Inflation continues soaring to generational records and the nation is assuredly sinking into recession. Small businesses, and particularly the middle class, are gasping for relief. Inflation must be reined in by stabilizing the money supply, and the middle class needs a break from the mounting costs of everything. What’s the Democrat solution? Spend more money they don’t have and further inflate the money supply by just printing more money with no foundation in anything of value and increase the tax burden on working Americans. That’s the worst thing anyone could do; it’s a recipe for more inflation and smothering the middle class. Are Washington Democrats just dumb, or is that their goal?

That’s exactly what the Senate passed solely along party lines with Vice President Harris breaking the tie to pass Biden’s scaled down “Build Back Better” lunacy. After struggling for more than a year to pass Biden’s signature legislation, they finally passed a horrendous bill that’s less than half of what they wanted, but nevertheless just as deleterious to our economy. The Democrat House will certainly pass this monstrosity with alacrity. Pelosi will probably call Congressmen back from their August break to put another nail in the middle class’s coffin.

When Congress passes a bill called the “Inflation Reduction Act,” run to buy and bury gold. Democrats claim it reduces the deficit, but the slick accounting actually increases the deficit by $114 billion. West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin had been holding the line, but he ultimately sold out for a pipeline and other goodies. So, no one expected Arizona Senator Kristen Sinema to stand alone. This truncated bill was still so bad that Senate RINOs still voted against it. Indiana Congressman Jim Banks heading the Republican Study Committee published an analysis detailing the fifty most radical elements.

Democrat leftists could not sell the “Green New Deal,” so they disguised it. Most of this bill implements radical climate change initiatives. It should be called “Build back Beijing.” There are $369 billion in giveaways to green special interests, but this ruse to prop up the inefficient Electric Vehicle (EV) industry will eventually subsidize the Chinese Communist Party, because they control 80% of the rare earth minerals necessary for battery technology.

There is $3 billion for a new fleet of postal trucks, so after the next blizzard or hurricane, you may not get mail for weeks. There are billions to compel low-income and rural communities to switch to unreliable alternative energy sources. Instead of facilitating cheap energy, it increases fees and taxes on fossil fuels making energy more expensive, thereby reducing quality of life by forcing Americans to spend more on energy, straining their budgets.

Instead of opening the pharmaceutical market to competition, this bill imposes socialist price controls that will eventually lead to a decline in the availability of life-saving drugs. It also expands the ever more expensive ObamaCare, which persistently increases premiums and decreases access and availability of quality healthcare.

The green nonsense stuffed in this bill is endless. Instead of securing the border, DHS gets $500 million for “sustainability and environmental programs.” It requires the Secretary of Agriculture to manage bovine flatulence. There is $3 billion for the Department of Transportation to address claims infrastructure is racist. And $1.5 billion to plant trees in blue urban areas.

The few tax breaks are for the wealthy to buy green appliances, electric vehicles, and solar panels. However, the bill imposes a new 15% minimum tax on business’s gross income before expenses, so that will surely drive up costs and eliminate jobs. But to be sure working Americans don’t escape the IRS, this bill adds about $80 billion to the IRS (six times their annual budget) to hire an army of 87,000 more IRS agents to dramatically boost IRS audits on working folks.

All of these absurd economically destructive measures are illogical and ridiculous, so why are leftist Democrats facing a drubbing in the midterm elections doubling down on failure? They are going for broke because they want to break the American middle class, and they know they are running out of time. With the middle class broken, Americans will be vulnerable to government dependency, and then ripe for socialism and globalism.

Leftists are also relying on wobbly Republicans to not have the conviction to reverse most of their progress. They expect over half of their leftist policies to survive until they return to power, and they hope perhaps they have inflicted enough damage to collapse our culture and economy ushering in socialism and their return even sooner.

Leftist Democrats are playing for keeps. They want to replace capitalism and dismantle our Constitutional Republic; Biden’s tenure and all their extreme policies are self-evident of their nefarious designs. They are going for broke because they know they must sow the seeds of destruction before they are ousted from power. It will be up to the American voter to preclude them from returning to harvest socialism from the American carcass.

“Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith” (2 Thessalonians 3:1-2).

Pete Riehm is the host of Common Sense Radio heard 8 pm every Thursday on FMTalk106.5 or streaming at fmtalk1065.com. Email him at peteriehm@bellsouth.net or on MEWE @PeteRiehm or read all his columns at http://www.renewamerica.com/.