The IRA: A win for the wealthy, billion-dollar companies, and the CCP

It has been one year since President Joe Biden and Washington Democrats passed their signature Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) -- a massive transfer of tax dollars from working families to the wealthy, big banks, billion-dollar companies, and the Chinese Communist Party. While the rich and well-connected continue to reap its benefits, working-class families are paying the price for that law. What farmers, ranchers, workers and Main Street businesses need right now is relief. Unfortunately, that's something the IRA -- and Washington Democrats -- will never provide.

The so-called "green" special interest tax breaks Washington Democrats included in the IRA are now estimated by the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) to cost over $650 billion -- that's 240% higher than originally projected. What's equally alarming is that JCT has confirmed that 90% of these tax credits will go to corporations with sales of a billion dollars or more. But that was Washington Democrats' plan all along; They rewrote the rules of these credits to make them more easily transferred to the wealthy. It's just yet another example of how out of touch Washington Democrats are with the American people.

Americans are rightly concerned that, under Biden, America has become more dependent on foreign nations for everything from food and energy to critical minerals and medicine. Unsurprisingly, the Biden administration's implementation of IRA tax credits fails to secure our supply chains for critical minerals and sends taxpayer dollars to adversarial nations like China. For example, the electric vehicle credit will not only cost 7 times as much as Washington Democrats originally claimed, but will also reduce the amount of critical mineral and battery components that can be sourced and made in America. In other words, the IRA will only further increase our dependence on China and other nations that aren't our friends.

Thanks to the IRA, American companies that are cashing in on these credits are also funneling tax dollars to foreign countries like China. Ford, for example, is using the IRA's special interest tax credits to hire Chinese workers at a Michigan plant as part of its newly announced partnership with a Chinese company that is clearly under the influence of the Chinese Communist Party, and which allegedly has a history of using forced labor. Washington Democrats and Biden are keeping America dependent on the Chinese Communist Party and are willing to look the other way on supposed bipartisan concern for global human rights issues when it comes to their extremist environmental agenda.

Clearly, the IRA was nothing more than taxpayer-funded welfare for the wealthy, major corporations, and adversaries like China. Yet despite all the evidence, Biden has the nerve to claim that workers and families are actually benefiting from his failed economic agenda. But the American people aren't stupid. They know the only thing his agenda has done is created the most painful economic crisis in generations. It's absolutely unacceptable. House Republicans will continue fighting tooth and nail to get our economy back on track and advance policies that put farmers, ranchers, workers, and businesses first.

Jason Smith (R-MO) represents the eighth congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives.