The country needs help with inflation, energy, but Biden bill gives us more taxes, IRS agents

Living in Tarrant County and Texas is a true blessing to so many of us, yet we feel the slings and arrows of the volatile times we find ourselves.

Our troubles are neither new nor unique, but they are quite frustrating. Even the slightest acknowledgment of any of the warning signs along the way could have avoided much of the calamity we face today.

We are regularly admonished to “follow the science” and heed “obvious” warning signs regarding a variety of topics — environmental, energy, health, education, law enforcement. Yet the very people insisting we employ logic (science, data, reason) themselves enact policies that are the opposite of sensibility.

Congress and the Biden administration have sent more than $50 billion to Ukraine, yet our own southern border is worse than ever. The United Nations recently listed it as the deadliest crisis zone in the world. In addition to the war in Ukraine, horrific civil and tribal wars continue endlessly in Africa, humanitarian abuses abound in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, China, and Russia, — and ours is the deadliest. Wow.

Every report, technical to observational, indicates that more resources are needed at the border, specifically more agents. Yet the president and Congress choose to add 87,000 IRS agents to the government.

That’s right, $80 billion for IRS agents, but nothing additional for Customs and Border Patrol to address the deadliest crisis zone in the world. This will double the size of the IRS, making it larger than Customs and Border Patrol, the State Department and the Pentagon combined.

Also in this bill are massive tax hikes, both on individuals and businesses. Inflation is at 40-year highs, we have massive debt, rampant crime in many cities, and our economy is sputtering to regain footing from the pandemic shut-downs. This is the wrong time to raise taxes on individuals and businesses on whom our nation relies to power the largest economy in the world.

Anyone paying attention could see this, and common sense would never lead one to increase taxes on people already struggling to make ends meet with rising prices.

One of the more curious taxes in this bill is a new American energy tax, increasing fees on oil production. Of course, these will be passed along to you and me with higher gas prices, heating bills and generally higher consumer prices.

Last month President Joe Biden went to Saudi Arabia in hopes of securing increased oil production to help the United States. We have plenty of oil, natural gas, and coal to fuel our entire nation abundantly, yet we still buy from other countries. No data has surfaced explaining this logic, though a number of ideologues have happily pointed out that this will help push our transition to more clean energy.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office analysis indicates that the bill called the Inflation Reduction Act will actually have a tiny impact on inflation (0.01% reduction in 2023). And when increased taxes take even more from the pay of hardworking Americans and struggling small businesses, the result will likely increase prices.

Everyone in Tarrant County — most of Texas, really — understands well the importance of warning signs when we encounter highway construction. Those signs tell us of impending hazards so we can be aware of the dangers, slow down, and navigate carefully, avoiding harm to ourselves and others.

There were plenty of warning signs indicating these policies would lead us exactly where we are today, yet the Biden administration ignored them all.

Bold, hard-charging commitment is needed now, with clarity of mind and plain, simple common sense.

Susan Wright is a member of the State Republican Executive Committee and a Tarrant County GOP precinct chairwoman. She lives in Arlington.