<div>
Speaking in Wisconsin on Thursday, President Joe Biden bragged about his spending for his climate change agenda while inadvertently admitting that his gigantically-priced “Inflation Reduction Act” was not really about reducing inflation.
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<div>
“I’m proud to announce that my investments, that through my investments, the most significant climate change law ever,” Biden <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2024/09/05/remarks-by-president-biden-highlighting-how-his-investing-in-america-agenda-is-benefitting-communities-across-wisconsin-and-ensuring-americans-have-a-brighter-more-prosperous-future-westby-wi/">boasted</a>, then revealed that the Inflation Reduction Act title was simply a fig leaf for the real intent of the bill, continuing, ‘” And by the way, it is a $369 billion bill. It&#8217;s called the [Inflation Reduction Act]. We should have named it what it was.&#8221;
The bill was passed by Congress and signed into law by Biden in August 2022. In July 2023, Biden bragged on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/joebiden/posts/the-inflation-reduction-act-included-369-billion-the-biggest-investment-in-the-w/308347678436400/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Facebook</a>, “The Inflation Reduction Act included $369 billion, the biggest investment in the world in climate change, and we got it done without a single Republican vote.”
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
In case you&#39;re wondering why gas &amp; groceries are still so expensive, Joe Biden just admitted the &#39;Inflation Reduction Act&#39; was never about inflation—just a Green New Steal slush fund. 
Guess they woke him up too early from his nap. <a href="https://t.co/2N81qRmMwY">https://t.co/2N81qRmMwY</a>
&mdash; Rep. Nancy Mace (@RepNancyMace) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepNancyMace/status/1831798114199724490?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 5, 2024</a></blockquote>
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“We were sold under false pretense that spending more money we don’t have on federal programs we don’t need would somehow tame inflation,” Rep Jodey Arrington (R-TX) <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/its-been-two-miserable-years-since-biden-harris-inflation-reduction-act-its-worse-than-you-think" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> in mid-August. “How does that work? It doesn’t. According to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, the IRA had a statistically insignificant impact on inflation and may have even exacerbated it.”
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House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) <a href="https://energycommerce.house.gov/posts/one-year-later-even-president-biden-admits-the-inflation-reduction-act-failed-to-lower-costs-for-americans" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a> in August 2023, one year after the Inflation Reduction Act was passed, that since the start of the Biden-Harris administration, the cost of groceries had soared roughly 20%, gas prices were up almost 62%, natural gas prices had risen over 40%, and the Congressional Budget Office expected the launch prices of drugs to increase.
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This week, Rodgers, and Energy, Climate, and Grid Security Subcommittee Chair Jeff Duncan (R-SC) announced they would hold a hearing titled “From Gas to Groceries: Americans Pay the Price of the Biden-Harris Energy Agenda.” 
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“Clean, affordable, and reliable energy is foundational to the continued prosperity of the American people. Yet, the Biden-Harris administration’s radical, rush-to-green agenda has undermined our energy security, leading to years of out-of-control inflation and higher prices on everything from food to housing to vehicles and more,” Rodgers and Duncan <a href="https://energycommerce.house.gov/posts/chairs-rodgers-and-duncan-announce-hearing-to-discuss-biden-harris-administration-s-rush-to-green-agenda-resulting-in-higher-energy-costs-for-the-american-people">said.</a> “Energy and Commerce Republicans are leading to expose the consequences of those harmful policies and to advance policies that unleash American energy.”
</div>

President Biden Arrives At The White House From Delaware

OOPS: Biden Admits His $369 Billion Inflation Reduction Act Wasn’t About Inflation

