By Stratton J. Davis
Today, a proposed bill which came about through an agreement reached by Democratic senators Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer was passed by the Senate, a bill which is deceptively titled the “Inflation Reduction Act.” What it actually is is a $280 billion chips and science bill, which has a significant focus on climate change initiatives that the Democrats have been fighting for. So what does that mean in regards to the effect this bill will actually have on inflation? An interesting study done by the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania answers this question. Jonathan Turley writes: “ Jon Huntley and John Ricco found that the bill ‘would reduce non-interest cumulative deficits by $248 billion over the budget window with no impact on GDP in 2031. The impact on inflation is statistically indistinguishable from zero.’ That is $52 billion less in deficit reduction than claimed by the Democrats and the review found the bill would actually ‘very slightly increase inflation until 2024 and decrease inflation thereafter.’ Wharton’s budget unit functions like an academic Congressional Budget Office in offering non-partisan budget analysis. At a time of growing orthodoxy and viewpoint intolerance, it remains an independent voice on budgetary issues.” So, this bill will not do a damn thing in regards to reducing inflation. Then what will it do? Ron Paul writes: “... the bill authorizes spending hundreds of billions of dollars on energy and fighting climate change. Much of this is subsidies for renewable energy — in other words green corporate welfare. Government programs subsidizing certain industries take resources out of the hands of investors and entrepreneurs, who allocate resources in accordance with the wants and needs of consumers, and give the resources to the government, where resources are allocated according to the agendas of politicians and bureaucrats. When government takes resources out of the market, it also disrupts the price system through which entrepreneurs, investors, workers, and consumers discover the true value of goods and services. Thus, “green energy” programs will lead to increased cronyism and waste. The bill also extends the ‘temporary’ increase in Obamacare subsidies passed as part of covid relief. This will further increase health care prices. Increasing prices is a strange way to eliminate price inflation. The only way to decrease health care costs without diminishing health care quality is by putting patients back in charge of the health care dollar.” It is ironic that price increases will happen due to a bill that claims it will fight inflation. Perhaps DC is trying to change the definition of inflation too, but it really is not needed since they never truly acknowledge what inflation is anyways. While rising prices are a symptom of inflation, it is the expansion of the money supply which creates inflation. DC would never acknowledge this because inflation benefits them and their agenda since it is their unnatural elite class that are the ones who get to utilize the newly printed fiat money first. They do not feel the effects of it in the short run, and by the time they do they will have already accomplished their goals, which means they will not hurt much, if at all. It should also be noted that history shows that irrational people, who make up most of society, will call on the government to “save” them from rising prices. The government is always happy to do so because it gives them more control over the economy, which gives them more control over us, and it also gives them another excuse to print more money and keep the inflation going. This is all intentional, and the government aiding itself through its own spending, along with the increase in cronyism, all naturally comes along with it. If you know how big government works then you know this is all to be expected from any bill put forth that has such a nice sounding title. The better it sounds, the more you are getting screwed. It gets even worse though. Dr. Paul also points out how the authors of the bill expect to reduce inflation by taxing the rich. While Dr. Paul goes on to explain how this is just as counterproductive as everything else the government does, the claim that this bill is targeting the rich is a flat out lie. From the New York Post: “A key provision in the Inflation Reduction Act — which throws an extra $80 billion to the IRS to improve the agency’s collection of under-reported income — will end up targeting small business owners to pay for the legislation, according to nonpartisan watchdog the Joint Committee on Taxation. The group estimates that between 78% and 90% of the estimated additional $200 billion the IRS will collect will come from small businesses making less than $200,000 annually. Just 4% to 9% would come from businesses making north of $500,000 a year — meaning the legislation is in sharp contrast to President Biden’s longstanding claim that he wouldn’t raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000. ‘The IRS will have to target small and medium businesses because they won’t fight back,’ Joe Hinchman, executive vice president at National Taxpayers Union Foundation, told The Post… In fact, going after the lower and middle class can actually be more lucrative for IRS auditors than trying to get more money from the wealthy. ‘The rich have their lawyers and fight it — that’s why the poor are easier to go after,’ Hinchman adds.” So this bill will increase resources for the IRS to further their ability to crush the middle class into the lower class. This allows the unnatural elite to expand their control and grow in power. This also means lower to middle class Americans will not have a chance to become prosperous through small and honest business ventures that they create. Rather, the American dreams of many will be crushed, and they will be forced to work in small roles for big business in order to serve corporatists and their agendas. But even working for those phony corporations may be a thing of the past as the future goes on, since the trend of automated robots