Inflation has been running at roughly 2% for decades, but Democrats want you to believe that when prices began skyrocketing in 2021 it was because corporations suddenly became “greedy.” What we’re experiencing now, they tell us, is not Bidenflation but “greedflation.” And Democrats intend to lower your prices by raising prices on businesses. If that sounds nuts to you, well, you might be as smart as a fifth grader.

Of course, Democrats aren’t fools. “Many of the Democrats who are scapegoating greedy businesses for inflation do not actually believe it,” argues the Manhattan Institute’s Brian Riedl. “But they hope you will.” That’s because a true anti-inflation agenda would involve reducing the size, scope, and spending of government, which is utterly antithetical to Democrat plans and power.

“Greed. Greed. Greed,” says Bernie “Bread Lines Are Good” Sanders. “The problem is not inflation. The problem is corporate greed.” His pal Elizabeth Warren sounded the same deceitful note, saying, “Giant corporations are making record profits by increasing prices, and CEOs are saying the quiet part out loud: they’re happy to help drive inflation.”

That’s why House Democrats just passed a bill aimed at stopping oil companies from “price gouging” at the gas pump. And that’s why Warren and several of her fellow Democrat conspiracy theorists have introduced the Price Gouging Prevention Act to fight “gouging” by fining companies they believe are guilty of it. The bill doesn’t define gouging, other than “unconscionably excessive” price increases based on … the judgment of Democrats or their bureaucratic minions at the Federal Trade Commission. Worse, businesses will be “presumed to be in violation” if they use “the effects or circumstances related to the exceptional market shock as a pretext to increase prices.” The penalty could be up to 5% of revenue.

These Democrats “want to punish companies that raise prices more than they like,” say the editors of The Wall Street Journal. “The result would be price controls by another name, and they would produce what price controls always do — supply shortages.”

Also remember this: Taxes on corporations are taxes on the American people. Any increased costs for businesses will be passed on to consumers.

Capitalism is all about maximizing profits, but Sanders, Warren, & Co. are demagogues of the worst order. Businesses didn’t suddenly decide to start gouging customers last year and to keep doing it at an increasing rate so far this year. So, was there something else that happened in 2021 that could possible explain runaway inflation?

Ah, yes. The American Rescue Plan, through which greedy politicians yet again injected trillions of dollars into a rapidly recovering economy. That $1.9 trillion came after trillions of other supposedly COVID-relief spending that exacerbated demand for a pool of goods and services made smaller by pandemic restrictions and supply chain disruption.

“Current inflation is primarily driven by rising demand,” as Riedl points out. “This should be obvious after the Federal Reserve poured $4.8 trillion into the economy during the pandemic, and federal subsidies increased family savings by $2.7 trillion over the baseline projection in just two years.” Democrats wanted even more with the Build Back Better boondoggle. “They failed,” noted billionaire Amazon owner Jeff Bezos, “but if they had succeeded, inflation would be even higher than it is today, and inflation today is at a 40-year high.”

Corporations aren’t running big deficits like greedy politicians are. Corporations aren’t printing money and doling it out to constituents like greedy politicians are. So spare us the sanctimonious lectures about “greedflation.”

Unfortunately, while Sanders and Warren lost the presidential primary to the supposedly more moderate Joe Biden, their policies have had a nasty habit of becoming his. Just last week, he too accused corporations of “price gouging” as part of his pass-the-buck blamefest on inflation, and he wants to raise corporate taxes as a “solution.” Don’t be surprised if Democrats become even more unified in angling to punish corporations as the 2022 midterms draw near.