Climate Change

Inflation Reduction Act

Joe Biden

Lying

March 4, 2021.
That was the day that Vice President Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote in the U.S. Senate to advance the behemoth $1.9 trillion spending package known as the American Rescue Plan. The bill — which not a single Republican in the House or Senate voted for — was signed into law a week later.
The American Rescue Plan was the catalyst that sparked the country&#8217;s highest inflation rates in over 40 years, with The Washington Post noting that prices on a wide-range of items began to rise &#8220;within days&#8221; of the bill being signed into law. The following month, <a href="https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-rates/">inflation</a> jumped from 2.6% to 4.2%, the highest number in well over a decade, and a year later, inflation rates were soaring over 8% on a monthly basis, going as high as 9.1% in June 2022.
According to the newest <a href="https://twitter.com/jackikotkiewicz/status/1823700895005098262">statistics</a> from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, prices on nearly everything have skyrocketed during the three and a half years that the Biden-Harris administration has been in office, including:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUUR0000SSFV031A">Food for K-12</a>, +65.5%</li>
<li><a href="https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUUR0000SETE">Car Insurance</a>, +54%</li>
<li><a href="https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUUR0000SEHB02">Hotels</a>, +51.2%</li>
<li><a href="https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUUR0000SS47014">Gasoline</a>, +50.5%</li>
<li><a href="https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUUR0000SEHE01">Fuel Oil</a>, +49.1%</li>
<li><a href="https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUUR0000SAT">Transportation</a>, +32.9%</li>
<li><a href="https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUUR0000SEHF01">Electricity</a>, +31.7%</li>
<li><a href="https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUUR0000SEFT05">Baby Food</a>, +30.1%</li>
<li><a href="https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUUR0000SEFV">Restaurants</a>, +23%</li>
<li><a href="https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUUR0000SETG01">Airfare</a>, +22.6%</li>
<li><a href="https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUUR0000SEHA">Rent</a>, +22%</li>
<li><a href="https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUUR0000SAF11">Groceries</a>, +21.6%</li>
</ul>
These categories also do not take into account the loss in <a href="https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0500000012">average weekly earnings</a> that Americans take home, which is down -3.9% under the Biden-Harris administration.
Soaring inflation rates also triggered the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates, which in turn made it significantly more expensive for Americans to take out loans to buy homes and cars.
Housing has become so unaffordable under the Biden-Harris administration that 77% of Americans <a href="https://www.nahb.org/blog/2024/05/housing-affordability-pyramid">cannot</a> afford a median-priced new home, and homes are <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/homes-for-sale-affordable-housing-prices/">unaffordable</a> in 99% of the country for the average American.
Numerous economic experts, including many on the political Left, warned before the American Rescue Plan was passed that it would likely cause severe damage to the economy because the economy was already well on its way to recovering from the economic damage that occurred following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.
Former International Monetary Fund (IMF) Chief Economist Olivier Blanchard <a href="https://twitter.com/ojblanchard1/status/1357789090792488971">warned</a> on February 5, 2021 — the same day that Harris <a href="https://twitter.com/Forbes/status/1357690451575394304">cast</a> her first tie-breaking vote, which paved the way for the American Rescue Plan — that the $1.9 trillion bill was likely to &#8220;overheat the economy so badly as to be counterproductive.&#8221;
Blanchard <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210205203208/https://twitter.com/ojblanchard1/status/1357789090792488971">said</a> that he agreed with an assessment from economist Larry Summers, who served as Treasury Secretary under President Bill Clinton and director of the National Economic Council under President Barack Obama. Summers had <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/04/larry-summers-biden-covid-stimulus/">warned</a> in a Washington Post op-ed that the American Rescue Plan was a macroeconomic stimulus &#8220;on a scale closer to World War II levels than normal recession levels&#8221; that would &#8220;set off inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation, with consequences for the value of the dollar and financial stability.&#8221;
Former Obama economic adviser Steven Rattner <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/16/opinion/biden-inflation-spending-manchin.html">wrote</a> in The New York Times in November 2021 that he and other top economists warned the administration that &#8220;shoveling an unprecedented amount of spending into an economy already on the road to recovery would mean too much money chasing too few goods.&#8221;
&#8220;The original sin was the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, passed in March,&#8221; Rattner added. &#8220;The bill — almost completely unfunded — sought to counter the effects of the Covid pandemic by focusing on demand-side stimulus rather than on investment. That has contributed materially to today’s inflation levels.&#8221;
Another top economist in the Obama administration, Jason Furman, <a href="https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1397236381970206727">said</a> that the bill was far &#8220;too big&#8221; and that he did not know &#8220;any economist&#8221; who supported the $1.9 trillion bill.
Marc Goldwein of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget <a href="https://www.vox.com/23036340/biden-american-rescue-plan-inflation">said</a>: “We put gasoline on the fire. That’s basically what the ARP did. It was almost written as if we didn’t just pass a trillion-dollar stimulus in December.”
But it&#8217;s not just the Biden-Harris administration&#8217;s American Rescue Plan that sent inflation rates skyrocketing over the last three and half years; the administration&#8217;s war on the oil and gas industry and its weakness on foreign policy also played key roles.
The administration hit the oil and gas industry with new <a href="https://americansforprosperity.org/blog/biden-policies-raising-gas-prices/">regulations</a> that imposed significant costs on the industry which get passed on to consumers. The administration also halted new oil and gas drilling leases on federal land, which increased costs for consumers. The administration&#8217;s war on energy not only directly harmed consumers, it also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bidens-war-on-oil-and-gas-has-cost-the-u-s-250-billion-in-lost-gdp-study">cost</a> the country hundreds of billions of dollars in lost GDP.
Increased fuel costs directly increase the costs of nearly all goods and services for consumers as it becomes more expensive to gather resources needed to manufacture products and to distribute the products to stores or directly to consumers.
&#8220;Everything we purchase is either grown with or manufactured with or transported by energy, and making energy expensive, as Biden-Harris has done, has made life expensive,&#8221; Daniel Turner, Founder and Executive Director of Power The Future, said in a statement to The Daily Wire. &#8220;The only way to reduce costs for American families is to unleash American energy and end the ideological war on American fossil fuels, but Kamala is too beholden to the radical green movement which puts climate hysteria ahead of the need for affordable food.&#8221;
On the foreign policy front, critics have said that the administration&#8217;s weakness on the global stage made Russia feel emboldened enough to invade Ukraine and face few consequences. Biden refused to take preemptive measures that could have prevented the war, including sending Ukraine weapons that they were <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/02/19/ukraine-russia-munich-zelensky/">begging</a> for, enacting sanctions against Russia as it amassed troops along the Ukrainian border, and more.
Russia&#8217;s war in Ukraine caused chaos in supply chains — just as they were starting to get sorted out from the pandemic — that resulted in increased inflation, according to an economic <a href="https://kpmg.com/us/en/articles/2022/russia-ukraine-war-impact-supply-chains-inflation.html">analysis</a> from KPMG.
Democrats passed another massive spending bill in 2022 — the Inflation Reduction Act — which was <a href="https://energycommerce.house.gov/posts/one-year-later-even-president-biden-admits-the-inflation-reduction-act-failed-to-lower-costs-for-americans">not</a> actually focused on inflation, but rather on green-energy spending.
The Penn Wharton Budget Model <a href="https://budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu/issues/2022/7/29/inflation-reduction-act-preliminary-estimates">found</a> that the Inflation Reduction Act&#8217;s impact on inflation was &#8220;statistically indistinguishable from zero,&#8221; while the Tax Foundation <a href="https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/federal/inflation-reduction-act/#.Yul_n1Vy6oU.twitter">said</a> that the bill &#8220;worsens inflation&#8221; by constricting the economy&#8217;s ability to grow and by increasing government spending.
Inflation could explode if Harris is elected to be president because of some of the extreme policy proposals that she has embraced, including the Green New Deal, which she <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-congress-environmentaljustice-idINKCN2522RC/">co-sponsored</a> with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) in 2020.
Experts have <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-25/group-sees-ocasio-cortez-s-green-new-deal-costing-93-trillion?embedded-checkout=true">said</a> that the Green New Deal could cost up to $93 trillion, a number that was calculated in 2019, before the high inflation rates of the Biden-Harris administration.
Harris <a href="https://x.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1301957179860307968?s=20">said</a> that she would support ending the Senate filibuster to ram through her Green New Deal, which she <a href="https://grabien.com/file?id=702089">described</a> as the &#8220;most aggressive and progressive&#8221; piece of legislation, through Congress.
Another policy that Harris has adopted is introducing price controls to combat the inflation that the Biden-Harris administration caused. Price controls lead to shortages, black markets, a reduction in product quality, a reduction in industry investment and, when the price controls are removed, an explosion in inflation.
Harris&#8217; price control proposal was so bad that even CNN, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/left-wing-economic-columnist-blasts-harris-price-controls-hard-to-exaggerate-how-bad-this-policy-is">economic columnists</a>, and The Washington Post Editorial Board <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/media-rushes-to-help-harris-rewrite-her-disastrous-pandering-economic-rollout">warned</a> about the dangers of implementing such a policy.
Harris&#8217; housing proposal would give first time homeowners $25,000 in down payment, thus increasing the prices of homes by $25,000 and increasing demand pressures which would also increase housing costs.
Harris&#8217; campaign <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/harris-proposes-raising-corporate-tax-rate-28-rolling-back-trump-law-rcna167208">unveiled</a> her plan on Monday to increase the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%, which will lead to more inflation as businesses will have to charge more for goods and services. Increasing the corporate tax rate will also <a href="https://taxfoundation.org/taxedu/videos/who-bears-burden-corporate-income-tax/#:~:text=Raising%20the%20corporate%20income%20tax,fewer%20opportunities%20for%20many%20workers.">reduce</a> wages for workers and damage economic growth.
The economy and inflation is by far the top issue for voters this year, with 73% of the country <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/02/29/americans-top-policy-priority-for-2024-strengthening-the-economy/">saying</a> that &#8220;strengthening the economy&#8221; needs to be a top priority for the next administration and 62% of Americans <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/05/23/publics-positive-economic-ratings-slip-inflation-still-widely-viewed-as-major-problem/">saying</a> that inflation represents &#8220;a very big problem&#8221; in the country today.
The Trump campaign is running ads in markets across America in both English and Spanish reminding voters that the Biden-Harris administration&#8217;s policies caused the inflation crisis that is hurting families.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The Donald Trump campaign is up on TV in battleground states with this spot which hits Kamala Harris on the economy &#8212; <a href="https://t.co/UeF2cRBC52">pic.twitter.com/UeF2cRBC52</a>
&mdash; Medium Buying (@MediumBuying) <a href="https://twitter.com/MediumBuying/status/1824765625438228936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 17, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Biden Returns To Campaign Trail, Navigating New Harris Dynamic