taking the place of humans in the workplace keeps catching on. Headlines like “Deutsche Bank claims that it will use artificial intelligence and ‘robots’ to achieve its goal of terminating 18,000 employees.” or “White Castle to hire 100 robots to flip burgers.” are very telling in regards to the circumstances surrounding our future economic standings. And yet immigrants are still flooding into our country, why? Because it is just more cattle for the government to prod and produce from, and immigrants especially are an aid to their agenda. Just look at how they vote. This is all being systematically done because the powers that be do not want us to be working for ourselves and thus put ourselves in better financial positions that allow us more power over our lives. Inflation always kills our finances, and this legislation will ensure that this will keep happening with much more control being implemented on us by way of the government expanding its own power. They want us to answer to them while creating a divide that keeps us separated as a people and thus easier to conquer. Calamity brought about by stealing from the poor to give to the powerful, giving our jobs to robots, and clashes of culture between immigrants and citizens will ensure that divide. This bill being passed paints an even grimier future for America, as if the last 2 years have not been enough. Of course, it is not over till it is over, and we can still make efforts to secure our finances and work to take back our future. Let us hope these efforts will be taken on and will be fruitful. Let us hope this author’s forecasts for a future that floods our lives with more outside control over us along with the castration of our liberties is wrong. This article was originally published at The Societal Scope.
Armed Federal agents busted into former President Trump's Florida house last night, ostensibly to seek classified documents that were to be turned in to the National Archives. What's behind this unprecedented move? Also today: Biden sends Ukraine $4 billion...to help with their budget! And finally: media races to claim Biden chalking up victories. Why?
The laughably-named "Inflation Reduction Act" will double the size of the IRS - making it larger than the Pentagon, State Department, FBI, and Border Patrol...combined! And that will save money? Also today: under (government?) pressure, CBS censors its own report on US weapons to Ukraine. And...is the end of "woke" entertainment on the horizon?
By Ron Paul
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s “surprise” trip to Taiwan last week should be “Exhibit A” as to why interventionism is dangerous, deadly, and dumb. Though she claimed her visit won some sort of victory for democracy over autocracy, the stopover achieved nothing of the sort. It was a pointless gesture that brought us closer to military conflict with zero benefits. As Col. Doug Macgregor said of Pelosi’s trip on a recent episode of Tucker Carlson Tonight, “statesmanship involves advancing American interests at the least cost to the American people. None of that is in play here. … Posturing is not statesmanship.” Pelosi’s trip was no outlier. Such counterproductive posturing is much celebrated by both parties in Washington. Neoconservative Senators Bob Menendez and Lindsey Graham were thrilled with Pelosi’s stop in Taipei and used it as a springboard to push for new legislation that would essentially declare war on China by declaring Taiwan a “major non-NATO ally.” The “one China” policy that, while perhaps not perfect, has kept the peace for more than 40 years is to be scrapped and replaced with one sure to provoke a war. Who benefits? Foolishly taking the US to the brink of war with Russia over Ukraine is evidently not enough for Washington’s bipartisan warmongering class. Risking a nuclear war on two fronts, with both Russia and China, is apparently the only way for Washington to show the rest of the world it’s serious. The Washington Post’s neoconservative columnist Josh Rogin accurately captures the mindset in Washington DC with a recent article titled, “The skeptics are wrong: The US can confront both China and Russia.” For Washington’s foreign policy “experts,” those of us who don’t believe a war with both Russia and China is a great idea are written off as “skeptics.” Count me as one of the skeptics! During the Cold War there were times of heightened tension, but even in the darkest days the idea that nuclear war with China and the Soviet Union could be a solution was held only by only a few madmen. Now, with the ideological struggles of the Cold War a decades-old memory, such an argument makes even less sense. Yet this is what Washington is selling. The US fighting a proxy war with Russia through Ukraine and Nancy Pelosi provoking China nearly to the point of war over Taiwan is meant to show the world how tough we are. In reality, it demonstrates the opposite. The drunken man in a bar challenging everyone to a fight is not tough. He’s foolish. He has nothing to gain and everything to lose from his display of bravado. That is interventionism at its core: a foolish policy that provokes nothing but anger overseas, benefits no one in the US except the special interests, and leaves the rest of us much poorer and worse off. There may be plenty to criticize about China’s government and policies. They are far from perfect, particularly in protection of civil liberties. But have we already forgotten that our own government shut down the country for two years over a virus, and then forced a huge number of Americans to take an experimental shot that is proving to be as worthless as it is dangerous? Let’s look at the log in our own eye before we start lobbing missiles overseas. America was never meant to be an empire. After all, empires go broke! Why would any nation ever want that? Human life is much (much) too complex for one nation, or one government, to rule them all. Sadly, in the early 1900's, Americans ditched sound money, with the creation of the Fed, and ditched the belief of non-intervention in the affairs of other nations. It's been all downhill ever since.
