Tag Archives: Inflation Reduction Act

Vacation Time For Congress

Posted on by under Economic issues, Environmental Issues, Global Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary

Congress will soon be leaving for their annual August break … without bothering to even address an appropriations bill to avoid a government shutdown before the end of September.  When they return, they will have only three weeks to negotiate the budget … not nearly enough time in this Congress that is so divided they cannot even agree on whether the earth is flat or round!  I’m thoroughly disgusted with Congress as an institution, as a branch of our government, and the Republican’s inability or unwillingness to do the job for which we elected them and for which we pay them!  However, there is a bright spot in the fight against climate change, thanks to President Biden and congressional Democrats, so I will let Dan & Elliot share both their disgust with the current Congress and the good news on climate change initiatives with you …

How It’s Supposed To Work

Biden’s climate change law

By Dan Rather and Elliot Kirschner

26 July 2023

Washington today has become a den of dysfunctionality. Oh, there is a pantomime of governance on Capitol Hill — hearings, roll call votes, committees. But to a shocking degree it is for the purpose of political gamesmanship and not in service of the American people.

It’s about cheap hits, grandstanding, and even fanning conspiracy theories. All of that might fulfill the needs of the Fox News media bookers, but it does darn little to address the myriad challenges this nation faces.

Congressional Republicans have become mostly a caucus of contempt when it comes to the actual workings of government. This has been a movement decades in the making, stretching back to the reign of Speaker Newt Gingrich. They so devoutly preach the gospel of broken government that even when they do have the power of both the White House and Congress — as they did in the first years of the Trump administration — they don’t try to pass many bills of consequence (other than, of course, tax cuts for the rich).

It is no wonder that beating the timpani of toxicity strikes chords of cynicism and apathy with the public at large. That is part of the point. The strategy of the far right is to make government so irreparably broken and ineffectual that voters won’t reward anyone who says otherwise. Derision makes for potent political attack ads against those who earnestly say they can get something done when the very notion of competency has become absurd.

President Biden, on the other hand, is a big believer in what government can do. In his view, presidential leadership entails offering a legislative agenda. Doing so often requires making compromises, even ones you might find odious. But what’s the alternative? You either pass what you can in the moment, or the moment passes you by.

Biden embraced this mindset to make the most of Democrats’ razor-thin majorities in the last Congress. And he was rewarded with significant legislative victories. Perhaps none may prove bigger than the Inflation Reduction Act, which will celebrate its one-year anniversary next month. At the time of its passing, it was heralded as the most significant climate bill in our nation’s history.

Democrats in general, and the Obama administration (of which Biden was an integral part) in particular, were far too slow in reacting to climate change over the years (although Republican obstructionism also played a role). Even now, there are environmentalists who believe Biden isn’t doing nearly enough. Still, Biden and his party have finally taken what by any reasonable analysis is a major step forward.

As the country gears up for another presidential election, much media coverage is of poll numbers and the circus of the Republican primary, not to mention all the other doom and gloom headlines that permeate the front pages. In contrast, this legislative act stands out like a burst of sunshine (all the better to fuel a growing number of new solar panels across the country).

Thanks to this legislation, a lot of support for alternative energy projects and other green technology is flowing into red and purple states and districts. This might strike some as unfair. Why should billions of dollars go to places that elect politicians who voted against the bill (in fact, no Republicans in the House or Senate voted for it)? Many of these politicians and their constituents even deny climate change exists.

But once again, this is Biden’s worldview at work. If climate change is the existential threat that we know it to be, and if the United States is going to embrace a paradigm shift on green energy and transportation, then we will have to do it together. A firehose of federal dollars for environmental investment could be the most effective way to change people’s minds, by appealing to their pocketbooks.

And it might be working. We are starting to see reporting on climate change progress with datelines that weren’t typical of positive environmental stories from the past. Take a recent Associated Press article: “One year old, US climate law is already turbocharging clean energy technology.” It begins by describing a family installing a solar panel in Frankfort, Kentucky, “a few miles upstream from the state capitol where lawmakers have promoted coal for more than a century.”

The article goes on to discuss the sheer scale of the law:

In less than a year it has prompted investment in a massive buildout of battery and EV manufacturing across the states. Nearly 80 major clean energy manufacturing facilities have been announced, an investment equal to the previous seven years combined, according to the American Clean Power Association…

The Congressional Budget Office initially estimated the IRA’s tax credits would cost about $270 billion over a decade, but Brookings says businesses might take advantage of the credits far more aggressively and the federal government could pay out three or four times more.

