Inflation (Reduction) Act

We’re all aware that politics are riddled with lies and bribes. Fancy marketing campaigns distort realities of a bill, and hide the backroom promises. It’s all about the messaging.

The two Democrats who have been a thorn in the side of the party since Biden took office proved this week that they’re no better than any other crooked politician. Joe Manchin sought two promises for his support on the budget reconciliation bill. Manchin got to add natural gas and oil pipelines for his home state of West Virginia. He also has a promise that Congress will pass a resolution assuring the EPA will reduce the current wait time of acquiring permits for such energy. Kyrsten Sinema benefited nicely from lobbyists by personally revising the bill for her support. She ensured that the illustrious ‘carried-interest’ tax loophole is maintained. This is a ‘gotcha’ piece of tax aversion that allows billionaires in private equity to avoid paying tremendous amounts of taxation on profitable deals they broker.

The bill is called the Inflation Reduction Act. So, you know this means it definitely doesn’t reduce inflation. The Wharton School at Penn has concluded it does not. Other studies have rendered the same conclusion. It really doesn’t take a genius to figure that out. How does spending hundreds of billions of dollars during a time of unprecedented inflation help reduce inflation? Not possible.

The bill is passed via a new method. Instead of seeking the typical 60 votes to pass a bill, the Senate can pass a spending bill with a simple majority. This is the new way the Senate can add all of their side projects into a bill that doesn’t require passage through use of the traditional method. A classic workaround.

The bill will hike corporate taxes to a minimum of 15%. Democrats, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. You claim we aren’t in a recession due to the low unemployment rate. However, now you want to raise taxes on the very companies that are keeping Americans employed. How do you intend to add costs to a company dealing with a laundry list of economic and geopolitical issues without affecting the labor market itself? These companies are not going to be able to afford a tax hike. Also, if they happen to keep their employees, they’ll do what every company does. Pass the cost onto the consumer. The goal is to lower inflation. Yet, this is a sure fire way to add pressure to already inflated costs.

The bill is a slush fund of green spending that will not help anyone. It adds subsidies to more green energy projects. The subsidies will help ensure solar panels made in China will continue to go up on roofs across the country. The subsidies will help ensure more electric vehicles are added to roads all across America. Electric vehicles that are barely more environmentally beneficial when compared to traditional vehicles. Does the bill do anything about trying to produce clean energy products here in America? No. Does it do anything to lessen our supply chain reliance on foreign adversaries, like China? No. It just throws money at something. Classic D.C. wasteful spending and reckless economic policy.

The bill includes a dangerous amendment for Medicare. This will allow Medicare to dictate the price of drugs for consumers. The process is referred to as negotiation, but that is a laughable euphemism. Sure, drug companies could negotiate the price that the Department of Health and Human Services suggests, but if they go against the ‘negotiated’ price, they’ll be subjected to enormous penalties. In fact, this bill paves the way down a very slippery slope. It begins with twenty of the country’s most popular drugs as it pertains to Medicare usage. The HHS will set the price that consumers will pay. Drug companies will be forced to abide. Going forward, the Pandora’s Box has been officially opened to price-fixing and it’ll destroy the public market. What benefit would a publicly traded for-profit company have to discover a new cure if there is no monetary gain for their shareholders? Innovation would be stunted considering the HHS could simply come in and dictate the price. Profits be damned.

The bill will also impact the Affordable Care Act. In the midst of Covid, Congress ensured subsidies were added to ACA payments to reduce the cost of health care. Well, no one in Congress wants to be charged with raising health care costs, so this bill ensures the subsidies remain intact for a few more years before Congress will be forced to extend this ‘temporary’ solution for the pandemic. Once again, American voters are reminded that there is no such thing as a temporary government program.

The most ironic part of the bill is brought to us courtesy of Senator Sinema. Billionaires will be protected from paying more in taxes, but the IRS itself will expand fourfold. Are we providing the IRS with valuable ways to enhance their technology that is decades old? No. We are simply expanding the workforce in an effort to ensure every American is audited on a regular basis. Why make the process of filing taxes easier? Instead, let’s make sure every American has increased inefficiencies added to their already stressful lives.

Both parties are frauds when it comes to saying what they’ll do for Americans to get elected, and then actually doing the opposite when in power. But, this is one for the record books. No reduction of inflation. Instead, increased spending. No taxes on the billionaires like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders told you they’d do. Instead, billionaires keep paying less, and you get the privilege of enjoying annual audits. No innovations for the US economy pertaining to the illustrious Green New Deal. Instead, reckless amounts of subsidies given to the industry to ensure our future power grid is solely reliant on the Chinese supply chain. No true clean energy policies like AOC and her fellow Squad members fight for. Instead, back room deals that will continue to prop up ‘dirty’ energy. No path forward to ensuring the American medicine industry will remain the most dominant in terms of innovation preventing and curing diseases. Instead, a path forward to stunt growth across the entire industry by fixing prices at non-profitable levels. No hard lessons here to actually cut spending and try to truly focus on the runaway inflation. Instead, a continuation of government slush funds into the hands of lobbyists and donors.

Democrats once cared for the working man. They fought for laborers. They tried to ensure the average American family could get by. Now, the party is nothing but a group of hacks. They’ve been bought by lobbyists. They are nothing more than an isolated group of Ivy educated fraudsters that think they are better than you. They have no concept of the struggles the average American endures today. Their hubris has led America down a dangerous path of no return.These people couldn’t give a damn about the middle class. And, they only care about the impoverished minority class every two years when an election comes up. They tell you the big bad GOP is a group of xenophobic wackos coming to deport you. But, the Democrat party of today has no ideas. They have no grasp of economic policy. They have lies to build upon their lies. Vote them out in November, and don’t forget how bad they mistreated you when 2024 rolls around.