Congressman Cloud (TX-27) wrote an op-ed in Washington Examiner titled, “To tackle America’s fiscal crisis, start by repealing Biden’s green subsidies.”
Op-ed: To tackle America’s fiscal crisis, start by repealing Biden’s green subsidies
Last year, a Democratic-led Congress jammed through President Joe Biden’s deceitfully titled Inflation Reduction Act. This massive spending bill had nothing to do with reducing inflation and everything to do with force-feeding leftist policy dreams on hardworking taxpayers.
This was especially clear when Democrats inserted massive amounts of Green New Deal energy handouts into the bill. And unless we change course, we very well may look back at this misguided effort as the undoing of American hegemony.
Biden and Washington Democratic energy policies pose a serious threat to America for multiple reasons. First, their Inflation Reduction Act amounts to a gift to Communist China and the regime’s efforts to dominate the global markets. China already dominates “green” energy production through the market of rare earth minerals. In fact, 90% of the world’s battery storage market, 66% of global solar panel production, and 50% of wind turbine production come from China.
As a result, Chinese corporations tied to Communist China have been enriching themselves off the tax credits that were expanded in the Inflation Reduction Act. Chinese companies are even assisting the Ford battery plant in Michigan and an electric vehicle plant in Ohio.
Make no mistake: Every day we allow Biden’s green energy policies to benefit China, we are effectively funding China and undermining the United States with our own taxpayer dollars. That is outrageous and wrong. It makes our country weaker and our adversaries stronger and ultimately leaves us vulnerable as a dependent on Chinese Communist Party supply.
But putting aside the damage Biden’s bill invites upon the U.S. on the world stage, Democrats’ green energy subsidies are just as detrimental to America’s strength at home. Frankly, the Inflation Reduction Act would have been more appropriately named the “Innovation Reduction Act.”
America’s historic rise was in large part the product of our innovation engine, characterized by a strong work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit. The world at large has benefited from our advancements in science, medicine, agriculture, and technology as our innovators have invested their talent and resources into solving problems and improving the quality of life.
The massive size of the Inflation Reduction Act, however, distorts this incentive structure. Instead of applying creativity and capital to recognize problems and invent solutions, our entrepreneurs and investors are now being encouraged to focus their energies on going after the government cheese. Businesses are completely rewriting their mission and business model to get their slice of the pie — some completely neglecting the value add they have brought to the economy, supply chain, and society at large.
We’ve seen this play out before during the era of former President Barack Obama’s “shovel ready” projects. But the scale of the Inflation Reduction Act holds a particular danger. Studies estimate the cost of Biden’s subsidies will be $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years, a massive hit to our fiscal outlook and a disservice to the taxpayer. But this massive cost does not include the incalculable opportunity cost of discoveries not realized, innovations not made, cures not invented from a generation distracted by government-distorted economics.
Our government has no business giving special handouts to green corporations — especially when it must bolster the CCP and leave American workers in the dust to do so. The mandate for Congress is clear: We must repeal Biden’s misguided Green New Deal subsidies. If we don’t, we risk ceding our global autonomy and authority to China, as well as stymieing our home-grown innovation engine. Such an outcome is simply unacceptable.
It is not an accident that the repeal of many of these provisions was included in House Republicans’ Limit, Save, Grow Act. Their repeal is a vital component to getting our fiscal house in order and ensuring a strong future for the country.