Another recent article, this one from The Washington Post, focuses more on the political implications of all of this money flowing to “Red America.” Its headline says, “Small-town GOP officials are torn over Biden’s clean energy cash,” and its dateline is Fairfield County, Ohio:

Like similar fights throughout conservative parts of the United States, the debate in Fairfield County reflects one of the central ironies of President Biden’s signature legislation, last year’s Inflation Reduction Act: Although it was drafted and passed exclusively by Democrats in Washington, the fate of the law will hinge in large part on the decisions of state and local Republican officials.

The idea behind the law, and its hundreds of billions of dollars in expanded clean-energy tax credits, was to change both the economics and the politics that have held green industry back. Rather than pursue a carbon tax administered by the federal government or other policies some on the left have pushed, the Biden administration is seeding the money for a new renewable energy sector that would make cleaner options a better bet financially than burning fossil fuels, regardless of one’s position on climate change. The hope was that government subsidies would unleash a tidal wave of investment to shatter local opposition and break the nation’s dependence on fossil fuel energy, particularly as the cost of renewable energy plummets.

The article notes success as well as challenges. On the one hand, “Of the approximately $70 billion in new clean energy investment dollars announced since the climate law passed, roughly $51 billion — or 70 percent — is in counties won by Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.” On the other hand, “As the number of proposed renewable energy projects soars, so has the backlash. State and local lawmakers blocked 138 solar and wind projects last year, more than doubling the total of 54 from the year before.” This year, more than 70 projects have been “rejected.”

Of course with an issue as complicated as this, there are many competing narratives and ones that don’t fall into neat ideological boxes. But the big picture is clear. The Democrats passed a massive bill to remake America in the face of climate change, and they are eager to see it succeed. If that means doling out money to their political opponents, so be it. We are, after all, one nation. And we need as many people to be on board as possible.

This expansive approach is not exactly something you could imagine from the previous president or the party he leads.

It’s all part of Biden’s big bet, which in turn is a big bet of we, the people: Can we, as a nation, return to a more functional politics? Can we act as a unified people and not camps of narrow competing self-interests? Can opportunities not be framed as a zero-sum game? And can we, by acting together, save our country and our planet?

Much is made of Biden’s age. But there’s no denying he’s playing the long game for politics and for our environment. And that means we won’t know whether or how this approach will work out for a long time. So far, there are some promising signs.

A Conservative Praises Biden???

Posted on by under Economic issues, Election 2024, Free Press Issues, History, Political commentary, Social commentary

It is a rare event when a conservative actually praises President Biden and I’m not gonna let that moment pass without noting it!  Mark this day down in your diaries, my friends, for it’s noteworthy.  The conservative in this case is David Brooks, who is in my view one of the five most sensible conservative voices in the nation, perhaps even the most sensible.  Take a gander at what he has to say …

Why Biden Isn’t Getting the Credit He Deserves

By David Brooks

29 June 2023

The misery index is a crude but effective way to measure the health of the economy. You add up the inflation rate and the unemployment rate. If you’re a president running for re-election, you want that number to be as low as possible.

When Ronald Reagan won re-election, it was about 11.4, when George W. Bush did so it was 9, for Barack Obama it was 9.5, and today, as Joe Biden runs for re-election, it’s only 7.7.

Biden should be cruising to an easy re-election victory. And that misery index number doesn’t even begin to capture the strength of the American economy at the moment. There are a zillion positive indicators right now, as the folks in the administration will be quick to tell you. The economy has created 13 million jobs since Biden’s Inauguration Day. According to the Conference Board, a business research firm, Americans’ job satisfaction is at its highest level in 36 years. Household net worth is surging.

We learned Thursday that the U.S. economy grew at an annualized 2 percent rate in the first quarter of this year, well above the economists’ expectations of around 1.4 percent. The best part of it is that the new prosperity is helping those who have long been left behind. In the four years of Donald Trump’s administration, spending on manufacturing facilities grew by 5 percent. During the first two years of Biden’s administration, such investment more than doubled and about 800,000 manufacturing jobs were created.

This is not just coincidence. It’s a direct outcome of Biden policies: the Inflation Reduction Act, with its green technology provisions, the infrastructure bill, the CHIPS Act.

