Wednesday, August 17: IRA & Primary Results
Boe Jiden signed the Inflation Reduction Act and, as expected, democrats have tripped over themselves taking credit. Although the bill received exactly zero republican votes of support, I still think it’s an odd time for a victory lap. Immediately after he signed the bill, the press were heaping praise on Biden, as if he’d averted a war or discovered a cure for a disease. In actuality, this bill weakly addresses several of this country’s biggest problems, but not enough to change the status quo. It also fails to address some of our biggest problems, including paid family leave, affordable child care, and child tax credits.
As previously mentioned, the bill lowers the price of some prescription drugs, invests in alternative sources of energy, and raises taxes on some corporations. To put the numbers in perspective, this bill includes about $392 billion for energy and climate initiatives over the next ten years. The budget for the Department of Defense is $778 billion, just for 2022. This is the kind of prioritization that will have us all dead or underwater by 2040.
On its face the IRA looks like a strong achievement, certainly a step in the right direction, but I have a hard time seeing it as the historic world-changer that Biden wants us to believe it is.
Side Items
In a sign of things both good and bad, Liz Cheney overwhelmingly lost her primary race and failed to maintain her position as Wyoming’s lone House representative. While getting the Cheney’s out of power is a good first step for any country, her replacement may well be worse. Harriet Hageman is an ardent Trump supporter (and apparently a fan of cosplaying as Ms. Trunchbull) whose top priority is protecting the state’s ranchers and mining workers, which generally means doing away with environmental regulations
After initially refusing to take blame, Israel unsurprisingly admitted to being behind an August 7th raid that resulted in the deaths of five children. Originally the blame was firmly placed on Islamic Jihad, and Israeli apologists took to the internet demanding that we all stop slandering the most moral army in the world. But to the surprise of absolutely no one, it was Israeli airstrikes that killed the kids all along
In another edition of “I watched it so you don’t have to”, last night’s selection was the Peacock original horror film called “They/Them”, starring Kevin Bacon. The film provides an analysis on the controversy surrounding preferred gender pronouns by setting a slasher flick at a gay conversion therapy camp. The bad news is, it’s a combination of caricatured performances and heavy-handed writing that will leave you wishing you were the one getting slashed. The rare 0/10