Blame Trump
For the wasteful spending and insulting name of the $750 billion “Inflation Reduction Act” we can blame President Biden. We can blame Joe Manchin, the West Virginia senator who claimed he’d vote against the bill . . . until he didn’t. But Republicans also need to cast an eye to Bedminster, summer home of the party’s sabotager-in-chief. Blame for this travesty also lies at Donald Trump’s feet.
After Election Day 2020, the Senate had 50 Republicans and 48 Democrats. Both seats from Georgia were undecided, headed for runoffs. Trump should have been rallying voters. Instead, he was obsessed with his own loss, claiming baselessly that the election had been stolen.
When Trump wasn’t demoralizing conservative voters, he was undermining members of his own party. In December 2020, Congress was moving to send $600 COVID stimulus checks to Americans. Democrats wanted to up the amount to $2,000. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rightly said that was too much, that it would drive up inflation.
Trump sided with the Democrats: “Unless Republicans have a death wish, and it is also the right thing to do, they must approve the $2000 payments ASAP,” he tweeted.
On Dec. 27, 2020, this paper begged Trump to stop trying to reverse the election and instead cast an eye to his impressive legacy.
“If Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler win, they will prevent Biden from rolling back what you have accomplished,” we wrote. “A Republican Senate can pressure Biden against returning to the old, failed Iran deal, can stop him from throwing open our southern border . . .
“Now imagine a government controlled by your nemeses — Nancy Pelosi in the House, Chuck Schumer in the Senate, Biden in the White House. How high will taxes go? How many of your initiatives will be strangled?”
Trump didn’t listen. He did a last-minute, half-hearted rally in Georgia in which he encouraged national Republicans to illegally overturn the election. Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock won the Senate seats.
It’s all been downhill from there. Trump’s bitter crusade culminated in the Jan. 6 riot. Democrats took power and immediately spent $1.9 billion in “stimulus,” driving up inflation, just as McConnell warned.
Now Democrats are about to expand the IRS, dole out billions to donors who make solar panels and roll back part of Trump’s tax cuts. Why? Because Trump handed them a Senate majority.
Troublingly, he’s doing it again. While the public has turned against Democrats, the GOP still may not retake the Senate because of Trump-backed candidates, who are trailing their Democratic rivals. Trump, meanwhile, shows every indication he plans to run again, even though polls show his revenge campaign would fall short. Even to Biden.
Aside from this reckless legislation, the country continues to reel from 9% inflation, a dangerously open southern border and soaring crime.
Trump will try to pass the buck, but had he put his party above his own grievances, Republicans would’ve been able to stand in the way of all of this.
We are living the consequences.