welfare program, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Through this program, suppliers of baby formula are essentially given a monopoly over an entire state’s supply. And when something goes wrong in the supply chain for one of those suppliers, as was the case with the closure of Abbott Nutrition’s baby formula plant in Michigan earlier this year, massive shortages happen.  

The Biden Administration’s incompetence was on full display throughout this crisis. Biden’s FDA knew of Abbott’s reported problems back in October 2021. It failed to conduct any investigation of the production plant in question until February of this year, and it took no steps to ensure such a disruption of supply could be covered if the plant needed to be shut down.  This Administration is still just playing catch up while the American people suffer the costs for its incompetence.

This is, sadly, the new normal in America under the Biden Administration. We now have to import oil and gas so that we can keep the lights on for American families. We have to release extremely risky amounts of oil from our strategic reserves just to keep the national price of gas below $5 a gallon, when just two years ago the United States was a net exporter of these essential goods. And now we’re going to have to import baby formula from other countries because we can’t meet these basic needs here at home. 

Who would have thought that in America, mothers wouldn’t be able to get baby formula to feed their children? It’s not the pandemic, or the war in Ukraine, or the myriad other excuses this Administration has offered. No, it is the current occupants of the White House who are at fault.

We’ve seen this from the beginning with energy. President Biden’s decision to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office over frivolous environmental claims sent a clear message to our domestic energy industry that bad times were ahead. The marked lack of interest from the industry to undertake new projects – such as exploring and drilling in Alaska’s Cook Inlet – are a direct result of this. In order to undertake such massive projects, there needs to be real confidence that the Administration in charge will not make life difficult with hostile and burdensome regulations. 

This is why our energy industry in America thrived like never before in history during the Trump Administration – we sent a clear message that America would be open for business, and that companies would have our support. Team Biden has sent the opposite message, and has in fact used the resulting, and understandable, reticence of the domestic oil and gas industry as one of its many excuses for historically high energy prices and inflation.  Let’s be clear: The Biden Administration is to blame for this mess, and all they have done in response is blame COVID and the war in Ukraine. No solutions, only excuses.

It goes far beyond baby formula and energy: From the moment President Biden stepped foot in the White House, America has been on its back foot in dealing with crises at home and abroad.  This Administration delayed getting American troops out of Afghanistan and created a muddled mess when it finally did, leaving American civilians trapped and allowing 11 American soldiers to be killed.  What did Team Biden do? They blamed the Trump Administration’s deal.

And now with the baby formula mess, mothers across our country find themselves in a very real crisis that the Biden Administration failed to anticipate and has been slow to respond to.  We don’t know where the next crisis will come from, but it is unfortunately a sure bet that the Biden Administration will be ill-prepared when it happens and only offer excuses when it hurts the American people.

America’s leaders can’t just offer excuses in a crisis; they need to foresee them and offer solutions. The Biden Administration has shown time and again it is incapable of doing this – in 2022 and 2024, we need to elect leaders who will not display the same lack of vision and resolve.