Through the Looking Glass: The Inflation Reduction Act in President Biden’s Wonderland

By 

Harry G. Hutchison

|
August 8, 2022

3 min read

Radical Left

A

A

Six weeks ago it was reported that despite the fact that Americans face the highest inflation rate in four decades, President Biden made it clear that he would do nothing to push the Federal Reserve away from increasing interest rates as high as possible to curb this record-setting inflation. Recall that inflation has driven energy prices up by more than 40 percent on an annualized basis. Instead of merely doing nothing, now President Biden, with Senator Joe Manchin’s help, is prepared to deliver more failure to the American people by making a bad situation worse.

This week, Senator Manchin decided to rescue Biden’s grandiose Build Back Better plan by signing on to the Build Back Broke plan now known as the Inflation Reduction Act. Rather than fighting inflation and rather than staving off a recession, the Biden Administration’s so-called inflation reduction plan will raise taxes on corporations and individuals, dole out tax benefits for the rich, and provide tax benefits for solar and wind energy–which are massively unreliable, provide a tax credit for expensive electric vehicles–which of course depend on fossil fuel, and raise taxes on coal. This all appears to be part of a deliberate attempt to drive needed energy firms out of business while subsidizing the rich and selected political donors. This plan only makes sense if the Administration is trying to make China, a major supplier of solar panels and windmill components to the United States, richer.

How does this disastrous plan reduce inflation? It doesn’t. Indeed, a University of Pennsylvania study indicates that the proposed Inflation Reduction Act will actually add to inflation. There are very good reasons why inflation will likely rise under this plan. First, increasing taxes on corporations will likely lead to higher prices as firms pass their increased cost on to consumers. Second, the bill is simply a gigantic spending bill. Third, not content with making things worse, the Biden Administration now wants to hire up to 87,000 additional tax auditors in the IRS to go after small businesses and others, which means that middle-income Americans can look forward to both high inflation and greater IRS harassment despite the fact that the last several decades have seen the greatest transfer of wealth from middle- and working-class Americans to the wealthy in human history.

Indeed, increasing government spending while attempting to shut down oil and gas production in the United States, only makes sense in an Alice and Wonderland world of make-believe. In addition, it makes no sense to raise taxes during a recession. Only in a weird world of make-believe, inhabited by intellectual mediocrities and globalist politicians, would anyone support Biden’s Build Back Better plan. Americans should reject this plan, which is designed to move us toward a Socialist Green New Deal, wherein we may be forced to literally eat bugs and artificial meat. Instead of accepting this plan, it is time to put America first and globalist elites and foreign countries second.

It is time for the American people to reject the Biden Administration’s policy of using every crisis to make things worse for working- and middle-class Americans.

Support the work of the ACLJ as we continue to bring you expert analysis on the issues that matter most.