The Biden administration on Wednesday blamed the Omicron coronavirus variant for continued economic supply chain woes.
As many laborers decided to accept larger government checks in 2021 instead of participating in the economy, resulting in a nationwide labor shortage, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told CNN Wednesday the Omicron variant could also negatively impact workers’ desire to return to work.
“I do worry, because we know people are afraid to go to work,” Raimondo said.
“Some portion of that is people are afraid to go to work,” she added. “In manufacturing facilities, people work in person, close together. And there have been outbreaks. We’ve had problems in places where people work close.”
“Every time we think we’re past it, there’s a new mask mandate,” she said broadly about the virus. “Every time we think we’re on our way, a new variant comes out. That creates a level of uncertainty.”
The market’s uncertainty is compounded by Dr. Anthony Fauci, who continued Wednesday to shift the goalposts of who the federal government will consider being “fully vaccinated.” Fauci left the door open for a booster shot to be factored into that definition.
Fauci has also downplayed the potential of the Omicron variant crossing into the United States at the southern border from illegal aliens. Yet Fauci is weighing a seven-day quarantine for travelers entering the United States legally.
Fauci’s conflicting messaging comes as a Thursday Gallup poll indicated 45 percent of American families believe that inflation, resulting from the supply chain crisis, is “causing their family some degree of financial hardship.”
The Biden administration has done little to combat the related crises, however, opting instead to investigate companies, and not itself, to scrutinize the economy. Investigations into private companies is an Obama-era strategy taken to displace blame on failed administrative policies to the private sector.
Biden has also waged war on American energy independence. Breitbart News reported:
The tactics include issuing a report Friday to increase the price of oil leasing fees on federal lands in the United States by 50 percent, along with canceling the Keystone XL Pipeline in January. Biden is also weighing whether to terminate the Michigan Line 5 pipeline. Biden has also rejoined the Paris Climate Accords and is directing an environmental regulatory review of repairs performed by the Trump administration that protected American energy independence.
The day after Thanksgiving, Biden raided the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to reduce gas prices. Biden decided to do so even though Vice President Kamala Harris slammed Donald Trump in 2020 for refilling them.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø
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