Heritage Foundation Op-Ed Warns Against Build Back Better Inflation ‘Boondoggle’

A new opinion editorial by an influential conservative think tank pulls no punches as it attacks what remains of President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda, calling the current iteration of the plan an inflationary “boondoggle” that would harm consumers by imposing price controls on common pharmaceuticals.

On Thursday, the Heritage Foundation published a new polemic by five authors affiliated with the conservative think tank, arguing that the Build Back Better plan proposed by President Biden must be rejected by Congress, lest the American public suffer even worse ravages of inflation.

‘Socialist Nightmare’

The column goes so far as to refer to Build Back Better as a “socialist nightmare,” alleging that Biden’s proposals for additional government spending and pharmaceutical price controls would “pour gasoline on the fire” of inflation.

“If this sounds like the approach of the 1970s, it is—rapidly expanding federal spending and the money supply, and ultimately triggering double-digit inflation. Then, too, rather than rein in spending, Washington resorted to price controls… In the 1970s, government price-meddling led to gasoline lines stretching for blocks. This time the price-meddling will make it harder for vulnerable Americans to get their hands on lifesaving drugs,” the authors argue.

Build Back Better’s Troubled Path in Congress

Since then-candidate Biden proposed the Build Back Better agenda during his 2020 presidential campaign, the agenda has evolved significantly, becoming smaller in scope and ambition as legislative gridlock has forced Biden to revise his more radical proposals. Though the first part of the agenda, the American Rescue Plan, was signed into law in March 2021, Biden has faced difficulty getting approval of the two other portions of his agenda. The second part, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, was passed into law as a significantly modified bipartisan bill in November 2021.

What remains of Biden’s Build Back Better agenda is the third portion, the