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The vast majority of Americans are concerned, or very concerned, about the current rate of inflation. Everyone, other than cave dwellers, knows that inflation is at a 40 year high. Every item we purchase, many of them necessities, are more expensive than they were a year ago. Only wealthy citizens are going about their daily lives relatively unaffected by historically high prices. The people largely responsible for higher prices are our elected representatives who are, for the most part, wealthy. Elected representatives only care about such trivial matters for about 3-4 months every 2 years. Those are the 3-4 months preceding their run for reelection. We are currently in one of those 3-4 month periods. Thus, in the face of family budget crushing inflation, our elected heroes put forth the “Inflation Reduction Act” (IRA). The Act has absolutely nothing to do with reducing inflation. In fact it will almost certainly have the effect of increasing inflation. You needn’t be an MIT trained economist to understand it is axiomatic that adding $700+ billion in government spending to an already inflated economy will increase the rate of inflation. To title such a bill “Inflation Reduction” insults the intelligence of informed citizens, and creates false hope for every American suffering from the ravages of this man made punishment.

The bill was referred to as the IRA only until it passed both Houses of Congress, and was signed by our dementia addled President. Biden didn’t even use the word inflation during his comments after signing the bill. His comments centered on its being the largest single commitment to combat climate change in our country’s history. He was ecstatic about the reduction in prescription costs he claims the bill will bring about. He was thrilled by the idea that corporations would finally be paying their “fair share”. He never mentioned by how much this bill will grow the size of government, and therefor reduce the freedoms of the American people. Those are not things one mentions 3 months in advance of a critical mid-term election. With the majority of the media being card carrying members of the democratic party, a lot of voters will never be told how destructive this bill will be. In the sake of brevity, I’ll mention only a couple of the corrosive effects this bill will have on we the American people.

The first is quite simple. Congress will levy a 15% minimum tax on corporations with profits over $1 billion. The idea is to make sure that corporations pay their “fair share” of taxes. (Corporate taxes are the cowards way to raise taxes). Hooray, the rich are finally going to pay up, shout the uninformed. The informed understand that corporations are not tax payers, they are tax collectors. When a corporation receives an increase in the amount of taxes they owe they are left with a few options as how to pay them. 1. They can absorb the cost and allow their earnings and profits to take a hit. 2. They can raise their prices enough to pay the taxes. 3. They can delay hourly wage hikes to employees. 4. They can lay off employees, or delay hiring additional employees. For which of the above would you opt if you were the owner, or board of directors, of the company? Hint: very few would choose option 1. The burden of the rest of the options fall directly on the shoulders of consumers or employees.

The bill creates a $27 billion National Green Bank. Its responsibilities will include “investing” in clean energy technologies and energy efficiency improvements. It will also make loans for clean energy projects. This is something that Biden should be good at. While serving as V.P. under Obama, he saw a similar program give mountains of money to Obama friends, contributors, and fund raisers. Many of the recipient’s projects simply disappeared without using the funds for their intended purpose. Biden saw first hand the value of those disbursements during Obama’s successful run for reelection in 2012. The “bank” will almost certainly serve as a way to reward loyal Democrat funders. History may not repeat itself but in this case I’d bet a lot of money it will at least rhyme.

The last example I’ll provide involves the IRS. The IRA provides as much as $80 billion to add as many as 87,000 new IRS agents. About 1/2 of the funds are designated specifically for enforcement. When the new agents are hired the IRS will have more personnel than the Pentagon, the State Dept., the FBI, and the Border Patrol. Combined! Finally, the President said, we will have the ability to see that billionaires pay their “fair share” of taxes. Woke Dems. cheered. It is about time they bleated. The other 90% of Americans understand that this as but a cruel ruse. It is estimated there are about 725 billionaires in the USA. That anyone thinks there is a need for an additional 87,000 examiners to keep an eye on them is ludicrous. Billionaires have suites of CPAs and tax attorneys who keep track of the tax code and do all of their tax filing. They can afford to do battle with an unscrupulous IRS. Can we? Don’t be fooled, the majority of the new agents will be assigned to watch over us. Most of us can’t afford the luxury of CPAs and tax attorneys. If we get notice of an audit we might typically ask an accountant to review the info the IRS is questioning. If the accountant suggests our deduction(s) are dubious, we write a check to the IRS closing the audit. If you don’t cheat you have nothing to worry about woke Dems. sneer. But the tax code is so convoluted and confusing a person can make an honest mistake. Nobody understands the totality of it’s nuances. If the mistake is for a relatively small amount it can cost more to fight it than to settle. After all, even when the IRS is wrong and you prevail in the audit, you are still out the money spent to defend yourself. This is a massive overreach by our federal government. There is no good that will come from this monstrous waste of money.

Our schools are in dire need of security personnel, and our southern border is woefully short of officers. Our country is struggling with a shortage of teachers, nurses, and police officers. The number one cause of death for 16-45 year-olds in America is drug overdoses stemming mainly from drugs illegally crossing our southern border. There is an explosion of crime in most of our larger cities. Having said all of that, Democrats priority was to pass a bill funding the creation of more IRS agents?!? They passed a $700+ billion law titled the Inflation Reduction Act that doesn’t address inflation. The wokesters are either, not intelligent enough, or are too wealthy, to care about the ravages of inflation, and the socialistic direction that bills like this take us. The rest of us need to be sure to go to the polls in November and vote against every member of Congress responsible for its passage.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I hope you found it informative. If you did, I ask you to tell your friends about it. Thanks again, Bob