Did the Ministry of Truth Name the Inflation Reduction Act?

Surprise! A bill will do the opposite of its name!

Well, they told us what they were going to do and then they went ahead and did it. After spending months proclaiming that government spending doesn’t drive inflation, Joe Biden and the democrats are putting our money where their mouths are, supporting a $800 billion monstrosity ironically titled the “Inflation Reduction Act”. If you know nothing but how the idiots in DC name their bills, you’d guess this bill will likely do the opposite, and you’d be right. The White House thinks so, and a recent University of Pennsylvania study agrees.

Looking at what’s actually in the bill, it’s no surprise that inflation isn’t improved, because this bill has very very little to do with inflation. It’s likely titled that because 1) The Iron Law of DC Bill Names and 2) So politicians can repeat “Inflation Recovery Act” a million times while campaigning for the midterms, tricking their constituents into thinking the politicians are actually doing something about inflation. Even this dumpster-fire of a CNN article could find few good things to say, claiming the bill would lower CPI by 0.33% in the fourth quarter of 2031. (If you believe government knows enough for that number to be anything but a wild guess, you need to read more Screaming into the Void)

But while reading this CNN article, one section DID catch my eye (bonus points if you can spot it in the link before I paste it below!):

See how they subtly blame inflation on people (especially poor people!) having money? Like the problem in America right now is that everybody is just SO FLUSH with cash that our economy can’t keep up! This is a variation of the ‘covid stimulus checks caused the inflation’ talking point we’ve heard surrounding the inflation debate since it started. (Though the stimulus checks likely boosted inflation via the printing press, this pales in comparison to the trillions of dollars printed to help out corporate America — and blaming inflation on YOUR checks allows the corporations to keep getting THEIR checks, like in this bill)

Moving onto the actual bill, it contains several major sections, explains Vox:

$370 billion for climate change

Continuing the laughable fantasy that government could get Earth to some optimum temperature if we just give them enough money and power, the IRA spends $370 to fight climate change:

Sure looks like more handouts to government-favored corporations to me. The smallest silver lining: I guess if you’re going to spend nearly $400 billion on climate change, you can toss a little to nuclear as well.

Subsidies to keep people on ACA

The (ever-growing) cynical portion of me thinks this is simply a way to keep people paying into the ACA instead of giving up on it completely. It’s not like you can actually afford to get sick, even with insurance.

Negotiate 10 drug prices

Even if this somehow saves us the entire $100 billion that’s projected, that would nudge the balance of “Government negotiating with Big Pharma” to approximately Pharma +$10,000,000,000,000. I’d put even odds that we end up paying MORE for these 10 drugs.

More money for IRS to get money from you

Making us spend $80 billion on IRS agents will allow those IRS agents to steal $200 billion from us — a net win if you don’t actually think about it.

Closing “loophole” to raise business taxes

I’ll let Joe Manchin explain this part:

See? Just closing a loophole where government wanted more money than the companies were legally required to pay! This is TOTALLY not a tax increase! Coming soon: narrowing the ‘income tax loophole’.

Pat Cross is brilliant - check him out!

This is (still) the major problem with Biden (or more correctly his handlers): all these ideas are terrible for Americans. No matter how many times you chant ‘We passed the Inflation Reduction Act’, Americans will only see the result: higher prices and government to blame. Biden is hoping the only thing Americans love more than paying more for gas is paying more for government that hates and wants to rob them. He and the democrats better hope for some super election fortification.