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ALEC on CURE AmericaTV: Root Cause of Inflation is Government Spending

CURE America TV with host Star Parker featured ALEC VP of Policy Lee Schalk to discuss the Inflation Reduction Act. Schalk noted that “the root problem of inflation is that the government is spending more than any time in U.S. history.” Below are highlights of their conversation.

Star Parker: Let’s talk about the so-called Inflation Reduction Act. I’m wondering if it’s going to reduce inflation at all, or is this really just another Build Back Better where we have all this aggressive spending? They’re just on a spree and it’s just a bunch of big government handouts. What going on here?

Lee Schalk: I wish I had good news for you on the Inflation Reduction Act. With that name, I think someone meant well, when they named it, of course. Inflation is a huge problem right now in our country. It’s crushing everyone. Inflation is rising, but wages are stagnating. Wages aren’t keeping up with inflation. American families are getting crushed by the 8.5% inflation for July. These are historic levels of inflation that we haven’t seen in 40 years.

Star Parker: What else is in this bill?

Lee Schalk: The inflation Reduction Act amounts to a Trojan horse for a progressive wish list of policies. It’s got everything from higher taxes on businesses, price controls for healthcare, and pharmaceuticals, that people rely on. But also higher taxes on energy producers, even hiring more IRS agents to harass Americans. The IRS really should be slashing their workforce in half. Instead, they’re adding $80 billion to hire 87,000 new agents to harass Americans and unfortunately, the Inflation Reduction Act is going to have the opposite effect. It’s actually going to increase inflation.

Star Parker: What about the States? ALEC works with state lawmakers,  is there anything States can do?

Lee Schalk: There absolutely is. Many states have been making really strong progress on what they can control which is their own state budgets and their own state tax rates. You’ve got states like Arizona, North Carolina, Texas, Florida, Tennessee, places that aren’t attracting new residents because they have low or no income taxes. They’re controlling their spending. And that’s something that we haven’t seen in Washington. That’s the problem. The root problem of inflation is the government is spending more than any time in U.S. history. And they’re also raising your taxes to keep up with the spending. The federal government collected more in taxes from American taxpayers this year than any time in American history.

Watch the complete episode here.