Whatever the government calls a piece of legislation or a program, it usually means the opposite. That used to be just plain ol’ American cynicism, but nowadays it’s pure Orwellianism.

Case in point the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act,” the Biden Administration’s signature domestic piece of legislation, a policy aimed at undoing all the massive economic damage by Biden’s policies. Inflation isn’t down, it’s worse than any time in recent memory. (READ MORE from Jared Whitley: USPS Leaks Reveal an Agency That Wants a Bailout But Needs Reform)

People can’t afford groceries, fuel, housing, and so on—but the Democrats haven’t even started.

The Inflation Reduction Act included a provision that allows the government to broker with drug manufacturers for the country’s 65 million Medicare beneficiaries. Namely, it allows the feds to impose a new price control regime on a variety of medicines. In September, the Administration released a list of the first 10 drugs to get the squeeze, including some that help fight heart failure, blood clots, diabetes, and other afflictions.

Here is how the so called “negotiation” works. A price cap is established as part of a “negotiation” between the federal government and the drug manufacturer. If the drug manufacturer declines the price point, then an excise tax of 95 percent would apply to the gross sales price of the drug in all markets. The tax is remitted by the drug manufacturer yet actually paid by consumers. A drug company can only avoid the tax by submitting to the “negotiated” amount.

If a company chooses the 95 percent tax option over the “negotiated” price, the drug would not be available in Medicare Part D plans, yet it would be available to the public with the tax imposed on the drug manufacturer.

Now, apologists for the Biden Administration’s government takeover of private industry will say that the measure includes a “choice” of either accepting the government-dictated price or paying the IRS a staggering excise tax equal to 95 percent of the gross revenue of said medicine.

Under the banner of helping seniors afford the prescription drugs they so dearly need, the feds are threatening to almost double the cost, pocketing half of that a profit. So following the logic that whatever the government calls a policy, it usually means the opposite, here we have the government saying it wants to make drugs more affordable so it doubles the price.

This is no more a choice than a mob protection racket. It’s not the free market, it’s a shakedown.

The massive 95 percent penalty isn’t a fee, it’s an excise tax—like we’ve had on beer and cigarettes for ages. Like any other excise tax, the cost gets passed on to the end consumer. In this case, that end consumer is the senior struggling to afford medicines while Democrat mailers tell them the problem is that the mean, evil Republicans are in the pocket of Big Pharma.

Another prediction is that this tax will never be paid, since drug companies will always choose the government price control over the 95 percent drug tax. Patients and companies could get creative in trying to duck the excessively punitive cost, whether it’s buying drugs online or abroad. We’ve long known about American seniors making drug-runs to Mexico for cheaper medicine.

Biden wants open borders to hurt Americans, but they could actually help some people suffering from the massive damage of Biden’s other policies.

Price controls are among the most short-sighted of human inventions—somewhere between impulse fast-food purchases and bi-annual elections. Anything that reduces financial incentives for an experimental product will cripple any potential R&D for the future. Since the drugs of today take so very long to get on the open market, research companies have to expect a reasonable return on their considerable investment. (READ MORE: Trump-Supported Vaping Bans Are Decoys for Crony Capitalism)

The National Library of Medicine estimates that investment is usually $3 billion in R&D alone.

Among those who understand how things work, price controls are very unpopular. One recent study found that 40 percent of Americans oppose price controls while only 33 percent favor them. Two-thirds of study participants also want to make sure that price savings are then reinvested into Medicare, not subverted to feed trendy Democrat causes, like climate whatever.

The enormous fear here is if this 95 percent drug tax to circumvent government-mandated price controls is that Democrats might want to spread it to other areas of the economy. (Given the direction they’re heading one expects they have their sights on all areas of our economy.)

This could include ISPs that reject the dogma of so-called net neutrality, automakers that don’t cripple themselves with onerous environmental regulations, banks that provide services to political dissidents, and so on. The sky’s the limit.

The way to reduce the cost of prescription drugs is the same way to reduce the cost of everything: less government regulation, more competition. That’s plain ol’ American optimism, but if the Biden Administration comes out with a Competition Improvement Act, you can bet it will mean just the opposite.

Jared Whitley, an award-winning blogger, is a former congressional and White House staffer with experience working in the defense industry.