Progressives “Build Back Better Act” Ploy
Perhaps this Administration/Congress’s blatant and extreme national debt-billowing bill, now stalled in the Senate (thankfully), should more correctly be titled the “Build Back Like Europe Act,” since it’s all about expanding America’s Democrat-holiday-dream of an increasingly Socialist/Marxist state. Or perhaps, even more accurately, it should instead be titled the “Build Back Bravo Sierra Act.”
For now, at least, with thanks to Senator Manchin (D-WV), the crucial 51st vote against passage, who has stopped this totally unnecessary bill from going forward by indicating his NO vote. But, wrote commentator Juan Williams, by so doing, Senator Manchin has “turned his back on most Americans who support passage of the bill.” Beg to differ. Rather the pro-America Senator has turned to face our nation and has boldly taken the stand that America doesn’t need this particular spend-thrift bill, as currently written. And we truly doubt that “most Americans” would actually be in favor of this bill, if its contents were fully and clearly revealed (which they haven’t been), along with the extent to which it’s been deftly manipulated to make the true costs appear to be far below the actual proposed wasteful expenditures. One of the Senator’s key concerns, thankfully, beyond some of its to-be-funded programs, was how this huge expenditure package would impact our current, seemingly-out-of-control, nationwide inflation status, both now and in the coming years.
The ever-articulate Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) also weighed in on the proposed Build Back Act. Said he: “Friends, I’m as serious as three heart attacks. Parts of this ‘Build Back Better’ bill are just plain stupid, like spending money on special interest climate projects. All while we’ve got families working themselves to death to put food on the table. It’s just political pork barrel porn to the D.C. elite and it’s just wrong. It’s but a chance to pull a fast one on the American people.” And that “fast one” refers not only to what’s in the measure, but especially to how its cost is being “sold.” We’ve all been told that the bill is “just” a measly $1.8-trillion or so, which to this administration appears to be chump-change. The harsh reality, downplayed or ignored completely by passive Democrats, is that the true cost, says the Congressional Budget Office, is actually closer to $4.9-trillion over ten-years, projected to add $3-trillion to the nation’s budget deficit “if many of the programs were made permanent.”
And “made permanent” is the key to the attempted Progressive deception. The original expenditure plan with this particular bill came in way higher than Republicans could ever support, and even more so than some normal Democrat representatives felt they could vote to approve. So, what to do? Say, here’s an idea, likely said those who packed this sky-scraping, budget-busting proposal together. Let’s just “sun-set” some of the programs so that they will be said to end in one, two, or just a few years, thereby seemingly reducing the total cost. Interesting flashy gimmick. Problem is no federal financial give-away program is ever, ever allowed to end! When the artificial future end-date would come up, Congress would simply be called upon (pressured) to renew and extend the particular program(s), thereby putting the lie to its original projected cost, and revealing the CBO estimate to be the true expenditure, far higher than that “sold” upon presumed passage.
The current BBB Act (just shy of 4 B’s…coincidence?) is jam packed with “free” money for all manner of Democrat’s political friends and interests, at current and future tax-payer expense. And only made feasible (but not defensible) thanks to planned huge federal tax increases on everyone and everything. One possible anomaly within deals with current child funding/tax credit which would be extended for five-years (then, inevitably, renewed!). That would seem to be encouraging young marrieds and existing parents to have more children, as payments/tax credits are made on a per-child basis. That while the administration is very much pro-abortion. So, which is it?
That aside, the largest share of this unaffordable legislation seems to be the so-called “Green New Deal.” This is the Progressive-driven effort, by the misguided-but-controlling Climate Crusaders, to hamper the production of, or get rid of entirely, all oil and natural gas production, and all mining (coal, of course, but also many much needed minerals). Progressive desire is to transition from fossil fuel for power generation to all renewables (wind/solar, but so far, not nuclear, the cleanest and most reliable of them all). Doing away with fossil fuels and mining is absurd. There is no way those unreliable known-renewables can sufficiently carry the nation’s power generation load. Reportedly, today, fossil fuels provide about 80% of the world’s electricity needs. The sheer cost of the transition, and the predictable loss of reliability, is beyond rational analysis and belief. For instance, wrote David Boleneus: “The most serious challenge to building renewables is the scale and quantities of required materials. (And) To equal the output of electricity from a single natural gas or coal-fired power plant occupying one-square-mile (of land) requires wind turbines be erected across an area of 350 to 450 square miles to account for the episodic nature of wind.” Also, the current BBB Act contains penalties for mines that are the source of the required minerals for the production of the wind turbines themselves, let alone the predicted greatly expanded production of all-electric vehicle batteries (EV). Bottom line, notes Mr. Boleneus: “A net zero economy using renewables is an impossible dream.”
This further debt-enlarging, damaging, and purely politically-driven, hard-left bill must be defeated in the Senate, when discussions continue soon after the start of the new year. Its primary aim is to appease the pie-in-the-sky fossil-free visions of the Progressive Greens, while dumping trillions of dollars, that we absolutely don’t need to be spending, on um-teen programs, in an already over-heated inflationary economy, the later impacting everyone, but especially those seniors and others existing on fixed-incomes, as their buying power erodes by the day. But the real attempt, here, is continued Democrat power and control. Making more and more Americans firmly (and politically) dependent on government handouts, cradle -to-grave. That’s the seeming ultimate game-plan and intent of all legislation proposed by this Progressive Democrat-dominated Congress, which loyal, fed-up Americans hope to end in November 2022.
We must fervently hope that Senator Manchin holds his ground on this damaging potential Act. Better yet, that he might opt to change his political affiliation to either Independent or Republican, as he is being encouraged by many of his Senate colleagues to do!
ADDENDUM: Just revealed: The now-dead (we hope) “Build Back Better” bill had included over $100-billion in tax-payer dollars for the wind & solar “green energy” companies (if including tax credits = $500-billion value). Reportedly, “after 30-years of handouts, wind and solar account for less than 8% of our total energy production.” Why, then, the continued multi-billion-dollar federal grants? “Because the green energy industry gives 90% of its contributions to Democrats,” considered to be “a pay-to-play gambit.” (Source: foxnews.com, Stephen Moore, 12-23-21)
(Juan Williams quote via foxnews.com, Juan Williams, 12-21-21; Senator Kennedy quote via his fund-raising pronouncement on the internet, 12-17-21; CBO cost estimate data via breitbart.com, Sean Moran, 12-13-21; “How to destroy a national economy” quotes via americanthinker.com, David Boleneus, 12-10-21).