How Kamala Harris Triggered The Inflation Crisis That Harmed America

American Rescue Plan

Inflation

Kamala Harris

U.S. Senate

There’s a problem for Kamala Harris: Most people don&#8217;t actually like her economic policies. Recent polls showed 52% of Americans do not think America should move in the direction of California, and yet the same polls are showing that 52% of Americans are going to vote for Kamala Harris. 
What&#8217;s the disconnect? She&#8217;s hiding her policies. She&#8217;s hiding herself and smearing it over with a pastiche of “joy.”
The reality is that she’s attempting to distance herself from Joe Biden while embracing even stronger communist and socialist policies.
At a rally on Thursday, she bragged about her tie-breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act. She doesn&#8217;t want to own the inflationary record of the Biden administration, but she brags about being one of the people who was the deciding factor in the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, which was one factor in the 40-year high in inflation.
As of Friday, she&#8217;s going to call on Congress to pass a federal ban on price gouging as part of her economic platform, according to <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/08/14/harris-food-prices-economy-speech-00174112" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Politico</a>. 
This is a policy for idiots. The reality is that in the grocery industry, profit margins are well under 2%. There is very, very little profit margin in the grocery industry because it&#8217;s really competitive. There are tons of groceries and supply. There is no shortage of food in the United States.
The idea that monopolistic companies are price gouging people and that&#8217;s why the prices have gone up is insane.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2028-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h4>
First of all, the idea of price gouging in general is almost always garbage because the reality is that prices are determined by supply and demand. You can’t be gouged on prices unless there is only one supplier available in a really wide radius and no competition is available — and you are willing to buy at the price the one supplier sets. That is the only way one can “price gouge” you.
But there is no actual definition for price gouging because it turns out that, according to Democrats, price gouging is simply prices they don&#8217;t like because it makes them look bad politically.
If Harris believes she&#8217;s going to bring down prices through price controls, this has been tried. It is Soviet-style policy. It is Cuban-style policy. It is Venezuelan-style policy.
Simply declaring that the price of a product shall be X does not guarantee the widespread availability of that product. In fact, what it leads to is a spur in demand and a reduction in supply. That is what price controls do.
Price controls mean more people want the thing because now it&#8217;s cheaper and fewer people are willing to produce the thing because now there is no profit in producing the thing. Very often there&#8217;s actual loss in producing the thing — and people do not produce things at a loss. This is why price controls lead to bread lines.
Every economist — every economist — understands that price controls are some of the worst policies you could possibly have.
But Harris is pushing it because she thinks Americans are too stupid to understand what price controls are and so dumb that they think that the federal government can, by passing a law, simply make prices go down.
Kamala Harris is not that stupid.
It&#8217;s a political move. Elevated everyday costs have plagued the Biden-Harris administration since Americans grocery bills spiked during the pandemic. Even with some promising recent polling, most major voter surveys show President Biden and Harris well behind former President Donald Trump on the economy.
Politico <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/08/14/harris-food-prices-economy-speech-00174112" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported:</a>
<blockquote>Harris’ proposals show how she would expand Biden’s focus on price gouging and food costs, according to the plans detailed by her campaign. In addition to her push for the first-ever federal ban on price gouging by food corporations, she would also direct the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general to investigate and levy penalties on food companies that violate the federal ban.</blockquote>
This is insane. 
Food is not more expensive because the bread companies decided randomly to raise the prices in collusion with one another. Food is more expensive because the Federal Reserve pumped money into the economy at a rate unprecedented in human history, and then the Biden-Harris administration decided to jack more money into the system. They thought it was good.
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When you helicopter money on people, it doesn&#8217;t make things worth more inherently. It just means the price of everything goes up. If I give everybody in the United States ten extra dollars, no one is any richer. It just means the prices go up by $10.
They know exactly what they&#8217;re doing.
And then, in the middle of an inflationary spiral, she has another proposal. This one is on housing. Guess what it is?
Wait for it. Wait for it.
It&#8217;s free money.
I know you weren&#8217;t expecting it. Free money from Democrats in the middle of a $30 trillion national debt? They would never do such a thing. 
 
Our national debt currently runs at roughly $35 trillion. The actual truth in terms of unfunded liabilities like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid is more like $156 trillion.
Yet Harris and company are ready to dump more money into the system. She proposes to provide up to $25,000 in down-payment support for first-time homebuyers, helicoptering $25,000 of cash to people who want to buy a first home.
I have no idea what the provisions on credit worthiness are here because it turns out they&#8217;re going to flush a bunch of that money down the toilet. If you are simply giving people money who cannot afford to actually pay for the mortgage, the down payment is only part of what you pay. When you pay for a house, there&#8217;s upkeep; there&#8217;s a mortgage. Owning a home is expensive, which is why a lot of people rent right now.
But according Harris, it is time for the federal government to simply helicopter cash over people. She is supposedly pairing this with tax credits to entice people to build three million new units.
The problem, of course, is that she will presumably attempt to impose rent control on all of those units.
Interventionism is simply a sop to people who want freebies from the federal government.
And by the way, it is not free. We all get to pay for it. Or rather, all our children get to pay for it.
All of this is simply giving people cash. Not her cash. She&#8217;s never earned a dime. She&#8217;s been a completely useless person on the taxpayer dime for virtually her entire career.
What this is about is using your money to pay off her political constituents. That&#8217;s what this is about. Always and forever.
It’s terrible economic policy. This sort of stuff is for stupid people.
It is economic policy that was dropped on its head as a baby.
Harris has a plan. You&#8217;re not going to hear any answers about this. You&#8217;re going to know nothing about this because she&#8217;s got one thing: “Joy.”
I know that when you think of Kamala Harris and that rictus smile that she likes to lay on the American people, you don&#8217;t think “joy.” You think more of Joaquin Phoenix as The Joker with a pathological, bizarre laugh that breaks out at all the wrong times.
But the media have recast her campaign as a campaign of “joy.”
It’s all stupidity and it&#8217;s all meant for the consumption of morons. H.L. Mencken suggested, “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.”
If this is what people want, that&#8217;s what they are going to get.
But we should mention something about this whole “joy” routine: You should not find joy in your politicians. You should not.
That is not where joy comes from. Joy comes from your family. Joy comes from your community, from your religious commitment. Joy comes from your virtuous action in the world with meaning and purpose. That&#8217;s where joy comes from.
Movements that seek joy via politicians are really, really ugly. The joy is a cover for control. In fact, they mandate joy. It&#8217;s mandatory fun.
That&#8217;s how it feels with Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. It&#8217;s mandatory fun. You must smile. It&#8217;s like the Simpsons; they have the wires that connect to the corners of your mouth and pull them upward.
The “joy” will be required. And if you are not joyous enough, if you don&#8217;t feel the “joy,” you&#8217;re not doing it right. If you ask questions, you&#8217;re violating the “joy.” If you want to know about the economic policies, you&#8217;re violating the “joy.” This is not a campaign about policy. It&#8217;s about vibes and “joy.”
It is a long-time mainstay of totalitarian movements to paint over their evil and horrifying policies with a mask of joy. It is a main propaganda point for every fascist and Stalinist regime, every single one.
There’s a poster of Joseph Stalin from the Soviet Union, who killed 20 million people, showing him with numerous smiling children. 
The caption on the photo reads, “We are warmed by Stalin&#8217;s affection.” The way that he was promoted in the Soviet Union was with “joy.”
Do you feel the joy? Don&#8217;t you feel the joy?
<div id="attachment_782261" style="width: 738px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-782261" class="wp-image-782261 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/image-728x576.png" alt="Unidentified artist, We are warmed by Stalin’s affection … (мы сталинской лаской согреты,…) 1949" width="728" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/image-728x576.png 728w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/image-300x237.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/image-768x607.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/image.png 813w" sizes="(max-width: 728px) 100vw, 728px" />Unidentified artist, We are warmed by Stalin’s affection … (мы сталинской лаской согреты,…) 1949</div>
* * *
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Commie-la Harris’ Soviet-Style JOY!

