Earlier this week, U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) announced a deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on the $739 billion climate package entitled the “Inflation Reduction Act.”
Many were surprised by the announcement, given Manchin has repeatedly spoken out against recent Democratic spending bills over concern about inflation.
Friday on WVNN’s “The Dale Jackson Show,” U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville) said he wasn’t surprised the West Virginia Democrat announced his support of the latest spending bill.
“It wasn’t a surprise to me,” Brooks said, “but it was the opposite of the marketing that was making Joe Manchin look more reasonable, more conservative in a state, West Virginia, where conservatism rules. So, it was all about political marketing, and it’s very troubling that the public has not been able to figure out the deception that’s associated with this marketing. But by golly, it works.”
Despite the clever name of the bill, Brooks argued the spending plan would just increase the deficits and the national debt.
“Of course, it all has to be marketed to make the public think that it’s good,” he said. “I don’t see another $700 billion in deficits doing America good. I think it’s bad, but we have some upside-down economics that emanates from Washington, D.C., and you’re seeing it now with our 9% inflation rate. All of that is caused by bad public policy coming from Washington, D.C.”
The congressman warned that this latest bill was still radical even though many Democrats were trying to present it as a moderate compromise.
“It’s all about marketing,” he argued. “If you have liberals, leftists, saying, ‘Hey, this isn’t a very good bill because it’s not liberal enough,’ that makes the rest of the Democratic conference look more moderate — i.e., more electable in states that don’t want left-wing socialist policies.”
Brooks also reacted to Democrats claiming the American economy wasn’t currently in a recession.
“Since the creation of the gross domestic product formulas and the governments keeping track of those things, two consecutive quarters of declining growth has been defined as a recession. It’s a matter of definition,” he explained. “And now, the Democrats are trying to say, ‘Oh no. That definition doesn’t apply anymore.’ Well, it applies if a Republican is in office, but not when a Democrat is in office, but that’s the gamesmanship. That’s the marketing. That’s the deceptions. That’s the corruption of the public policy debate.”
He also blamed the mainstream media for going along with the Biden administration’s narrative on the economy.
“It’s pure, unadulterated propaganda,” he declared, “and the media is a part of the propaganda effort of the socialist wing of society. It really is as simple as that, but until the voters do a better job of understanding the truth and what’s really going on, then we’re going to continue to slip and slide as a country into the dustbin of history, and we’re headed in the wrong direction.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” Weekdays 9-11am on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