Biden’s stimulative spending did boost the inflation rate, but inflation is now lower than in many other developed nations and our economy is stronger.

So Americans should be celebrating. But they are not. According to an NBC News survey conducted this month, at least 74 percent of Americans say the country is on the wrong track. The Gallup economic confidence index over the past year has been starkly negative; people haven’t felt this bad about the economy since the throes of the global financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. The University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index is also tremendously downbeat. Joe Biden’s approval numbers have been stuck around a perilously low 43 percent for a year.

As the maestro political analyst Charlie Cook noted in 2020, on average, presidents tend to lose their re-election bids when about 70 percent of Americans think the country is on the wrong track, and they tend to win when fewer than half of Americans think that.

Why are Americans feeling so bad about an economy that’s so good? Partly, it’s inflation. Things have stabilized recently as inflation has dropped, but for a while there, real wages really were falling. Prices on things like gas and food are now significantly higher than they were three years ago.

The Biden folks are hoping that as inflation continues to decline and as they get the word out, Americans will begin to feel better about things. But it’s not that simple.

Part of it is the media. A recent study found that over the past couple of decades headlines have grown starkly more negative, conveying anger and fear. That’s bound to spread bad vibes through the populace.

But the main problem is national psychology. Americans’ satisfaction with their personal lives is nearly four times as high as their satisfaction with the state of the nation. That’s likely because during the Trump era we have suffered a collective moral injury, a collective loss of confidence, a loss of faith in ourselves as a nation.

America has suffered two recent periods of national demoralization. In the 1970s, during Vietnam and Watergate, Americans lost faith in their institutions. During the Trump era, Americans also lost faith in one another. Those who supported Trump were converted to the gospel of American Carnage, the idea that elite Americans seek to destroy other Americans, that we are on the precipice of disaster. Those who opposed Trump were appalled that their countrymen could support him, disgusted by his rampant immorality, alarmed that their democracy was suddenly in peril.

The anthropologist Raoul Naroll argued that every society has a “moral net,” a cultural infrastructure that exists, mostly unconsciously, in the minds of its members. America’s is in tatters. This manifests a loss of national self-esteem. People begin to assume national incompetence. Fearful and anxiety-ridden people are quick to perceive the negative aspects of any situation, hypersensitive to threat, prone to pessimism.

You can’t argue people out of that psychological and moral state with statistics and fact sheets. Biden is going to have to serve as a national guide, not just an administrator. He has to get outside the protective walls that have been built around him and make himself the center of the nation’s attention, not Trump. He’ll have to come up with a 21st-century national story that gives people a sense of coherence and belonging — that we are marching in a clear direction toward some concrete set of goals.

Good jobs numbers alone don’t heal a brutalized national psyche, and that’s our main problem right now.

Put The Blame Where It Belongs!

Posted on by under Environmental Issues, Global Issues, Political commentary, Social commentary

This morning I saw a tweet from none other than the shameful Texas Senator Ted Cruz in which, without facts or justification, he blamed President Biden and Democrats for rising prices and inflation.

I take umbrage with his laying of the blame on the very people who are trying to combat high prices and inflation.

Here are some cold, hard facts to chew on …

  • The 10 largest food companies saw their net incomes increase by $393.6 million in the first six months of 2022, while increasing shareholder handouts by $3.8 billion to a total of over $12.1 billion.
  • Prices for energy services rose 18.8% and electricity prices rose 15.2% from July 2021 to July 2022, leaving 20 million households at risk of losing electricity. Meanwhile, the five largest electricity and utility companies increased shareholder handouts by $378 million to over $6.5 billion in the first half of 2022.
  • While 18 million Americans were unable to afford prescription medications, the largest U.S. drugmakers saw profits jump by over $6 billion to $36 billion — all while boosting shareholder handouts by over $5.2 billion to $24.5 billion in the first half of 2022.
  • As housing prices increased 5.7% from July 2021 to July 2022 and rents hit “record highs,” the biggest apartment companies — Mid-America Apartments, Starwood Properties, and AvalonBay Communities — touted rent hikes to pad profits by $295.9 million while increasing shareholder handouts $33.9 million to nearly $1 billion in the first half of 2022.

