Committee Backs Repeal of Job-Destroying Law

So-Called ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ Squelching Factory Job Growth

Both economic theory and long practical experience show that private-sector workers, whether they are unionized or union-free, normally fare better when their employer must answer to consumers, not politicians. 

But the fact that “politicians know best” economics results, again and again, in fewer job opportunities and slower pay growth for workers doesn’t trouble union bosses like Shawn Fain, the camera-chasing president of the historically corrupt United Auto Workers (UAW). 

Over the past few years, Mr. Fain and other union bigwigs have been applauding the Biden-Harris Administration for deploying hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer money to bribe and browbeat employers into acquiescing to Big Labor control over their employees.

Trump Ticket Blasted Biden Big Labor ‘Industrial Policy’ And Carried UAW Strongholds 

Campaigning first with Joe Biden and then with Kamala Harris in 2024, Mr. Fain claimed relentlessly that the vast majority of unionized autoworkers agreed with him and would vote on Election Day for more of the same. 

Finally, on November 5, rank-and-file UAW-“represented” workers and their family members had their say at the polls, and they made it clear Mr. Fain had been talking out of his hat. National Right to Work Committee Vice President Matthew Leen commented:

“The GOP’s Trump-Vance ticket carried heavily blue-collar Michigan, a presidential battleground state, after campaigning vociferously against the Biden-Harris Big Labor ‘industrial policy’ and vowing to defund it.

“Specifically, Trump-Vance won Macomb County, home to unionized GM, Ford and Stellantis, by a whopping 13.7 percentage points. In Indiana, TrumpVance won Lawrence and Grant counties, both home to GM facilities, with 74.7% and 70% of the vote, respectively. The Republican ticket did nearly as well in these counties as it did in two other Indiana counties where union-free, Japanese-owned auto plants are located.” 

The principal tool wielded by the Biden-Harris Administration to transform American manufacturing was the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act.” The IRA passed the Senate 51-50, with zero GOP support, thanks to Vice President Harris’ tie-breaking vote, and was signed by President Biden in 2022. 

Unless it is repealed or dramatically pared back, the IRA is expected to cost American taxpayers $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years and $4 trillion by 2050.

Steering Investment to Politically Favored Firms Is No Way to Create Jobs 

The IRA unabashedly uses current and future taxpayers’ money to bribe and browbeat companies and contractors into acquiescing to Big Labor monopoly control over their workforces. From the get-go, its plain intent was to wipe out Right to Work states’ longstanding advantage over forced-unionism states in attracting and retaining factory jobs.

Mr. Leen commented: “Biden-Harris propagandists tried to claim the IRA had ushered in a ‘manufacturing boom,’ but the opposite is closer to the truth. 

“For roughly a decade prior to the COVID-19 business lockdowns of early 2020, and for more than two years after those lockdowns were eased in the spring of that year, manufacturing employment in the U.S. grew, thanks mostly to the leadership of Right to Work states. 

“But as of November 2024 there were roughly 50,000 fewer manufacturing jobs in America than there had been in November 2022. 

“Steering investment to politically favored firms is no way to increase the total number of jobs. That should have been obvious to everyone a long time ago, but if it wasn’t, the rollout of the IRA clinches the case.”

With the aims of protecting American employees’ Right to Work, reviving factory job growth, and eliminating trillions of dollars in unnecessary, counterproductive debt spending over the next two-and-a-half decades, National Right to Work is now lobbying hard for full repeal of the IRA in the new Congress. 

“At a time when Congress must eliminate wasteful programs in order to avoid ruinous future tax hikes, the IRA should be the #1 target,” said Mr. Leen. 

“The IRA is bad policy. And, as even pro-forced unionism pundit Josh Marshall recently admitted, it is a political failure. 

“With Republican elected officials who opposed the IRA in the first place now in control of the White House, the House and the Senate, repeal ought to happen.”

This article was originally published in our monthly newsletter. Go here to access previous newsletter posts.

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