I hope everyone joins me in celebrating the passage of the poorly named Inflation Reduction act. I know it doesn’t really do much for inflation, but there is tons of good news for us worker types. It spends a ton on clean energy and raises the tax on oil. I’m sure that will help the prices at the pump. If you believe that one I’ve got some swamp land that ... OK I can’t afford swamp land in today’s economy but you get my drift. It also adds a tax boost for productive high-earning companies. I’m sure they will be happy to take the hit on their bottom line and won’t just pass that on to us consumers. (See my swamp land comment.)

Speaking of clean energy, the bill does include big incentives to buy electric vehicles. You know the $60,000 to $100,000 plus dream machines that us worker bees can’t possibly afford. If you’re like me, you drive a 13-year-old beater that you pray won’t break down. At least you can feel good about the tax dollars you contributed to the fat cat that pulls up next to you in his shiny new Tesla or, wow, Rivan pickup. If you’re feeling frisky, you can pump the gas a couple of times to make them smell your exhaust. Whoops, never mind — can’t afford to do that with the prices at the pump.

The one measure that might help with inflation is a big boost for the IRS. The IR act includes 80+ billion to hire an 81,000 strong army of IRS auditors to crack down on us tax scofflaws.

The good news is this army of pencil packing, pocket protector clad IRS militia is going to grace all income levels with their kind attention. It’s estimated that 60% of audits will target those of us making less than $75,000. This will really help with inflation by taking more money out of our pockets. That will definitely help cut inflation by preventing us little guys from splurging on luxuries like groceries, gas, rent and utilities. Yipee.

Let me just close by encouraging everyone to vote in November. You might even want to thank Sen. Michael Bennet in advance when you cast your vote. I mean, he’ll probably miss out on a visit by the friendly taxman since only a tiny percentage of audits, (less than 2%), target his high income tax bracket. But maybe you can help him do his part to curb inflation by letting him join the estimated 30,000 folks who’ll lose their jobs thanks to the “Inflation Reduction” act. Whoops, I almost missed it. Unemployment is another consequence of this act that helps us lowly laborers do our part to reduce inflation. Randy Fish

Colorado Springs