2024 Election

Ben Shapiro

Communism

Democrats

Donald Trump

Economy

Price Gouging

Tim Walz

The Kamala Harris Campaign recently published an image of her with the text, “we are not going back.” Will Democrats seek to replace her or Tim Walz from the ticket as their numbers start to tank? All it may take is another trip to the grocery store or a fill-up at the pump for reality to set back in for Americans excited about her candidacy. Most Americans would certainly like to “go back” to affordable gas prices, groceries, housing, and electricity.
Regardless of the ticket, any Democratic nominee would likely continue down the same policy path that has wrecked the American economy and — perhaps most importantly — dismantled our energy dominance.
Why does energy matter when everyone is talking about inflation, the border, and global conflicts? Because everything we do depends on access to affordable, reliable energy—and that means our next president’s energy policy will shape the future of America and the world. The Democrats’ vision for expensive, scarce, and government-controlled energy, dependent on the whims of the weather, is as reliable as Obamacare is affordable, and it would spell disaster for our nation.
Kamala Harris’ record on energy is clear. She endorsed California’s cap-and-trade carbon tax, co-sponsored the Green New Deal, and cast the tie-breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, which is, as <a href="https://x.com/dgelles/status/1635301875967983616" target="_blank" rel="noopener">one journalist</a> aptly put it, “the first major climate legislation…EVER!” These are the same policies that have driven California’s energy prices to astronomical levels and have left tens of thousands of people in the dark — literally.
In California last year, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/business/energy-oil/why-californians-have-some-of-the-highest-power-bills-in-the-u-s-a831b60e" target="_blank" rel="noopener">215,000 people</a> had their power disconnected for inability to pay, and over 40,000 of those households still had not had their services restored by year’s end. For those individuals, residential lease and mortgage terms are violated and homeowners insurance policies are canceled because requirements to keep utilities connected aren’t being met. These 40,000 people are at the highest risk of homelessness, all because they couldn’t afford to pay their energy bills.
This is not just a California story — though the numbers are much higher there, it’s a nationwide crisis unfolding under the Democrats’ watch. In California last year, nearly 27% of Californians missed payments on utility bills — compared to 16% nationwide, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey. The previous year saw <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/utility-power-shutoffs-4-2-million/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">5 million Americans</a> receive disconnect notices from their utility companies. The pattern is clear: the Democrats’ energy policies, embraced in California, are making it harder for everyday Americans to keep their lights on.
Under the Trump administration, Americans enjoyed the benefits of a robust energy sector. The United States became a net energy exporter for the first time in decades, and <a href="https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2020/10/f79/Natural%20Gas%20Benefits%20Report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">American households saved an average of $2,500 a year</a> on energy costs alone. Today, under the Biden-Harris administration, American families are <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-29/u-s-households-face-5-200-inflation-tax-this-year-chart" target="_blank" rel="noopener">paying $5,200 more per year,</a> thanks to the Biden-Harris policies that have attacked the energy industry and levied higher costs on everything.
Harris’s stance on fracking is particularly troubling for energy-producing states like New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming as significant portions of their energy are produced on federal lands. In 2019, she unequivocally stated, “There is no question I’m in favor of banning fracking. And, starting with what we can do on day one around public lands, right!” In New Mexico, nearly two-thirds of energy production occurs on federal lands, generating over $6 billion in tax revenue. A Harris administration would be a direct threat to this critical industry, leaving millions unemployed and our nation more dependent on foreign oil.
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The consequences would be equally dire in states like Pennsylvania, and Ohio where auto production is a key economic driver. A Harris/Walz regime, with its bureaucratic deep state, would continue to unleash attacks against the energy and auto manufactures in these states. Chinese EV battery maker Gotion has already set up shop in Michigan, claiming U.S. federal and state tax subsidies while also receiving subsidies from the Chinese Communist Party. This is the kind of pro-China double-dealing that is resulting in, as President Trump predicted, a “bloodbath” for the American auto industry.
No wonder President Trump said he was “thrilled” with Tim Walz as Harris’ the VP pick. Not content with a centrist candidate to balance the ticket, Harris instead chose another hard leftist, verging on communist. The Democrats’ regime is no friend to American energy producers or the American automotive industry. And, as Harris has made clear, &#8220;we are not going back.&#8221;
In the end, the choice is clear. America needs leadership that will protect our energy independence, lower costs for American families, and strengthen our economy. The alternative is more of the same disastrous policies that have plagued California and could result in the United States being known as Kamalafornia — where energy is expensive, scarce, and unreliable, and where the American dream is slipping further out of reach for millions.
* * *
The Honorable Jason Isaac, a former Texas state legislator, is CEO of the American Energy Institute.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Gas Stations As Oil Hits $85 for First Time Since October

