Biden’s solution to inflation? Make earning a profit a criminal offense

With Americans facing record-breaking inflation on food and other essentials due to his policies, Joe Biden has developed a plan to nip the problem in the bud; he will make earning a profit a criminal offense.

Specifically, Joe Biden will use the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to investigate companies for earning what it believes to be excessive profits amid surging inflation and the ongoing supply chain issues (via Reason.com):

In a press release, the [DOJ] said its antitrust division would begin to “deter, detect and prosecute those who would exploit supply chain disruptions” to earn what the department calls “illicit profit.” The goal of the initiative, according to the department, is to prevent companies from “overcharging customers under the guise of supply chain disruptions.”

The problem, of course, is that the supply chain disruptions are quite real—and inflation across the economy is the result of both those large-scale issues and government actions, including last year’s $1.9 trillion stimulus bill and protectionist policies. To the extent that private companies are raising prices, those things are the likely culprits—and higher prices are the market’s way of allocating scarce goods most efficiently, not evidence of price gouging.

“The DOJ and FBI would rather launch a global investigation of ‘illicit’ supply chain profiteering than acknowledge the obvious and inevitable result when unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus combines with decades of protectionism and regulatory sclerosis,” says Scott Lincicome, director of general economics and trade policy for the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. (emphasis added)

By the way, the inflation-inducing “protectionist policies” mentioned by the writers at Reason.com would be a reference to Donald Trump’s trade war. His tariffs on washing machines, solar panels, steel, aluminum, and a host of Chinese-made goods are a “secondary but noticeable contribution” to overall inflation right now, according to Ed Gresser, a former assistant U.S. Trade Representative. (emphasis mine)

But, back to Joe Biden. The obvious motivation behind his decision to criminalize making a profit is twofold: to deflect attention away from government’s role in creating the ongoing inflationary spiral — such as the $1.9 trillion America Rescue Act that economists warned was far too large and would likely overheat the economy — and to advance the Marxist/Democratic Socialist agenda that dominates the Democrat Party.

Having already blamed rising meat prices on “the greed of meat conglomerates,” Biden’s decision to release the DOJ and FBI to conduct criminal investigations against big businesses for earning a profit is evidence that he has adopted the “Big Business Bad” mantra of well-known Marxists and Democratic Socialists like Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders who are already living in the fantasy world where profits are responsible for inflation.

Warren began blaming big business for inflation late last year when she lashed out at grocery store chains for taking advantage of supply chain issues to “force high food prices onto American families:

Giant grocery store chains force high food prices onto American families while rewarding executives & investors with lavish bonuses and stock buybacks. I'm demanding they answer for putting corporate profits over consumers and workers during the pandemic. https://t.co/NvY2MKKJNP

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) December 20, 2021

One of the contributing factors to record-breaking inflation at the grocery store is rising gasoline and diesel prices. So, right on cue, Bernie Sanders jumped into the mix with a tweet blaming the situation on Big Oil instead of Joe Biden’s inflation-inducing energy policies:

Shock. Shock. Shock. Gas prices are at the highest level in 7 years while Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Shell & BP made nearly $25 billion in profits last quarter – the highest level in over 7 years. The problem is not inflation. The problem is corporate greed, collusion & profiteering.

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) February 16, 2022

Joe Biden believes Big Oil is responsible for inflation too, but for additional cover he’s also blaming Russia for skyrocketing gas prices.

Elizabeth Warren’s Marxist “solutions” to the problems that she and her party, along with many Republicans, are responsible for creating is simply more of the same ol’, same ol’ from the Massachusetts senator. As Reason.com points out:

Warren is a broken record when it comes to blaming billionaires and corporations for everything from high college costs to the lack of affordable housing to the current supply chain problems. Just as reliably, she ignores the role that government has played in creating or worsening those problems—by subsidizing student loans, imposing restrictive zoning laws, and implementing trade-limiting rules like tariffs and the Jones Act, for example. (emphasis mine)

It’s tempting to write-off the Marxism and Democratic Socialism of loony toons like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders as simply too far-fetched to be a real threat, but when Joe Biden gives the FBI and the DOJ the power to investigate companies and charge them as criminals for making a profit, we can no longer afford to dismiss their radicalism.

 

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David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.

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