And here’s what the experts have to say …

  • In a recent speech, Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve Lael Brainard said that reductions in massive corporate profit markups can help to bring down inflation — once again demonstrating the link between price gouging and skyrocketing costs.
  • CEO Dara Khosrowshahi admitted in a recent CNBC interview that corporations like Uber are benefiting from inflation. Because of high prices on essential goods like gas and groceries, more people are signing up to be Uber drivers. He even said, “If anything, 72% of drivers in the U.S. are saying that one of the considerations of their signing up to drive on Uber was actually inflation.”
  • In this Forbes piece, Errol Schweizer lays out how market consolidation, price gouging, and excessive CEO pay are responsible for high food prices. To bring prices down, Congress needs to address each of these drivers of inflation, rather than simply looking to the Fed to continuously hike interest rates to decrease demand and send tens of millions of people into unemployment.
  • New polling from Navigator Research shows that nearly two in three Americans support the Inflation Reduction Act. Although Americans’ still hold negative views of the economy, overall pessimism is decreasing, with Black and Hispanic Americans in particular feeling more positive about their personal finances.

Source:  Dan Crawford, The Hub Project

There can be many causes for inflation, but today the biggest cause is corporate greed.  It began with the pandemic when the already-wealthy corporate CEOs saw an opportunity, and then it was further bolstered by Russia’s war against Ukraine that disrupted supply chains, and again the corporations saw an opportunity … an excuse … to gouge consumers.  To blame President Biden, who just signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act, is the epitome of ignorance at best, and a bald-faced lie at worst.  Mr. Cruz needs to do some research before he opens his mouth … but oh wait … he’s a Republican and they don’t believe in facts, only rhetoric and conspiracy theories.

The Week’s Best Cartoons 8/20

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, cartoons, Election 2022, Environmental Issues, Humour, Law and justice, Political commentary, Re-blogs, Social commentary

Sometimes these days I think that if I were a political cartoonist (I can’t even draw an egg properly, so no danger of that!) I would just post a black screen, or one depicting a super storm, for ‘bleak’ is the word that often comes to mind (thank you, Republicans, for the ulcer).  But this past week, there has been a bit of good news — a BFD in fact — and I was happy to see at least a couple of cartoons about that, although the rest remain rather dark humour.  At any rate, as usual, our friend TokyoSand has given us the best of the best from the internet this week.  Thank you, T.S.!

I was especially happy to see a handful of cartoonists pick up on something this week that I was sensing — namely, that the national narrative was turning around (for the better) for President Biden. Here’s those cartoons, and so much more! 

Be sure to check out the rest of the ‘toons!

In The Words Of Dan Rather … A BFD!

Posted on by under Environmental Issues, Global Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Social commentary

On Tuesday, President Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).  It wasn’t everything we had hoped for, as compromises had to be made in order to get West Virginia’s Joe Manchin on board, but it was, as Dan Rather tells us, a BFD … I’ll let Dan ‘splain that one!

A BFD

But Republicans fail the future (and the present)

Dan Rather and Elliot Kirschner

President Joe Biden has signed into law a bill that is, to quote former President Barack Obama, a “BFD.” In other words, a “big deal” with a colorful adjective sandwiched in between for emphasis. It was Obama’s way of paying homage to Biden’s whispered comment (caught on mic) from back in 2010 with the passage of the Affordable Care Act.  

With apologies to decorum, Obama’s summation is warranted.

The bill is called the Inflation Reduction Act, which most economists think is an accurate description. Inflation reduction is a worthy goal, but what is even more noteworthy — rising to the level of historic — is how the legislation intends to accomplish that feat. It is a compendium of long-desired action on the part of Democrats around health care costs, taxes, and climate change (representing the most ambitious climate measures ever enacted by Congress).

The details are varied and have been covered admirably in other publications. Were they everything that most Democrats sought? No. But they were significant. Once again, a BFD.

For the sake of this column, however, let us focus less on the policy than on the politics, and specifically the fact that this bill squeaked through on a purely party-line vote. All Democrats in the House and Senate voted “yea.” All Republicans who voted (four representatives did not) voted “nay.” All of them.

Perhaps we have become inured to this unblinking partisanship. Chalk it up to cynicism, to pure party politics, to the zero-sum game that seems to rule Washington, particularly from Republicans when Democrats are in the majority. Obstruct. Delay. Obfuscate. That is the playbook. But while extreme partisanship might explain the actions, it certainly does not excuse them.

