This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
'The government should not have a hold on the economy in such a way that it can truly distort entire markets'
When Joe Biden and other Democrats in his political party worked on the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act, they often talked about its global warming ideology, its social agenda points, its tax law updates.
But not how it would reduce inflation, because, as even left-leaning CBS found, "The Inflation Reduction Act is aimed at tackling a host of problems, from climate change to catching tax cheats, but there's one issue it may not solve: reducing inflation."
Biden himself, confessed, the law has "nothing to do with inflation."
A report from the Heartland Foundation found, "The Inflation Reduction Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden on August 16, 2022, but the contents of the legislation are contradictory to its stated purpose."
That study found the point of Biden's law, adopted with support only from Democrats, was "the creation of an enormous renewable energy slush fund, paid for by deficit spending."
That means it sets up the government to borrow money to give away to the Democrats' compatriots who run green energy companies and foundations.
The initial estimates were for those green agenda actions to cost some $369 billion, estimates that almost immediately were boosted to $1.8 billion.
Now a report at Just the News documents a warning from the Cato Institute that if left unchanged, the IRA could demand from American taxpayers almost $5 trillion.
Actually, the warning is that it will cost $4.67 trillion, 12 times the original claimed costs.
Cato also warns that the "subsidies are undermining innovation and driving investments toward subsidy farming rather than satisfying consumer demand," the report said.
"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," explained Cato's Joshua Loucks.
The study recommends that the law be fully repealed, or if not, have significant limitations placed on its green subsidies, limits which now are nonexistent.
Loucks said the assessment was based partly on the fact that there have been wildly divergent estimates for the bill's costs, from the CBO's original $369 billion on up.
"We decided to go on our own fact-finding endeavor here, and that's what resulted in this paper," Loucks said.
Biden's scheme provides tax credits for production of energy, or tax credits for investing in green ideologies.
It's set up so that there's really no end date to all the cash handouts.
They estimated that over the next 10 years, the IRA could cost taxpayers up to $1.97 trillion, and by 2050, up to $4.67 trillion.
It also notes that the real problem is that Biden left the law open so that tax credits are "stackable," meaning a company could cash in on its operations in multiple ways.
"The options for entrepreneurs are unlimited, which is part of the problem in terms of the incentive structure that this law builds. I think it takes the entrepreneurial spirit, the entrepreneurial spirit of Americans, and essentially turns them towards chasing subsidies instead of satisfying consumer demand," an author of the Cato report explained.
The study also found that most of the subsidies will end up in the bank accounts of large corporations and the entirety is structured so that there are companies "that exist for the sake of taking in these subsidies," the report said.
The study found not only does the plan not address inflation, it doesn't really address "climate in any meaningful way."
"It just funnels money to special interest groups and does nothing to really address how we're going to transform our economy in a way that is equitable and beneficial for all Americans," Loucks said.
