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President Biden’s election motto was “build back better.” To some, it sounded interesting, even though few understood what it meant. It was implied that he meant he would rebuild the economy after Covid. Thanks to the research of drug companies and the previous administration working together, vaccinations began months before President Biden was sworn into office.

President Biden was in a great position to be in charge when the recovery began. However, just as the economy was starting to rebound, people suddenly started understanding that “build back better” did not mean reinvigorating the free-market system, but rather he meant “build back for my friends.”

It began with trying to satisfy the most leftist elements of his party. As an example, he stopped the Canadian oil pipeline at the cost of jobs building the pipelines to the refineries in the United States. He followed up with blocking many efforts to capture natural gas, America’s best option for clean air. The end result is, we are now in a position in which we must pretend that we can produce enough energy with solar power. The winner here is China, which produces most of the solar panels. The losers are rural communities that are being inundated with solar farms that once provided crops or forest products. The so-called environmentalists among us have as ignored the lost of forestland. They seem to not understand that growing trees is needed to absorb carbon dioxide.

Meanwhile, President Biden pushed for extra federal unemployment payments, long after common sense would suggest that it would be wiser to encourage workers to fill some of the many unfilled jobs. The result is more government dependency. Many governors (not including Virginia’s) wisely stopped the payments coming to their state. Those states have led the nation in lowering the unemployment rates.

On our nation’s southern border, this president has reversed every policy of the Trump administration. The result is that we have absolutely no barrier on the Mexican border. We have no idea who is coming into the United States, no idea from where they are coming, nor what their health condition is. Many are coming for a better life, while others may well be terrorists who plan to become imbedded in our communities. Some are bringing drugs to be sold on our streets. The amount of fentanyl on our streets has increased at the same rate as the rise in illegal border crossings. Most of the world’s supply of fentanyl is produced in China, shipped to drug lords in Mexico, and smuggled into the United States. The result is street drug wars.

Demoralized law enforcement officers from border agents to the smallest towns are leaving the profession that they loved. Some are retiring as soon as they qualify, while others are seeking jobs in which they will receive the respect they deserve. This is occurring as the president has questioned how they have performed their job. Members of his own party have worked to defund police at every level. Biden has been silent on their unwillingness to support law enforcement or to even acknowledge there is a problem.

Biden’s hasty unplanned exit from Afghanistan while ignoring the advice of his top military officers. That haste was the direct responsibility for the needless deaths of Americans. This was followed by an irresponsible drone attack that killed a friendly Afghan and his children. An attack that was ordered to prove that our military was still relevant in Afghanistan.

Now he has ordered all who have not been vaccinated to be released from the military. His policy has ended careers with no respect for the individual’s situation.

Frank Ruff Jr. represents Lunenburg in the state Senate. His email address is Sen.Ruff@verizon.net.