This bill aimed to tackle tough challenges, particularly climate change. And on this issue in particular the politics of our time should not be measured in some temporal tally of wins and losses for congressional seats; this is about wins and losses for the habitability of our planet.

This isn’t about four-year election cycles. It is about epochs measured in millennia.

Those are the stakes. And on this score, most prominent Republican elected officials seem eager to deny reality. And the few who don’t fall into that camp are apparently satisfied with doing nothing.

There may not be a more serious yardstick by which to measure our political era than this failure. As we have often cautioned here, the future of American democracy is at risk these days. But, let us be clear, so is the future of planet Earth. Perhaps even more so.

When I tweeted the above, I expected to get a decent response; I never expected this level of engagement, but it makes sense. Unlike the politicians, according to polls, most Americans understand the peril and want action.

In this upside-down reality, questions emerge that demand answers and accountability:

  • How can a politician who doesn’t take climate change seriously be taken seriously?
  • How can someone who fails to protect our nation from the increasing threat of natural disasters be considered a voice to heed on national security?
  • How can someone who denies this reality be considered a credible judge of the truth?

This is not a debate about policy. “How should we tackle this existential threat?” is a legitimate question on which fair minds can disagree. Should it be tax cuts for business or government regulation? Or both? A carbon tax or subsidies for new technologies? Is nuclear energy a viable option? Should we invest more in electric cars or public transportation? Let’s have a vigorous debate. Go at it. There is no monopoly on wisdom. And the country needs a strong two-party system, with a Congress of conscience on both sides of the aisle, to have such debates.

But debate whether we should do ANYTHING??? Really????

(Perhaps from the all caps and the number of question marks you can sense my feelings.)

This bill was a major step forward on addressing climate change. It’s not nearly enough. But it is something. A lot. A BFD. So say the scientists. It’s a foundation upon which to build.

But it was also a test of the seriousness of the Republican Party on the most serious of issues. It is a test they failed. All of them in Congress.

That is not political spin. It’s the truth. Just ask Mother Earth. She’s screaming out for all to hear. Maybe at some point the politicians who refuse to listen to her pleas will be forced to answer why, and not be taken seriously until they can answer in accordance with reality.

Biden and Dems are Getting Stuff Done

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, Environmental Issues, Global Issues, History, Law and justice, Political commentary, Re-blogs, Social commentary

My blogging buddy Jeff over at On the Fence Voters has found some things to be optimistic about and I like the way he thinks. We all need to remember that amidst the dark terrain of today’s political landscape, things ARE getting done, there IS hope for our future. Thank you, Jeff … I think we all need to remember that we have a president who cares about ALL the people, not only those with money to burn!

On The Fence Voters

Contrary to my pessimism about the midterms post a while back, my attitude is beginning to change. Things are getting better in the United States of America, and we have President Joe Biden and the Democrats to thank for that.

Meanwhile, the corrupt former president awaits his fate from many investigations and probes, and his sycophantic friends in the GOP proudly stand by him. This fact reflects the stark contrast between our two political parties. One party is working for the American people—the other works for one man and a deranged group of his cult followers.

To be sure, you may not like everything Joe Biden and the Democrats are doing. Some might not think the recently passed legislation, The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), goes far enough. Perhaps you believe centrist Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema played too significant a role and whittled down the bill to something far…

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Treasonous Squirrels

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, cartoons, Election 2022, Environmental Issues, Humour, Law and justice, Political commentary, Re-blogs, Social commentary

As always, Clay Jones of Claytoonz manages to find humour amidst the rubble. I especially like his summation of the recently-passed Inflation Reduction Act. Thanks, Clay, for all the good work you do!

CLAYTOONZ

While I don’t believe the raid on Mar-a-Lago was an intentional distraction, it can serve as one. Maybe that shitty thing will distract voters from all the other shitty things Republicans do.

Maybe the revelation that Donald Trump is a traitor to this nation and only cares about himself…OK, a reminder that Donald Trump is a traitor and doesn’t care about anyone except himself will distract voters from the fact that not one Republican voted for it.

The Inflation Reduction Act won’t just decrease today’s inflation, but it will provide benefits over the next decade and beyond. In addition to reducing inflation, it will decrease healthcare costs and fight climate change. It will reduce the growth of the deficit and includes a 15 percent minimum cash tax on corporations. Called the “Amazon Tax,” it is expected to raise $222 billion over 10 years and $35 billion in 2023. Republicans hate this.

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