‘We Are Not Going Back’: Why Kamalanomics Spells Disaster For American Energy

'We Are Not Going Back': Why Kamalanomics Spells Disaster For American Energy

California

Energy

Fracking

Green New Deal

Opinion

Though the exact cause of a container ship&#8217;s collision with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland — which caused the structure&#8217;s collapse — is under debate, the disaster that has claimed at least two lives and caused an untold amount of economic damage has drawn attention to the state of America&#8217;s infrastructure.
The bridge itself accommodated almost 30,000 vehicles each day, and the Port of Baltimore, which will be heavily disrupted by the collapse and reconstruction, saw 52.3 million tons of foreign cargo and 11.7 million tons of general cargo coming into the port in 2023.
President Joe Biden has already <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-pushes-for-federal-gov-to-pay-for-entire-cost-of-rebuilding-baltimore-bridge-but-says-it-will-take-some-time" target="_blank" rel="noopener">promised</a> that the federal government will foot the bill for the repairs to the bridge.
“It is my intention that the federal government will pay for the entire cost of reconstructing that bridge, and I expect Congress to support my effort,” Biden said. “This is going to take some time, and the people of Baltimore can count on us though to stick with them at every step of the way until the port is reopened and the bridge is rebuilt.”
The bridge was originally built in the 1970s at an estimated cost of $141 million, which is around $743 million in today’s dollars, CNS Maryland <a href="https://cnsmaryland.org/2024/03/26/the-history-of-baltimores-key-bridge/#:~:text=Bridge%20construction,%24743%20million%20in%20today's%20dollars." target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. Experts have estimated that roughly $15 million a day in economic activity will be disrupted as a result of the disaster, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/baltimore-port-closure-could-cost-15-million-per-day-2024-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Business Insider.
However, it seems like every election year politicians of both parties clamber to pitch grand infrastructure projects that promise to make voters&#8217; commutes smoother and produce all-important &#8220;shovel-ready&#8221; jobs. Such an infrastructure overhaul was one of the pillars of Biden&#8217;s presidential campaign in 2020, and, on paper at least, he delivered.
Two gigantic pieces of legislation passed during Biden&#8217;s two years in office, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) in late 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, invested over a trillion dollars into multiple sectors of infrastructure — everything from roads to waterways to broadband — over the next decade, <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-start-of-americas-infrastructure-decade-how-macroeconomic-factors-may-shape-local-strategies/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Brookings.
<div id="attachment_717107" style="width: 979px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-717107" class="size-large wp-image-717107" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-1353523670-969x576.jpg" alt="WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 15: U.S. President Joe Biden (C) signs H.R. 3684, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, during a ceremony on the South Lawn at the White House on November 15, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chen Mengtong/China News Service via Getty Images)" width="969" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-1353523670-969x576.jpg 969w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-1353523670-300x178.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-1353523670-768x457.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-1353523670.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 969px) 100vw, 969px" />Chen Mengtong/China News Service via Getty Images</div>
In truth, only a little over $110 billion in the IIJA will actually go toward repairing roads and bridges, the Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/08/10/senate-infrastructure-bill-what-is-in-it/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a>. The rest is parceled out among a myriad of other projects, most notably railroads, broadband, and utility infrastructure.
In 2023, the Federal Highway Administration reported that over 42,000 bridges across the U.S. were in &#8220;poor&#8221; condition, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/03/26/baltimore-bridge-collapse-cost-infrastructure/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to WaPo. Between 2020 and 2023, the number of U.S. bridges rated &#8220;good&#8221; increased in only 11 states, while the number considered to be in &#8220;poor&#8221; condition increased in 37 states. While 43,000 bridges saw an improved rating in 2023 compared t0 2020, a whopping 70,000 received a lower rating. Almost 13,000 bridges were downgraded from &#8220;fair&#8221; condition to &#8220;poor,&#8221; but only 10,000 bridges were improved from a &#8220;poor&#8221; rating.
American Road and Transportation Builders Association said that a full third of U.S. bridges are in need of significant repairs or replacement, while 7% of bridges are &#8220;structurally deficient,&#8221; the Council on Foreign Relations <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/state-us-infrastructure" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) releases a report card every 5 years on the overall health of the nation&#8217;s infrastructure, giving it an overall &#8220;C-&#8221; grade in 2021. The group&#8217;s diagnosis of bridges and roads in particular does not paint a rosy picture.
The nation&#8217;s roads <a href="https://infrastructurereportcard.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Roads-2021.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">received</a> a &#8220;D&#8221; grade from the group, which noted that 40% of public roads are in mediocre or poor condition. Commuters are forced to spend nearly $130 billion a year in repairs and operating coasts because of the prevalence of poor quality roads, and 17% of all vehicle miles were driven on roads deemed to be in &#8220;poor condition.&#8221;
Bridges <a href="https://infrastructurereportcard.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Bridges-2021.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">received</a> a slightly higher score from the ASCE, a &#8220;C,&#8221; but the group still expressed a great deal of concern. Over 40% of U.S. bridges are over half a century old, the ASCE stated, and the backlog of repairs in 2021 stood at $125 billion. The report advised a much higher investment level over the next few decades to improve the situation.
&#8220;At the current rate of investment, it will take until 2071 to make all of the repairs that are currently necessary, and the additional deterioration over the next 50 years will become overwhelming,&#8221; the ASCE report said.
The ASCE <a href="https://infrastructurereportcard.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/2021-IRC-Executive-Summary-1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">estimated</a> in 2021 that the nation&#8217;s &#8220;infrastructure investment gap&#8221; had increased to almost $2.6 trillion over the next 10 years. The organization warned that the deficit could cost the U.S. $10 trillion in GDP, 3 million jobs, and $2.4 trillion in exports by 2039. It noted that the infrastructure investment gap, if allowed to continue, would cost the average American family $3,300 a year in higher costs.
<div id="attachment_717119" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-717119" class="size-large wp-image-717119" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-1232147264-864x576.jpg" alt="FREDERICKSBURG, VA - APRIL 6: In an aerial view, vehicles on Interstate 95 travel past a construction project to add three lanes to the I-95 Rappahannock River Crossing on April 6, 2021 in Fredericksburg, Virginia. The site of the work is a vital chokepoint for cars and freight trucks moving both north and south along the East Coast. At the end of March, President Joe Biden introduced a $2 trillion plan to overhaul and upgrade the nation's infrastructure. The plan aims to revitalize the U.S. transportation infrastructure, water systems, broadband internet, make investments in manufacturing and job training efforts, and other goals. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-1232147264-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-1232147264-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-1232147264-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-1232147264.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Drew Angerer/Getty Images</div>
Repairing the nation&#8217;s bridges represents such a huge stumbling block for the federal government because of its inability to appropriate the necessary funds to tackle traditional infrastructure (large portions of Biden&#8217;s infrastructure packages went toward green initiative) and the skyrocketing cost of those necessary repairs.
“I look at South Carolina when the infrastructure bill came through. We only got about $1 billion more than we otherwise would have over a five-year period,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/03/26/baltimore-bridge-collapse-cost-infrastructure/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Newsmax in the wake of the Baltimore disaster. “I can barely build a bridge in my district for $1 billion.”
Between October 2020 and September 2022, the average cost for highway construction projects increased by 50%, and highway construction costs are almost 3 times higher than they were in 2003, <a href="https://enotrans.org/article/highway-construction-costs-have-risen-50-in-two-years/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the National Highway Construction Cost Index (NHCCI). The index <a href="https://www.constructiondive.com/news/high-prices-road-builders-2024-construction-labor/703909/#:~:text=The%20National%20Highway%20Construction%20Cost,these%20high%20prices%2C%20said%20Black." target="_blank" rel="noopener">reached</a> an all-time high in the second quarter of 2023.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse isn&#8217;t the first major infrastructure disaster of Biden&#8217;s tenure. In 2023, a Norfolk Southern train <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/controlled-burn-of-toxic-chemicals-that-unleashed-mushroom-cloud-over-east-palestine-wasnt-necessary-federal-official-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">derailed</a> in East Palestine, Ohio, resulting in a controlled burn of toxic chemicals that were released into the air and affected local residents.
Biden was slammed for waiting a year before he visited East Palestine and was met with disappointed East Palestine residents when he made the trip to the small town last month. The total cost of the derailment is <a href="https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/midwest/2024/01/31/758843.htm#:~:text=The%20railroad%20now%20estimates%20the,additional%20penalties%20that%20haven't" target="_blank" rel="noopener">estimated</a> at $1.1 billion.
Despite two major infrastructure initiatives within the last 4 years, the long-term health of America&#8217;s roads and bridges does not look hopeful. Without a major decrease in the cost of repairs and an increase in infrastructure investments, the deterioration will continue, perhaps even accelerate. A poor network of roads and bridges will not only directly pass costs on to normal Americans, but also affect the nation&#8217;s economy as a whole, accentuating our financial woes. And perhaps most importantly, it will almost certainly increase the rate at which we see deadly disasters like the one in Baltimore.

Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge Collapses After Being Struck By Cargo Ship

Baltimore Bridge Collapse Highlights The Sorry State Of American Infrastructure

Baltimore

Francis Scott Key Bridge

Infrastructure

Readers Pass

U.S.

Democrat businessman Gary Cohn, who served as former President Donald Trump&#8217;s Director of the National Economic Council, said during an interview over the weekend that consumers were &#8220;completely right&#8221; to be angry about the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/economy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">inflation</a> that President Joe Biden&#8217;s American Rescue Plan has caused.
Cohn made the remarks during a Sunday interview on CBS News&#8217; &#8220;Face The Nation&#8221; with Margaret Brennan while talking about Biden&#8217;s recent remarks about billionaires.
Responding to Biden&#8217;s claims that billionaires do not pay any taxes in the U.S., Cohn noted that the claim was grossly inaccurate and that any billionaire who has an income in the U.S. is paying at least 20 percent in taxes.
&#8220;We do a very good job in this country of taxing income. That&#8217;s what the Constitution talks about. The Constitution talks about taxing your income,&#8221; he said. &#8220;There is no income in this country unless you buy a tax-free bond that doesn&#8217;t get taxed at a minimum of 20 percent. Whether it&#8217;s interest or dividends or capital gains. So, there&#8217;s no billionaire in this country that has income that is not paying at least 20 percent.&#8221;
Brennan then noted how Biden was trying to rile people&#8217;s anger up against corporations, claiming that they were &#8220;taking advantage of the little guy.&#8221;
&#8220;Let&#8217;s talk about inflation for a minute because I think there [are] really important concepts for everyone to understand,&#8221; Cohn said. &#8220;Inflation has a compounding effect. Meaning, as you look at inflation year over year, you&#8217;re adding up those numbers. You&#8217;re not starting at a zero every year.&#8221;
&#8220;So, if we had 6 percent inflation last year &#8230; and now we have 4 percent inflation, that&#8217;s 10 percent inflation,&#8221; he noted. &#8220;So, if you take a basket of groceries at the beginning of 2020, just a simple basic basket that costs $100, it costs well over $125 today because those 4 percent one year and 7 percent one year and 7 percent the next year, they add up. They&#8217;re cumulative. So, there&#8217;s a huge cumulative effect to inflation.&#8221;
Brennan responded, &#8220;So, when people are being told, &#8216;consumers, you&#8217;re wrong, inflation&#8217;s heading&#8211;&#8216; — no, they&#8217;re right, it is actually more expensive.&#8221;
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&#8220;They&#8217;re completely right,&#8221; Cohn responded. &#8220;They&#8217;re completely right.&#8221;
Cohn added that consumers were angry because they were &#8220;losing purchasing power&#8221; because of inflation and people were not able to invest in their futures because of the high interest rate environment that was triggered by the inflation that Biden caused.
&#8220;So, people got very frustrated because the costs of their everyday lives got very expensive and the cost of investing in their future by buying a home got nearly impossible,&#8221; he added.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
WATCH: Gary Cohn decimates Joe Biden’s inflation narrative &amp; Bidenomics:
“Inflation has a compounding effect. Meaning as you look at inflation year-over-year, you’re adding up those numbers. You’re not starting at a 0 every year. So if we had 6% inflation last year and now we… <a href="https://t.co/Q0K2QjUNRJ">pic.twitter.com/Q0K2QjUNRJ</a>
&mdash; Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveGuest/status/1766907240580051119?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

US-ECONOMY-MILKEN

Democrat Economist Gary Cohn: Consumers ‘Completely Right’ To Be Angry Over Biden Inflation

President Joe Biden’s signature climate bill, the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/inflation-reduction-act" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Inflation Reduction Act</a> (IRA), has been a boon for China’s battery market.
Biden signed the bill into law in August 2022. The legislation created a bevy of green energy subsidies meant to transition United States energy usage away from fossil fuels and, according to Biden weeks before he signed the IRA, “compete with China.”
Since the law was enacted, imports of Chinese components for electric vehicles to the U.S. have skyrocketed, according to a review of government data by <a href="https://freebeacon.com/energy/bidens-inflation-reduction-act-meant-to-counter-china-prompted-explosion-in-chinese-battery-imports/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Washington Free Beacon</a>. The data call into question whether the IRA has failed at one of its key goals.
China is a major supplier of rare earth minerals that are used in green energy technology, such as solar panels, electric cars, and wind turbines. While imports for components that use rare earth minerals have risen over the course of Biden’s presidency, the increase became more pronounced after the implementation of the IRA.
Chinese lithium-ion battery imports to the U.S. averaged $473 million per month from January 2021 when Biden took office through July 2022. The next month, Biden signed the IRA into law. Since then, Chinese lithium-ion battery imports have averaged over $1 billion per month, according to the Free Beacon.
In addition to batteries, China is benefitting from the IRA through mining companies in Africa.
“Nearly 70 percent of cobalt is produced in Africa, mainly in the Congo,” James Madison Institute senior vice president Sal Nuzzo told the Free Beacon. “Okay, so the country may be friendly. However, the mine is owned by a Chinese conglomerate or a multinational controlled by the Chinese government. So you can put the regulation in place — it&#8217;s got to be sourced from a friendly country. But who owns the facility that the materials are coming out of?”
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Aside from questions over its impact on China, the IRA has come under fire recently in connection with sticky, high inflation in the U.S., according to the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/a74b625c-0a49-43e7-a982-5584df64f6c7">Financial Times</a>. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has blamed the IRA for harming his state’s economy by pushing prices higher too quickly.
“A lot of what the IRA has done, besides throwing money at something that was coming anyway, is also heated the market up and driven costs to go up,” Kemp told the Financial Times. “It’s really tried to manipulate the market, versus the market moving in that direction.”
Because of the IRA, Georgia’s economy has received about $15 billion-worth of investment in green energy projects, largely in the form of manufacturing projects, according to the Treasury Department. Despite the investment, polls show Biden struggling to win over American voters on the issue of his handling of the economy. Americans overall disapprove of Biden&#8217;s handling of the economy by 56.8% to 39.4%, according to RealClearPolitics&#8217; <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/sotu/PresidentBidenApprovalIssues.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">polling average</a>.

Joe Biden’s Signature Climate Bill Has Been A Boon To China’s Battery Market

China

Executive

Politics

Washington D.C.

