I’m so old, I remember back when climate change was an “existential threat” and fighting inflation was President Joe Biden’s “top priority.”
In other words, last week.
That’s when the White House was still touting the hundreds of billions of tax dollars it was spending on subsidies for electric vehicles and charging stations. Why? Because getting Americans out of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles and into EVs was part of Biden’s plan to save the planet from global warming.
More EVs!
Last week, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre was assuring the press Biden was dedicated to defeating America’s inflation problem. He might have been fuzzy on the details — Biden once again falsely claimed inflation was nine percent when he took office (it was 1.4 percent) — but his mission was clear.
Lower prices!
And then on Tuesday, everything changed.
That’s when Biden gave a Rose Garden speech announcing he’s quadrupling tariffs on Chinese EVs and tripling duties on steel and aluminum. He’s also raising tariffs (just a fancy word for “taxes”) on solar panels and semiconductors, among other things. About $18 billion worth of Chinese goods that will be bought by American businesses and consumers will be hit.
So, who will pay these new tariff taxes? Let’s ask Biden, back when President Donald Trump was proposing tariffs on Chinese imports.
“Trump doesn’t get the basics. He thinks his tariffs are being paid by China,” Biden said in 2019. “Any freshman econ student could tell you that the American people are paying his tariffs.”
What changed?
It’s actually what hasn’t changed. Six months ago, a New York Times/Siena College poll showed Trump beating Biden in swing states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. On Sunday, an updated version of that poll showed the same thing: Trump still winning, Biden still flailing.
And so instead of “buy electric vehicles and save the overheating Earth,” Biden’s new message is, “Buy American-made cars and save my political aspirations!”
Not that it matters. Americans have proven that — even when you throw “free” money (aka “tax dollars”) at them, they still won’t buy electric vehicles. Only 0.5 percent of cars on Pennsylvania roads have gone electric.
There are many reasons why Americans want to stick to ICE vehicles, but with EVs selling at an average price of around $54,000, economics is certainly one of them. And now Biden is going to drive up the cost of inexpensive EVs even higher? How is that a green new deal?
Make no mistake: tariffs are already keeping them out of the U.S. market. Don’t believe me? Ask leftwing NPR.
“In other parts of the world, bargain electric vehicles from China abound, but a 27.5 percent tariff has kept those cars out of the United States.”
That tariff is now 100 percent, thanks to Joe Biden.
Then there’s inflation. Making imported steel and aluminum more expensive means everything Americans buy that’s made with those two basic ingredients will cost more. The same with microchips and solar panels, etc.
I’m never going to be mistaken for a math whiz, but I’m pretty sure that fixing inflation involves making the stuff Americans buy less expensive.
Joe Biden just announced he’s doing the opposite.
If he really believed that climate change was going to kill the Earth, Biden would be begging China to dump cheap EVs in the U.S., so we could reach his goal of electric vehicles accounting for half of all cars sold in America. We’re nowhere close, and he just made it harder.
If Biden really believed working-class families are hurting from higher prices and he wanted to be the president who brought them relief, he would make consumer goods less expensive, not more.
What Biden believes is that there is enough Trump hatred to do the job of getting him reelected, if he can keep it close in a couple of key Midwestern states. So, screw the climate and screw the working class.
This White House’s only real priority is saving Joe Biden.
