WHY THE GOP WANTS TO GUT THE INFLATION REDUCTION ACT - AND THINKS THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH DOING SO

The House Republicans are demanding elimination of 24 clean energy and manufacturing tax incentives that were either created or expanded by the Inflation Reduction Act, in exchange for not inflicting financial catastrophe on the world’s largest economy and the global economic system of which it is a central part. The plan is to strip away Joe Biden’s core legislative win and inflict as much pain on the Democratic Party as possible.

The funny thing is, doing so could cost their own districts the most.

The fact is that two-thirds of the clean energy projects announced since the IRA was enacted are set to happen in GOP-controlled congressional districts. The Rocky Mountain Institute found that the IRA will deliver nearly twice as many subsidies per capita to red states as blue. North Dakota, Wyoming, and West Virginia top the list.

These projects represent long-term investments, with good jobs paying a middle class income, with most of the jobs not requiring advanced degrees to qualify for employment in them. This is potentially the greatest economic development in the states that most observers say were the ones most harmed by the economic changes of the past 40 years, particularly the hollowing-out of industry caused by the North American Free Trade Agreement since the mid 1990s.

So why do Republicans want to cut the head off the goose that will lay golden eggs for their constituents?

The simple answer is, these MAGAts are not accountable for what happens in or to their districts.

The truth is that 84 percent of congressional districts were either uncontested or won by margins of 10 percent or more in 2022. This is the result of decades of aggressive GOP gerrymandering, leaving Republican congressional representatives accountable to a smaller, more radical base of voters in primaries, and distant corporate donors.

Thus, despite the sizable amounts of money flowing into their states and districts resulting from the IRA, these Republicans feel empowered to tear the law apart without fear of having to face any accountability for so doing with their voters.

In the debt ceiling fight, Speaker In Name Only Quiverin’ Qevin McQarthy claims that his proposal will “end the green giveaways for companies that distort the market and waste taxpayer money.”

Interestingly, a study by Bloomberg and the energy analytics outfit Enersection revealed that McCarthy’s Central California congressional district is number one nationally for planned and operating utility-scale solar capacity, and ranks second for planned and operating wind, solar, and battery expansion. Those businesses - and their employees, most of whom likely vote for McQarthy - stand to benefit from the incentives he wants to destroy.

McQarthy, on the other hand, has lots of incentive to look the other way: He was the House’s top recipient of campaign donations from both the oil and gas industry and gas transmission and distribution firms in the 2022 election cycle, which saw 78% of his donations come from out of state. He brought in $2.7 million in donations from Texas, headquarters for the country’s biggest oil and gas companies.

The overwhelming majority of these funds were transferred to other GOP candidates, making them dependent on McQarthy’s largesse, which comes from the industries most threatened by the economic developments created and supported by the IRA. These megadonors have an economic motive to see the act eviscerated.

The tax credits the GOP’s “Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023” targets include those for wind and solar as well as nuclear energy, renewable energy manufacturing, hydrogen production, and mining of minerals needed to make batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage to end the dependence on Chinese sources of these materials.

It’s not just California that would be the only state affected. Ruby-red Texas was the number one producer of wind power last year, and number two for the most solar, after California; with projects supported by the IRA, Texas would easily become first in solar.

Over two-thirds of the nation’s renewable capacity is in rural areas, either wholly red states or red regions of blue states, places that are at present economically depressed, for whom the economic development from the IRA would transform the way the majority of voters in those areas live.

More than three-quarters of those places have a Republican representing them. A Republican who owes his position to the financial support of Qevin McQarthy, whose sources of funding largesse are the megadonors whose interests will be harmed by the success of these projects.

Since congressional races have become primarily noncompetitive, it’s easy for MAGAts to keep their seats, lining up lush consulting or lobbying gigs after retirement, based on their “reliable” votes while in office. However much the voters back home might like the news that the IRA is bringing in transformative new investment, their representatives in congress don’t see a possible loss of for killing these opportunities as a real threat. Those voters who might want to vote out representatives who go after the IRA are probably already crowded into districts that reliably elect Democrats. So much for “representative democracy” in a “constitutional democratic republic.”

The power of the corporations to funnel what is virtually unlimited amounts of cash to the politicians who do their bidding is nearly unlimited regarding the Republican party, due to its gerrymandered power bases.

Fossil fuel companies donated 13 times as many federal campaign donations as did firms in renewable energy fields, and these donations went inordinately to GOP candidates. Thus oil and gas industries and their executives continue to be a major influence on politicians whose districts have thriving green energy sectors sprouting up.

The MAGA GOP is playing a game of chicken with the world economy and doing major damage to the concept of representative democracy, with the political terrorists making the threats able to do so without having to worry about being held to any sort of accountability in their next election, continuing to undermine the party’s voters while benefiting the donors.

Unfortunately for those looking to defend that representative democracy, Republicans have now insulated themselves from having to worry about the activities or opinions of anyone who might try to crash the party by running an opposition campaign with any likelihood of success.

These people figure they’ll do just fine if the country defaults on its financial obligations. They work for people who see a progressive future as a threat to their continued economic power, who are as willing to burn it all down to keep what they have as their enslaver ancestors were in 1860.

You can support That’s Another Fine Mess with a paid subscription for only $7/month or $70/year, saving $14. Your support with a paid subscription will be deeply appreciated now that my partner is gone and the financial situation here has changed.

Comments are for paid subscribers.