OUT ON A LIMB: The Supply Chain and Shipping Mess Is Partly the Administration’s Fault.

Pent-up consumer demand is increasing rapidly, and suppliers are struggling to keep up. Chinese ports are closing because of COVID-19, and they’re also dealing with rolling power outages, and they’re dealing with typhoons on top of that. Vietnamese ports and factories are dealing with COVID-19-driven shutdowns and slowdowns as well. (It would also help if cargo ship captains stopped trying to parallel park in the middle of the Suez Canal.)

There’s a lot that the Biden administration cannot control. There is no button in the White House that can make a lot more unionized heavy crane operators appear, or make Chinese ports open, or make shipping containers appear where they’re needed.

But the administration is far from blameless. Shutting down pipeline projects and barring fracking does not help reduce energy costs. The vaccine mandate undoubtedly is creating staffing issues at some companies, even if they are minor ones. The administration emphasizes that all of their policies are supposed to help with job creation, but employers keep declaring they can’t find workers, a shortage that “stumps” the Secretary of Labor.

And perhaps most importantly… a worsening backlog of cargo and freight at American ports is the kind of problem the federal government is supposed to detect early on, isn’t it? Pete Buttigieg didn’t cause the worsening backlog of cargo at our ports, but…isn’t that the sort of thing a Secretary of Transportation is supposed to keep an eye on? What’s he been doing all this time?

Up until this week, getting a ton of glowing identity news articles based on what’s to be found by searching his name in Google News:

● Buttigieg on parenthood: ‘Most demanding thing’ I’ve ever done.

—NBC News, October 7th.

● Pete Buttigieg Dishes on His Future As a Presidential Candidate.

—Business Insider, October 1st.

● Pete Buttigieg documentary ‘Mayor Pete’ to open LGBTQ Film Festival NewFest.

—NBC News, September 16th.

● Twice As Nice: Pete Buttigieg And His Husband Announce The Arrival Of Two Children.

—NPR, September 4th.

All that fawning coverage may not last, though: Amateur hour: Pete Buttigieg’s inexperience exposed as supply chain breaks down.

—Joe Concha, The Hill, today.

Earlier: America is Running Out of Everything.