Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations” was published in 1776, the same year as the Declaration of Independence, and it was just as revolutionary. The work explains that in a free enterprise system the free choice of the consumer, like the corollary free vote of the citizen, would determine what products would be produced in the marketplace. Everyone in such a marketplace was free to produce, free to choose, and free to purchase for the benefit of the consumer and to the general benefit and prosperity of the whole society. Smith’s revolutionary work did away with the feudal system of having to have a tyrant’s favor to produce goods in the tyrant’s marketplace, for the despot’s “subjects.” There was no choice.
When Joe Biden took office in January 2021, he immediately attacked our economy’s energy sector via executive orders, administrative regulations, and cutting off federal land leases for energy exploration and development. The effects of such an onslaught were predictable. When you make energy costs higher, every product that is shipped from point A to point B will cost more. Every product produced in a plant that uses electricity will cost more. Every service facility, such as hospitals and schools, will cost more to operate.
So, it was predictable that the price of a barrel of oil, a gallon of gas, and home heating oil would all increase. Each of these costs rippled through the whole economy, creating a national rise in inflation of 12.7% in the first two years of Biden’s presidency.
It was equally predictable that the Democratic Party would blame the increases in costs on “evil” energy companies, and that they would generate a “Climate Bill” to finish the job of taking command and control of the energy sector to save our economy, having first imperiled it. However, there was one sensible Democratic Senator, who knew the bill would increase inflation further, so the original “Climate Bill” was sidelined.
In the original Climate Bill’s stead, just one year ago, came a Trojan horse called “The Inflation Reduction Act,” refashioned as a “gift” that would reduce costs across the economy for hard-working families. In fact, just as the Greeks fashioned a horse to get through the walls of Troy, which they could not breach by other means, the Democrats offered this act as a sales pitch, a fashionable vessel, that contained the same regulatory armies that created the country’s runaway inflation in the first place.
Why would one of America’s political parties do such a thing?
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was not passed to reduce inflation nor was it written to reduce global warming. Its real function is to take control of America’s most vital economic sector, one that is literally at the crossroads of the wealth and prosperity of our country. The IRA functions as a means of transferring power through control of the energy sector to the administrative state, and it functions as a means of transferring wealth to the Democratic Party and their friends and business associates, through taxpayer-funded, stock market-supported, alternative energy business start-ups.
So, how do you do that?
You use the administrative state to regulate, tax, fine, and persecute the fossil fuels industry out of business while using taxpayer wealth to fund its alternative – the companies the administrative state and the Democratic Party favor – with regulations, grants, subsidies, and tax breaks.
Though sold as a simple bill designed to contain inflation, in reality, the IRA is a textbook example of how to perform a socialist takeover of an economic sector. And do note the diversionary title of the Inflation Reduction Act. If the real intent of the IRA had been written into the bill and had to gain the public’s approval to pass Congress, it would never have passed. Titled and sold as a means of curing the problem of inflation the Democratic Party itself created – it did pass.
So, what does it mean?
It means that, like the walls of Troy, the fossil fuel industry is under siege from a disguised, internal enemy. It means taxpayers will be looted of more wealth than the Trojans ever dreamed of, to the tune of $1.4 trillion and counting. It also means another kind of plundering – with government command and control comes higher consumer prices for everything. It means one political party in alliance with the administrative state will dictate which companies can produce what products. What is produced that is in any way related to the energy sector will need the favor of a new tyrant: The Democratic Party.
It means that the American consumer will have no choice in what materials are used to build their homes or what type of car they can buy, or what type of stove to use or what light bulb to choose. The American consumer will have as much choice as the Trojan slaves had after the war, when their masters dictated what they consumed.
But they say the world’s going to die! The planet’s burning and there is no way off! We must do something!
When choosing whether to believe a myth or follow the money – follow the money.
Richard C. Lyons, author of The DNA of Democracy: Volume I and Shadows of the Acropolis: Volume II is a third generation printer, whose early career centered on religious and special education publishing. Lyons has since engaged in literary pursuits as a poet, essayist, screenwriter and indie publisher.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Daily Wire.