Commentary

While watching President Biden read about his “Inflation Reduction Act of 2022” from the teleprompter Thursday, referring to it as an historic agreement to fight inflation and lower costs, it occurred to me he simply has no clue what the average American is experiencing.

With obvious delight, he began by joking about the name given to the Act, saying that “Some of you will see a lot of similarities between the beginning; of the Build Back Better initiative.” 

You see, the Act is actually Build Back Better Lite, the result of the cave by West Virginia’s Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin, who balked at the big spending in BBB, frequently saying, “If I can’t go home and explain it, I can’t vote for it.”

I wonder now, how he is going to explain his capitulation with Biden and Chuck Schumer when it will dump hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy at a time of massive inflation?

Were they feeling secure when Jared Bernstein, one of Biden’s economic advisors, appeared on TV on the White House lawn to explain things?  After all, he earned a bachelor’s degree in music at the Manhattan School of Music, and degrees in philosophy and social work from Hunter College and Columbia University.

Manchin will tell his constituents there will be no new taxes for people making under $400,000, but that will be meaningless since the median household income in West Virginia, the fifth poorest state, is just $51,600.

How will Manchin explain that those things middle-class families know were in the original bill – childcare, eldercare, pre-school, affordable housing, college tuition, and expanding Medicaid – have been sacrificed for new green deal fantasy projects?

The Act invests $369 billion to secure our energy future and to address the climate crisis, according to Biden, claiming family energy bills will be reduced by hundreds of dollars.

How can they believe him after he took away our energy independence and the price of gas at the pump is being lowered artificially by releases from the strategic reserve?

The Act will give West Virginians a tax credit of $7,500 to buy an electric vehicle if it is built in America, but how many of them can afford an EV with an average sticker price of $56,000?

“This bill will be the most significant legislation in history to tackle the climate crisis and improve our energy security right away.  And it will give us a tool to meet the climate goals that are set – that we’ve agreed to – by cutting emissions and accelerating clean energy.” -President Biden

How many West Virginians will recall agreeing to the president’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent off of 2005 levels by 2030?  And how many of them took him seriously when he told a young environmentalist, “I guarantee we will end the use of fossil fuels?”

Will Biden’s dream of corporations paying their fair share affect the companies that call West Virginia home?  How will the 15 percent minimum tax affect employment there?

Manchin apparently agrees with Biden’s declaration that the Act will cut the cost of living of West Virginians, strengthen our economy in the long run and lower the deficit.  I think he’ll have some serious “splaining” to do.

I was wrong.  I thought Manchin’s stance on spending was solid.  But as it turns out, he, like Justice Stephen Breyer, caved to the party in the end.  I hope my belief in Kyrsten Sinema as a common-sense Democrat holds true.

Who Are They?

Reading in Rasmussen Reports that 23 percent of likely voters think the country is heading in the right direction, as opposed to the 72 percent who believe the nation is headed down the wrong track, I wonder who they are.

May God continue to bless the United States of America.