‘Build Back Better’ Is Climate-Change Socialism, Not The Smaller Government We Need Lewis K. Uhler and Joseph Yocca
Just 10 months into his administration, Joe Biden is seemingly a man on a destructive mission: everything he touches augers spectacularly into the political dirt and his approval rating reflects the country’s dismay.
Last week, consumer prices jumped the highest in 31 years owing to non-stop stimulus checks, big government spending and energy sector “climate change” subsidies to electrical vehicle (EV) promoters and manufacturers.
Everything from food prices to used cars increased faster than paychecks. If a working person didn’t receive a 6.2% pay raise this year, he/she is losing money, plain and simple. There hasn’t been a measurement this dramatic in decades.
Inflation is not an act of God. It’s completely manmade largely through government policy. Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman famously pointed out that inflation is always and everywhere a monetary problem. Between March 2020 and September 2021 the amount of money in circulation has increased a staggering 336%. That year-over-year average price increases for consumables is 6% is not a reflection of the full measure of the problem, which is much worse.
In poll after poll, Americans are recording their complete dissatisfaction with Biden’s job performance, the latest coming last weekend in an NBC Survey that had Chuck Todd almost in tears: fully 71% feel our nation is on the wrong path, with only 22% saying things are going well. And that tracks with many other polls pushing this administration underwater except a slight bump for “climate change”.
“The climate crisis can’t wait any longer,” skewed Biden’s press flack Jen Psaki in response to questions regarding policies driving energy prices higher. The Biden team has made it clear: his agenda is to use the Green New Deal to restructure our society.
Rivian’s nearly $12 billion stock offering this week is an example of the impact of promised government subsidies to this electric truck manufacturer, which has yet to deliver more than 200 vehicles. But the government subsidies has lured countless investors.
“Climate Change” polls still find Biden in the black, Rasmussen reports, recently giving him 51%. But most Americans see climate has a relative minor issue, while even fewer are willing to pay more in taxes and higher prices.
Another Rasmussen survey finds that only 2% of likely voters agree with Biden’s statement that “Climate change is the greatest threat facing America”. And a full 54% disagree with Biden’s costly solutions to global warming, and with good reason, while even fewer are willing to pay for this with more taxes.
And remember, it was one of Joe Biden’s first acts as President to kill the Keystone Pipeline, surrendering thousands of good American jobs while only a few months later granting approval for a Russian gas pipeline to Germany. Winter storms in Texas and Oklahoma this year that caused major power outages also exposed the danger of relying on wind and solar for electricity and heating homes. To date no one has addressed the question where we’ll get all the new electricity and capacity for “driving” electric cars.
Prices at the pump are excruciatingly high, as we all know. And they will continue to increase if progressives in the Biden world continue to push their climate agenda.
Meanwhile real climate experts, including former Obama administration science advisor Steve Koonin, have been confirming that the world isn’t likely to heat much over the next 100 years. Other climate experts agree.
Nor do they predict any significant increase in the ocean level worldwide. If not, why would Michelle and Barack Obama have purchased a very expensive seafront home at Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts if they truly believed climate change would cause the sea to rise and inundate them?
The good news is that government malfeasance is not lost on the average American who is blessed with an abundance of common sense and economic experience. While the U.S. suffers under the severest inflation and energy prices in 40 years, Biden may believe that in “climate change” he is shielded from the consequences of all that currently hampers the nation.
He couldn’t be more wrong.
As the Biden/Socialist policies assault America it’s clear that government at all levels is too large, invasive and corrupting of good policies. The proper alternative for vigorous policy debate for the nation’s future is to identify how government at all levels can be cut from its current size of roughly 40% of GDP to 20% of GDP, which would dramatically increase the rate of economic growth for the benefit of all our citizens.
At a 5% annual growth rate, our nation’s economy would double in about 14 years, whereas under the Obama/Biden growth rate of 1.2% it would take 60 years to double. That’s a huge difference.
Growing our nation at a faster clip through private sector leadership and investment beats Biden’s socialism by miles.
Lew Uhler is founder and chairman of the National Tax Limitation Committee and the National Tax Limitation Foundation (NTLF). Uhler was a contemporary and collaborator with Ronald Reagan and Milton Friedman in California and across the country.
Joe Yocca is NTLF’s national policy director. A long-time political and policy consultant, Joe served in the California State Senate as chief of staff to the Republican leadership for decades and directed statewide, legislative and congressional campaigns throughout his career.
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