Inflation Derailing Biden’s Unpopular Climate-Spending Spree

From day one of his presidency, Joe Biden has been implementing his climate change agenda.

By hook or by crook, the Biden administration and Congress are trying to force American businesses and consumers away from plentiful and affordable oil, coal, and natural gas.

Then something happened along the way that could derail their extreme climate change plans: inflation.

The increase in prices bodes ill for the climate change agenda since energy prices are driving so much of the price hikes felt by Americans. A majority of the public may be concerned about climate in the abstract, but not enough to pay more to address it, according to polling.

The consumer price index, the most common measure of general inflation, in the last year has risen 5.4 percent.

A disaggregated look of this number shows much higher price increases on specific consumer goods, especially energy, that hit Americans much harder.

A gallon of gasoline has increased by more than 50 percent from one year ago and natural gas has doubled in price since last spring.

It’s only getting worse. Earlier this month the U.S. Energy Information Administration predicted most home heating bills will increase by 54 percent by year’s end, in the dead of winter, over last year.

There are several contributing factors to growing inflation with all going back to the deliberate actions of politicians, starting with President Biden and his allies running the Congress of the United States.

Start with the climate agenda implemented so far, including President Biden’s canceling pipelines and energy leases. Fewer energy supplies raise prices, which increases the cost of manufacturing and transporting goods, too.

Next, you have the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan passed by Congress on a partisan vote that increased unemployment benefits to the point of making joblessness financially better off than working for millions of Americans.

Low and behold, millions of jobs have either gone unfilled or have increased wage rates to the point of requiring higher prices to cover the higher labor cost.

Now the term “supply chain” has entered the common vernacular. Cargo ships are idling off the California coast with consumer goods due to a lack of dockworkers and truckers to unload and transport them.

The Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, even had to take time away from his paternity leave to attempt to explain. He warned that consumer shortages likely would impact the holiday shopping season and could last “years and years.”

Finally, there is the massive increase in federal spending in the last 18 months of more than $5 trillion, most of which is financed by the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank producing money from nothing to purchase U.S. Treasury bonds.

The government lending money to itself in such massive amounts in so short a time is cheapening the currency and a recipe for financial and economic disaster that is looming ever closer. With so much money flooding the economy and production failing to keep up, inflation is exacerbated.

Rather than slamming the brakes on this fiscal recklessness, President Biden and his congressional allies are doubling down. They want what amounts to another $5 trillion federal budget increase over the next decade.

In an evenly split U.S. Senate, Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a state where coal still matters, stands as one of the few against risking further fiscal and economic damage.

He has urged a much lower rate of spending overall and, last week, demanded removal from the budget plan the Clean Electricity Performance Program (CEPP).

This proposal would spend $150 billion to induce companies to transfer their energy sources to “renewable” from fossil fuels and impose fines if they do not.

If Sen. Manchin and a handful of congressional Democrats hold firm against this fiscal orgy of new spending, they will limit the economic damage on the country from restricting production and use of oil, coal, and natural gas and even higher inflation – the very crisis that has affected European nations from climate policies.

Climate change policies in the abstract appear benign and virtuous sounding when times are good and Americans are prospering. Flashback to pre-pandemic 2019.

America was at full employment with lower-wage and middle-income workers experiencing real, non-inflationary income gains.

Simultaneously, states such as California, New York, Virginia, and New York City were passing Green New Deal laws to mandate increased use of renewable energy and restrict more reliable fuels, including banning natural gas pipelines and closing nuclear power plants.

The economic folly and impracticality of all this were predicted.

Times have changed – quickly. With this burst of inflation, especially the spike in energy costs, climate policies are in trouble in Congress as Americans feel their bite.

Higher energy prices and inflation amount to a cruel tax especially on low-income and middle-class households.

Further climate policies sought by President Biden and members of Congress will only compound this ominous trend – unless they come to whatever remains of their senses or if the likes of Joe Manchin succeed in thwarting them.

Read more at CFACT