NFL star <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/travis-kelce">Travis Kelce</a> is going Hollywood by signing on as producer for a new <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/movies">film</a>, “My Dead Friend Zoe.” The project is notable because it’s the first movie to take advantage of President Joe Biden’s renewable energy tax credits for financing, per <a href="https://variety.com/2024/film/news/travis-kelce-my-dead-friend-zoe-financed-energy-tax-credits-1235908057/">Variety</a>.
The outlet noted that the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/hollywood">indie comedy</a> cost less than $10 million to make. “My Dead Friend Zoe” follows a female Afghanistan veteran who confronts her grandfather, a Vietnam veteran, at the family lake house. The movie premieres March 9 at SXSW. It stars Sonequa Martin-Green, Natalie Morales, Ed Harris, and Morgan Freeman.
The movie used funds generated by green energy entrepreneur Mike Field’s sale of surplus tax credits, Variety noted, in the first example of the film industry utilizing Biden’s 2022 <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/inflation-reduction-act">Inflation Reduction Act</a> for film financing. Field is listed as another producer of the dark comedy.
“Hollywood is risky, right? On a scale of one to 10, Hollywood, it is a 9.5. Especially in terms of independent film,” one of the movie’s producers Ray Maiello said. “These federal tax credits take the risk down to like a five.”
“[Field] and I wanted to branch out and we’ve been talking about [expanding] for years. And then Biden really incentivized it,” he continued. “Biden saw that people can’t plan what their tax liabilities are going to be. People don’t want to take risks. And so he really opened it up with these federal tax credits and we’re combining that with Hollywood. That’s the idea.”
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Kelce, Maiello, and Field are again using these funds to finance the upcoming documentary “King Pleasure,” which is about renowned artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.
The Kansas City Chiefs tight end is fresh off a big Super Bowl win on Sunday and has indicated he’ll return next season. But he’s not the first professional football player to branch out into other arenas. Variety noted how Tom Brady played himself in the comedy “80 for Brady” and was a producer on the film. 
The Paramount Pictures movie grossed $40 million worldwide against a $28 million budget despite receiving mixed reviews from critics.

Travis Kelce

Travis Kelce Signs On As Producer For Movie Made Using Biden’s Green Energy Tax Credits: Report

Travis Kelce Announced As Producer For Movie Made Using Biden’s Green Energy Tax Credits: Report

Hollywood

Movies

Climate initiatives laid out in President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) come with a bigger price tag than anticipated: over $400 billion more, per the latest estimates. 
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) <a href="https://www.cbo.gov/publication/59710#data">revealed</a> the increased $428 billion cost in its budget and economic outlook for the next decade. The agency admitted that its projections were subject to change, citing variables such as the pace of deployment and use of low-emissions technologies and electric vehicles, as well as the number of taxpayers who have yet to claim certain tax credits enacted in the IRA. 
“The budgetary effects of energy-related tax provisions remain highly uncertain,” stated CBO. 
The CBO originally <a href="https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2022-08/hr5376_IR_Act_8-3-22.pdf">estimated</a> in 2022 that the IRA’s climate and energy provisions would cost around $400 billion. However, other corporations and organizations said that number was far too low. 
Shortly after CBO issued its estimate, the global investment banking company Credit Suisse <a href="https://www.credit-suisse.com/about-us-news/en/articles/news-and-expertise/us-inflation-reduction-act-a-catalyst-for-climate-action-202211.html">estimated</a> the climate initiatives would cost over $800 billion. That number is closer to CBO’s most recent estimate. 
Other recent, outside estimates have been higher. An August report from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bidens-green-energy-boondoggle-keeps-getting-bigger">predicted</a> that the IRA’s climate and energy provisions would cost taxpayers over $1 trillion.
The CBO explained that technical revisions resulted in the substantially higher projections, most of which ($224 billion) <a href="https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2024-02/59710-Outlook-2024.pdf">arose</a> from clean vehicle tax credits and revenues from excise taxes on gasoline. Of that total, $151 billion came from reductions in projected revenues and $73 billion came from increases in projected outlays. 
Much of the higher projections came from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposal last year to impose more stringent vehicle emissions standards beginning with the 2027 model year. 
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The CBO further noted that Treasury guidance determined that credits claimed by businesses for leased vehicles weren’t subject to restrictions applied to credits claimed directly by individuals, such as a buyer’s income, eligible vehicle pricing, critical mineral sourcing locations, battery component manufacturer locations, and final vehicle assembly locations. 
“Dealers and buyers have responded to that guidance by leasing more electric vehicles than [the Joint Committee on Taxation] anticipated when preparing its 2022 estimates,” said CBO. 
Apart from the cost of Biden’s climate initiatives, the CBO report didn’t lend a positive outlook for the nation’s economy.
The CBO projected that the nation’s deficit would steadily mount, reaching $2.6 trillion in 2034 from $1.6 trillion in this fiscal year. In relation to GDP, the deficit is projected to reach 6.1% in 2034. The CBO said that these deficit levels were similar to those experienced during some of the greatest national crises.
“Since the Great Depression, deficits have exceeded that level only during and shortly after World War II, the 2007-2009 financial crisis, and the coronavirus pandemic,” read the report. 
Debt held by the public would increase to 116% of GDP by 2034 ($48.3 trillion) and would continue to grow to 172% of GDP in 2054, up from the 99% projected at the end of this year ($26.2 trillion). 
According to the CBO, that 2034 estimate would mark an all-time historical high for the nation, a record reached due to increases in mandatory spending and interest costs outpacing declines in discretionary spending as well as revenue and economic growth.

Climate Initiatives In Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act Will Cost Over $400 Billion More Than Initially Expected, CBO Says

Congressional Budget Office (CBO)

It&#8217;s time for your daily dose of Bidenomics — where the rules are made up and the points don&#8217;t matter.
In today&#8217;s lesson, we&#8217;ll learn how the U.S. poverty rate increasing for the first time in more than a decade is actually a sign of a booming economy or something.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, a whopping 12.4% of Americans lived in poverty in 2022. That&#8217;s up from 7.8% in 2021. In fact, it was the first increase in the U.S. poverty rate in 13 years.
That news comes as the Census also reported that the U.S. real median household income decreased by 2.3% to $74,580 in 2022. Meanwhile, year-over-year inflation rose 7.8%, <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/us-household-income-fell-2022-census-data-shows" target="_blank" rel="noopener">per</a> Fox Business.
The Biden administration has long claimed that his policies are working and that his spending plans have juiced the American economy. Meanwhile, prices have increased <a href="https://x.com/TimMeadsUSA/status/1704138531386323270?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more than 17%</a> he took office.
In August, inflation continued to tick upward.
In a statement given to Townhall.com, Job Creators Network President and CEO Alfredo Ortiz said, &#8220;This accelerating inflation, which is nearly twice the Federal Reserve&#8217;s target rate, is another Bidenomics blow to ordinary Americans and small businesses dealing with rapidly rising prices that are lowering their real wages and living standards for two and a half years.&#8221;
Indeed, as <a href="https://rollcall.com/2023/08/02/voters-just-arent-buying-bidenomics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">explained recently</a> by David Winston, the president of The Winston Group and a GOP adviser, just about everything is more expensive than it was on the day Biden took office.
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Biden&#8217;s solution, Winston correctly points out,  has been &#8220;trying to dress up central planning as America First.&#8221;
The current president even tried to sell his economic agenda as &#8220;BABA&#8221;— Building a Better America. As previously discussed, BABA sounds similar to former President Donald Trump&#8217;s MAGA — Make America Great Again, but like most phony imitations, it has proven to be a crappy product that falls apart under the slightest bit of pressure.
BABA didn&#8217;t really click with the American people, so now he&#8217;s trying to sell his vision for the country as Bidenomics.
It&#8217;s been a great success for America, just ask him.
Whatever he calls it, the results are the same: The American people are worse off today than they were four years ago. The proof is in the pudding — that <a href="https://www.foodandwine.com/news/snack-prices-rising-2022-oreo-mondelez-kraft#:~:text=%22The%20products%20include%20varieties%20of,percent%2C%22%20CNN%20Business%20wrote." target="_blank" rel="noopener">now costs more money</a>, evidently.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN – AUGUST 15: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks to guests at Ingeteam Inc., an electrical equipment manufacturer, on August 15, 2023 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Biden used the opportunity to speak about his “Bidenomics” economic plan on the one-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

