Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Rep. Ro Khanna hold a news conference to discuss legislation that would temporarily halt U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia at the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 12.
Photo:
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
President Biden and Democrats in Congress are furious at Saudi Arabia for pushing the OPEC cartel to reduce oil production, and they’re threatening “consequences.” The ingenious plan seems to be to tell the Saudis that unless they do what Mr. Biden wants, the U.S. will shoot itself in the head.
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The Saudis last week joined OPEC, Russia and other oil producers in cutting their output by two million barrels a day. As the Journal reported this week, Saudi
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Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
made the decision despite U.S. entreaties to wait at least until after the November election.
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As far as we can see, this mainly involves hurting the U.S. economy and pushing our erstwhile allies in the Middle East further into the arms of Russia and China. One counterproductive suggestion is for Mr. Biden to throw support behind the so-called NOPEC bill that would let the Justice Department file antitrust suits against the cartel and state-owned oil companies. This wouldn’t have much effect on oil prices, but it almost surely would invite retaliation against U.S. companies.
Another dazzling brainstorm, from Rep.
Ro Khanna
and Sen.
Richard Blumenthal,
would cut off U.S. arms sales to the Saudis for a year. The House defense authorization bill includes a limit on future arms sales to the Kingdom, and Mr. Biden could urge the Senate to pass it too. But all this would do is deny revenue to U.S. defense contractors and encourage the Saudis to seek alternative arms suppliers. Saudi Arabia is the largest purchaser of U.S. weapons.
Reps.
Susan Wild
and
Tom Malinowski
would go even further and remove all U.S. troops from Saudi Arabia. The U.S. has about 3,000 military personnel in the Kingdom, mainly to assist in maintaining aircraft and Patriot and Thaad missile-defense systems. Genius: Make the Saudis more vulnerable to Iran.
We suppose there’s a certain insane consistency to these proposals considering how upside-down the Biden energy policy has been for two years. The White House does all it can to discourage U.S. oil production in the name of climate change, but then it begs foreign countries to produce more to reduce soaring gasoline prices. It alienates allies like Saudi Arabia that could produce more, but then courts the dictators who lead Iran and Venezuela so they can sell more oil and have more money to stir anti-American trouble.
Wouldn’t it be easier, and better for U.S. interests, to unleash U.S. oil production?
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Appeared in the October 13, 2022, print edition as ‘How Not to Punish the Saudis.’
