The baby formula crisis in the United States continues apace, with 40 percent of the stock depleted in 43 different states. In practice, that means what’s on the shelves is selling out almost immediately, leaving thousands of parents unable to get what they need.
That’s left the Biden administration scrambling, invoking the Defense Production Act and ordering the military to fly in baby formula from Europe. Now, the White House is looking to claim credit for what little difference those things might make, and it’s a pathetic showing.
Here’s how this doesn’t work. You don’t get to turn everything into a disaster and then act like an innocent bystander saving the day when you do the bare minimum to try to bring some relief. This is akin to the administration bragging about its Afghanistan evacuation even as 13 Americans were murdered, many more were left behind, and untold numbers of Afghans suffered and continue to suffer.
As I said, it’s absolutely pathetic, and it bears repeating exactly how we got here. The current supply chain crisis was caused by a variety of issues, not the least of which was the White House ignored warnings as far back as October of 2021 that this was going to happen. Instead of taking action, relieving regulations that stop the importation of baby formula from Europe and other regions, the president ignored the issue. Many months later, he would claim he’s not a “mind reader” when asked why his administration sat on its hands.
Yet, what truly sent things into a spiral was an FDA recall at the Abbott plant in Michigan, which produces a large amount of the nation’s baby formula. Even after it became clear that no babies had been made sick by what the plant had sent out, the FDA continued to drag its feet for months on end, refusing to recertify the facility. That led to a massive shortage across the country that Biden is now trying to “fix” today by spending more taxpayer money, which in turn creates more inflation.
Lastly, on the issue of tariffs, which some have tried to blame on Donald Trump, Joe Biden is president. He is the one who has had the power to lift them in order to increase the supply for the entirety of this crisis. That he still hasn’t is completely on him, no matter how much the left tries to point fingers at the former president.
In short, the idea that this invalid of a president gets to take credit for anything that’s happening now in regards to the baby formula shortage is insulting to everyone’s intelligence. He caused this problem. He’s not really fixing it now, and even if he were, no one gets to claim victory over something they screwed up. That’s not how any of this works, and the guy who has been in office a year and a half is not an innocent bystander.