The Patriot Post® · Unions Plug Into Subsidies
“Government is not the solution to our problem,” Ronald Reagan once said. “Government is the problem.” More often than not, when government tries to fix a problem, another problem crops up or is made worse. Such is the case with subsidies.
Specifically for this story, we mean subsidies for electric vehicles, the Democrats’ favored path to the future. Subsidies for consumers to buy EVs mean subsidies are needed for manufacturers to make them — and for union workers to benefit, thereby subsidizing the Democrat Party with political donations. See how the circle of graft works?
Just before Labor Day weekend, the Biden administration announced a $12 billion handout for automakers to retrofit factories to produce more EVs. And to benefit Big Labor (which isn’t so Big anymore), the administration will favor “projects that are likely to retain collective bargaining agreements.”
Why is that necessary? EVs require fewer parts and therefore fewer workers to assemble. That means union jobs will be lost, even in places like Michigan that not long ago repealed its right-to-work law.
Speaking of Michigan, Detroit’s Big Three face work stoppages as soon as next week if a new agreement with the United Auto Workers isn’t reached. The UAW is pushing for a 40% increase in compensation over four years, in addition to assurances regarding any jobs building electric vehicles.
Assurances? Ford lost $3 billion on EVs last year.
The only reason to stay on that course is that governments from the federal level to states like California are, sometimes through mandates, foisting EVs on Americans as the way to save the planet. As an aside, while EVs do indeed produce zero emissions while in operation, the idea that they’re perfectly clean is a fairy tale. In any case, to “encourage” more widespread adoption of this new technology, politicians take money from some Americans and give it to other Americans who buy the cars they’re told to buy.
Roughly 1% of cars on the roads are EVs, and there wouldn’t even be that many without massive tax credits to offset their higher-than-average cost. Subsidizing those cars, however, is Bidenomics. It misallocates taxpayer dollars, and it drives up the price of gas-powered cars at the same time.
Reagan also had a word about that. He quipped: “Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: ‘If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.’”
Ever since Democrats pitched the Green New Deal a few years ago, they’ve been looking to pass it piecemeal to hide its $93 trillion price tag. Joe Biden has been the engineer of that train, larding up the American Rescue Plan, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act with big-time government spending on climate boondoggles.
The aforementioned $12 billion is the tip of the iceberg. The Inflation Reduction Act allocates nearly $400 billion for clean vehicle tax credits over the next decade.
As you’re back to work after Labor Day, the outrageous reality is that you’re laboring in part to subsidize Democrat Big Labor constituents and the EVs they increasingly have to make, whether you drive one or not.