Florida State Rep. Anthony Sabatini, in a recent candidate forum, dared to make a stand for non-interventionism in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. He was interrogated by neocon moderator Marc Levin who could not believe anyone could advise staying out of the war, calling the Florida Rep’s views “the most radical I’ve ever heard.” Sabatini held his ground…and the crowd roared in approval.
In Arizona, Michigan, and elsewhere, Trump-backed candidates like US Senate hopeful Blake Masters pulled off victories in yesterday’s primaries. Is this the shape of things to come? Also today, more fallout from Pelosi’s perverse Taiwan junket and Russia accuses US of direct involvement in Ukraine war.
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made good on her threat to be the first US House Speaker to visit Taiwan in a quarter of a century. The Chinese government is furious and threatening retaliation. Are there any benefits to the US of Pelosi's provoking China?
RPI's Daniel McAdams tells students at the 2022 Mises University that foreign policy is central planning at its worst. Government spends billions on corrupt foreign leaders like Zelensky and Americans bear the financial burden and the existential risk. This speech was recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, July 30, 2022.
By Ron Paul
The Affordable Care Act, No Child Left Behind, and the USA PATRIOT Act received new competition for the title of Most Inappropriately Named Bill when Senate Democrats unveiled the Inflation Reduction Act. This bill will not only increase inflation, it will also increase government spending and taxes. Inflation is the act of money creation by the Federal Reserve. High prices are one adverse effect of inflation, along with bubbles and the bursting of bubbles. One reason the Federal Reserve increases the money supply is to keep interest rates low, thus enabling the federal government to run large deficits without incurring unmanageable interest payments. The so-called Inflation Reduction Act increases government spending. For example, the bill authorizes spending hundreds of billions of dollars on energy and fighting climate change. Much of this is subsidies for renewable energy — in other words green corporate welfare. Government programs subsidizing certain industries take resources out of the hands of investors and entrepreneurs, who allocate resources in accordance with the wants and needs of consumers, and give the resources to the government, where resources are allocated according to the agendas of politicians and bureaucrats. When government takes resources out of the market, it also disrupts the price system through which entrepreneurs, investors, workers, and consumers discover the true value of goods and services. Thus, “green energy” programs will lead to increased cronyism and waste. The bill also extends the “temporary” increase in Obamacare subsidies passed as part of covid relief. This will further increase health care prices. Increasing prices is a strange way to eliminate price inflation. The only way to decrease health care costs without diminishing health care quality is by putting patients back in charge of the health care dollar. The bill’s authors claim the legislation fights inflation by reducing the deficit via tax increases on the rich and a new 15 percent minimum corporate tax. Tax increases won’t reduce the deficit if, as is going to be the case, Congress continues increasing spending. Increasing taxes on “the rich” and corporations also reduces investments, slowing the economy and thus increasing demand for government programs. This leads to increasing government spending and debt. While there is never a good time to raise taxes, the absolute worst time for tax increases is when, as is the case today, the economy is both suffering from price inflation and, despite the gaslighting coming from the Biden administration and its apologists, is in a recession. The bill also spends 80 billion dollars on the IRS. Supposedly this will help collect more revenue from “rich tax cheats.” While supporters of increasing the IRS’s ability to harass taxpayers claim their target is the rich, these new powers will actually be used against middle-class taxpayers and small businesses that cannot afford legions of tax accountants and attorneys and thus are likely to simply pay the agency whatever it demands. Increasing spending and taxes will increase the pressure on the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates low, thus increasing inflation. If Congress was serious about ending inflation, it would cut spending — starting with overseas militarism and corporate welfare. A Congress that took inflation seriously would also take the first step toward restoring a free-market monetary system by passing Audit the Fed and legalizing competition in currency. |
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