Tag Archives: Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)

Why The Seventeenth Amendment Matters

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President Woodrow Wilson did a number of things that reformatted the plan for America our Founding Fathers designed. He signed into law a personal income tax, the federal reserve, and the direct election of Senators (the Seventeen Amendment).

The Seventeen Amendment states:

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures.

When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.

This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.[2]

Before the Seventeenth Amendment, Senators were chosen by the state legislators and subject to recall if they did not represent the interests of the state. Without the Seventeenth Amendment, Senator Manchin of West Virginia would not have voted for the Inflation Reduction Act. Senator Manchin did not originally vote for the Inflation Reduction Act because he understood that the green energy provisions in the bill would be harmful to the economy of West Virginia. During the negotiations regarding the bill, promises were made that would slightly lessen the impact on West Virginia (the Democrats eventually reneged on those promises). Had the Senator been subject to recall, he would never have voted on the bill.

As I write this, the government shutdown is continuing. Simplified Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits will be ending on November 1. Do you really believe that Senators who were subject to recall by their state legislators would continue to vote to keep the government shutdown and would have the support of their state legislators in doing so?

I don’t know who will eventually be blamed for the prolonged government shutdown. I do know that it is hurting Americans and that those voting to keep the government shut down do not seem to care for the welfare of their voters. Those are the people who should be voted out of office in the midterms.

Rewriting History For Political Purposes

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The problem with inflation is that once the prices go up, they don’t always come back down to where they were. Although gas at the pump is comfortably low, a lot of other things that became more expensive under the Biden administration’s runaway inflation have not yet come down to their previous level. Americans are still feeling the impact of the Biden administration’s economic policies. It is wise to keep in mind that President Trump has only been in office since the end of January, and Rome wasn’t built in a day.

On Thursday, The Daily Caller posted an article giving us a preview of the rhetoric we will encounter in the run up to the mid-term elections.

The article reports:

CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings reminded former Democratic New York mayoral candidate Michael Blake on Thursday that the affordability crisis began under former President Joe Biden.

Blake claimed that Democratic Iowa state Sen.-elect Catelin Drey defeated the Republican incumbent in the state’s special election because Republicans “cannot articulate a policy agenda” to make Americans’ lives more affordable. Jennings mocked Democrats for sounding the alarm on the affordability crisis when inflation soared to record levels under Biden.

“Well it doesn’t make me very nervous to hear Democrats, with a straight face, looking into a television camera and saying ‘boy, how did we get to this affordability crisis’ given that we all know how we got there over the last four years,” Jennings said.

When Blake blamed President Donald Trump for the inflation under Biden, Jennings said, “So you’re saying we had no affordability crisis during the Biden years? Where did the inflation come from?”

The article notes:

Prices rose more than 20% during Biden’s term in office, jumping from 1.4% at the beginning of Biden’s presidency to its peak of 9.1% in June 2022, the highest annual rate since 1981. Inflation fell below 3% for the first time in two years in July 2024.

Many economists blamed the soaring inflation on the Biden administration spending $1.9 trillion and $750 billion on the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act, which Biden signed into law early in his term.

The article concludes:

Jennings said that Democrats tend to perform better in special elections, which contributed to Drey’s victory.

“It’s absolutely true. Democrats now have more voters who are regular voters in non-traditional elections. Specials, off-year, what have you. That’s absolutely true, and so you’ve seen a pattern of Democrats doing better in these elections that don’t happen outside of a regular occurrence,” Jennings added.

It will be interesting to see where the economy is by next November, and if voters want to go back to the inflation numbers we had in the Biden administration.

Follow The Money

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On June 20, The Conservative Review posted an article about the problem the Senate is having with phasing out Biden-era green energy tax credits. It seems that campaign contributions really do play a role in Senators’ decisions.

The article reports:

The Senate’s draft represents a substantial cut to the existing climate-friendly energy tax credits, but some Republicans are pursuing a less aggressive rollback than their House counterparts, according to a report from The Hill.

Several GOP senators who oppose a full repeal argue that even the Senate’s scaled-back proposal goes too far in dismantling the clean energy tax credits established under the Biden Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

Several of these GOP Senators have also received campaign contributions from groups related to the tax credits.

The article notes:

Republican West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, whose state hosts one of the “hydrogen hubs” created under the Biden administration, expressed concern over the bill’s deadline requiring projects to begin construction by the end of the year to qualify for tax credits.

Capito said she’s working to delay that deadline, calling it “a pretty tight timeline,” and adding, “I’m trying to get the date pushed back. I don’t know if I’ll be successful,” according to another report from The Hill.

She has also received $49,200 in campaign contributions from Williams, a Tulsa, Oklahoma-based energy company with significant investments in hydrogen infrastructure during the 2024 election cycle, according to OpenSecrets data.

Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford likewise received $54,500 in contributions from Williams during the same time period.

Capito also took $45,325 during the 2024 election cycle from First Energy, an electric utility that has pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

A group of four Republicans — Sens. Murkowski, Curtis, Moran and Tillis — have jointly cautioned against a “full-scale” repeal of the energy tax credits enacted by Democrats in 2022.

The article notes that Senator Tillis has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from firms that have invested millions of dollars in clean energy initiatives in recent years. Other Senators with similar funding–Collins, Capito, Murkowski, and Curtis.

Please folow the link to the article for further details.

How Much Did The Inflation Reduction Act Actually Cost?

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On Monday, Just the News posted an article about the actual cost of the Inflation Reduction Act. The Inflation Reduction Act was not about inflation–it was about subsidizing green energy.

The article reports:

When former President Joe Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed in 2022, it did so along party lines with not a single Republican voting for it. At the time, a Senate one-pager summarized the law as costing taxpayers $369 billion, based on Congressional Budget Review (CBO) estimates. 

A new study from the Cato Institute finds that the law could cost as much as $4.67 trillion by 2050. That’s roughly 12 times the stated cost. The study also concludes that the subsidies are undermining innovation and driving investments toward subsidy farming rather than satisfying consumer demand. 

“The government should not have a hold on the economy in such a way that it can truly distort entire markets, and that’s what the Inflation Reduction Act is,” Joshua Loucks, research associate with Cato Institute and co-author of the analysis, said in a video explaining the study. 

…The subsidies for the IRA come in two forms — production tax credits (PTC), which provide tax credits per unit of energy produced, or investment tax credits, which provide tax credits for various investments in carbon-free energy. Which one developers take depends on the project and their business preferences. With the ITC, the subsidies provide an infusion of cash up front, whereas the PTCs provide payouts over time. 

Some of these are not capped, and others are only phased out when certain greenhouse gas emission reductions are met. Using models from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the study shows there’s little likelihood that these reductions will be met in the next 25 years, meaning the subsidies have no meaningful end date. 

The article concludes:

The study’s authors argue that, in light of the IRA’s actual costs, a full repeal of its energy subsidies is needed. If a full repeal isn’t possible, Congress should limit taxpayer liabilities by placing caps on the dollar value of the subsidies, add expiration dates instead of emission reduction targets — or both. 

“Delaying action only strengthens the political and economic interests tied to its subsidies, making reform even more difficult as the web of government handouts expands,” Loucks and Fisher warn in an article on “The Fishtank,” Fisher’s Substack. 

Repealing the energy subsidies in the IRA is a wonderful idea. This is another budget cut the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) needs to look at.