I guess I was in college the first time I heard Credence Clearwater Revival’s Apocalyptic-themed song “I See a Bad Moon Rising.” Good chance, since they recorded it in 1969 and I started college in 1970. The song is all about bad things happening that presage the end of the world.
It may not be the end of the world, but last week Congress passed and the president signed the hilariously misnamed “Inflation Reduction Act.” I can see some really dire results descending from this law.
I’m also reminded of the famous Star Wars line “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
First, since the name of the law is “The Inflation Reduction Act,” one would expect it would contain measures that would reduce inflation. But of course, it’s Washington, DC, so it does the opposite of what it’s supposed to do. It’s 1984 double-speak on steroids.
Just the amount of money – almost three-quarters of a trillion dollars – is inflationary. The definition of inflation is too many dollars chasing too few goods and services. The more money the government prints, the less the dollars in the money supply are worth. So instead of reducing inflation, the Act will, just by existing, increase inflation.
If only that was the only problem.
The bill has also been hailed as the first real effort to deal with Climate Change. In an earlier post, I looked at whether we are asking the right questions about Climate Change. Without asking the right questions we won’t have the right answers. The answers leftists give concerning climate change all have to do with destroying the economy, while they mouth fictions about how green energy is free and green jobs are plentiful and everything will come up rainbows if we just give up our SUVs, air conditioners and beef.
We don’t have to wonder what will happen. Several countries have already tried what the left recommends. The African nation of Ghana, for example, rushed to implement policies that would get it a high ESG score (Environment, Social, Governance), by raising $5 billion in GSS bonds (Green, Social and Sustainability, because there weren’t enough acronyms in this paragraph), which invest in Green projects. But since Green policies are divorced from reality, especially economics, the value of the bonds is down 28% and Ghana’s already tiny economy is on the brink of collapse.
Then there’s the Netherlands, the European Union’s largest meat producer. But to get a 90.7 ESG score, the nation mandated the reduction of livestock in the country by 30% (cows, you see, fart and farting puts ammonia in the air, which increases Global Warming, or something). Dutch farmers protested, which caused the government to echo Hillary Clinton’s message to coal miners when they said, “Not all farmers can continue their businesses.”
ESG stands for Environmental, Social (as in social engineering) and Governance (as in the government will run rough-shod over anyone who tries to inject sanity or reality into their policies). We will see what damage the Inflation Reduction Act will do in the coming months and years through wrong-headed, not to mention bull-headed policies.
Then there’s the most ominous feature of the Act: $87 billion to the IRS to hire new agents, the job description of which includes being willing and able to carry firearms and use deadly force. I heard a former White House budget director say the entire Treasury Department usually gets $15 billion, so this will weaponize the IRS to a degree heretofore unimaginable. It will double the work force of the IRS. All those agents will have to justify their existence. No one will be safe.
Why did the authors of this bill feel like this was necessary? Because they, at bottom, believe ALL money belongs to the government. Anything you have, they covet and they will find a way to take it from you.
But also, this Act, with its explosion of tax men, tacitly admits that they know their polices are so expensive and wasteful that it will take the entire GDP of the country to pay for it. Not just in our lifetimes, but in our grandchildren’s lifetimes. It is a recipe for crushing poverty for us. They, of course, will be exempt. They are too important, you see. As John Kerry said, his work for the Climate is much more important than the environmental waste spewed out of the engines of his private jet.
This kind of hypocrisy and dismissive attitudes to the suffering of common people will produce a reaction, and that’s the other reason for arming revenuers: to put down revolt.
I see the bad moon a-risin,’
I see trouble on the way,
I see earthquakes and lightnin,’
I see bad times today.