Poverty Rate Increases For First Time In Over A Decade: Bidenomics!

Poverty

Auto workers in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/michigan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Michigan</a> are preparing to go on strike for higher wages at three major U.S. carmakers as the United Auto Workers (UAW) union criticizes President Joe Biden’s handouts for the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/as-auto-strike-looms-biden-admin-announces-15-5-billion-for-electric-vehicle-manufacturers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">electric vehicle industry</a>.
The UAW <a href="https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2023/09/14/live-updates-uaw-strike-looms-hours-before-contracts-expire-with-big-three-automakers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">says</a> workers at General Motors, Ford, and Stellanits deserve a pay raise of 36%, and unless the union can come to an agreement with the automakers by midnight Thursday, the auto workers will go on strike. Not all of the UAW’s criticisms are directed at Detroit’s three major automakers; the union is also upset with the Biden administration and the Democratic Party for its subsidies to the electric vehicle industry, warning that the rush to push EVs is overlooking the security and protection of the American auto worker.
“UAW members feel abandoned by the Democratic Party,” former UAW President Bob King <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/13/biden-labor-ally-threatening-energy-agenda-00115415" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> POLITICO in an interview, saying that Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act has failed to benefit union workers. “I think there’s a segment of the Democratic Party that sees itself as serving corporations rather than the common good. … We’ve had a lot of disappointments.”
POLITICO reported that most of the energy investments made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act are flowing away from Michigan and to more Republican-led <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/13/biden-inflation-reduction-act-climate-states-00110940" target="_blank" rel="noopener">states</a>, such as Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina. The UAW is also concerned that it will lose members when motor companies invest even more into EVs as EVs usually have fewer parts than gas-powered cars.
The UAW is withholding an endorsement of Biden as it waits to hear back from the administration. UAW President Shawn Fain demanded the Biden administration give the UAW assurances that union workers will be protected as the federal government pushes for higher EV production. Biden, who <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/09/08/remarks-by-president-biden-in-honor-of-labor-unions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">describes</a> himself as the “most pro-union president&#8221; in history, received the endorsement of the UAW in 2020 as the union typically backs any candidate with a “D” next to their name, but the UAW president said Biden has some more to prove before he gets an endorsement for 2024.
“Actions are going to dictate endorsements, so we’ll see how things continue to play out, and we have a lot of issues to resolve,” Fain <a href="https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/cg/date/2023-09-11/segment/02" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> CNN’s Jake Tapper earlier this week. “There’s a lot with the EV transition that has to happen, and there’s hundreds of billions of our taxpayer dollars that are helping fund this, and workers cannot continue to be left behind in that equation.”
Ever since taking over in the White House in 2021, Biden has strongly pushed for the U.S. to ramp up electric vehicle production in the name of green energy. The White House is <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/04/17/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-new-private-and-public-sector-investments-for-affordable-electric-vehicles/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">investing</a> in the car industry with the hopes of getting EV sales to make up half of all new vehicle sales by 2030, subsidizing American car companies to help the administration reach its goal.
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Earlier this year, Ford <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ford-gets-9-2-billion-loan-from-biden-admin-for-ev-battery-factories-biggest-check-since-2009-bailouts" target="_blank" rel="noopener">received</a> the largest government check for an automaker since the 2009 bailouts thanks to a $9.2 billion loan intended to help construct three electric vehicle battery plants in the U.S. The Biden administration and Motor Company continue to push EVs even as Ford <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ford-loses-billions-on-electric-cars-embraces-hybrids" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> it expects to lose $4.5 billion from its EV division this year.

Former Union President Says Auto Workers ‘Feel Abandoned By The Democratic Party’ As Union Criticizes Biden’s EV Push

Former Union President Says Auto Workers 'Feel Abandoned By The Democratic Party' As Union Criticizes Biden's EV Push

Auto Companies

Biden Administration

Electric cars

Michigan

Unions

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 <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/27/biden-suspends-oil-and-gas-drilling-in-series-of.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">immediately attacked</a> our economy’s energy sector via executive orders, administrative regulations, and cutting off federal land leases for energy exploration and development. The effects of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/27/joe-biden-climate-change-executive-orders" target="_blank" rel="noopener">such an onslaught</a> 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 <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-admits-inflation-reduction-act-less-inflation-originally-sold-americans" target="_blank" rel="noopener">not passed to reduce inflation</a> 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 <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ford-gets-9-2-billion-loan-from-biden-admin-for-ev-battery-factories-biggest-check-since-2009-bailouts" target="_blank" rel="noopener">car</a> they can buy, or what type of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/democrat-official-who-supports-gas-stove-crackdown-has-a-gas-stove-in-his-own-home" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stove</a> 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.
<a href="http://richardclyons.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Richard C. Lyons</a>, author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/DNA-Democracy-Richard-C-Lyons/dp/0960072330/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2YMZDE1WJACY&amp;keywords=dna+of+democracy&amp;qid=1682820028&amp;sprefix=dna+of+democracy,aps,147&amp;sr=8-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The DNA of Democracy: Volume I</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Shadows-Acropolis-Richard-C-Lyons/dp/0997346299/ref=pd_bxgy_vft_none_img_sccl_1/133-3675306-0445253?pd_rd_w=2AzPK&amp;content-id=amzn1.sym.26a5c67f-1a30-486b-bb90-b523ad38d5a0&amp;pf_rd_p=26a5c67f-1a30-486b-bb90-b523ad38d5a0&amp;pf_rd_r=CXEQVEV308YHMA6RN7V2&amp;pd_rd_wg=Tfgw1&amp;pd_rd_r=5df3aa2a-5ee5-469c-99f9-21d371581b3f&amp;pd_rd_i=0997346299&amp;psc=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shadows of the Acropolis: Volume II</a>  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.

President Biden Delivers Remarks On Bidenomics In Milwaukee

Why Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act Is A Socialist Trojan Horse

Biden Admin

Oil and Gas

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