Certainly the gas price increases were planned, the idea is to make it to expensive to drive a gasoline powered car so that everyone switches to electric. Note Joe's reaction, he is well aware that people will have to suffer higher prices at the pump, this is not a burden for the Washington elite. Obviously it's the same at the border, pretend the border is secure but let through as many potential voters for Democrats as you can. Now as to sky high inflation, how many of them don't care and how many are simply incompetent we don't know, it's probably a mix. Those who are incompetent probably didn't realize how many products use oil and how much the transportation of goods is dependent upon the price of fossil fuels.