Not long ago, President Joe Biden promised to transform the American auto industry — “first with carrots, now with sticks,” is the analogy The Washington Post used.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure I’d trust the president to drive my car much less dictate the future of industrial policy. Yet, Biden implemented draconian emissions limits for all vehicles, ensuring that within nine years, 67% of all new passenger cars and trucks will be electric.
In the old days, a centralized state controlling manufacturing and commerce, production, prices, wages and conditions in our biggest sectors would be called “fascist.” Today, we simply refer to it as the Green New Deal.
And, after forcing automakers to build more substandard, technologically regressive, overpriced and unpopular electric cars, Biden has now slapped enormous tariffs on imports, not only ensuring that taxpayers continue to prop up a state-run project with billions but also guaranteeing that everyone will pay more for all cars.
On Tuesday, the White House enacted new tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum in the name of the American worker. There are somewhere around 14 million manufacturing jobs that rely on steel. They will pay the price — as will every consumer.
Biden also doubled tariffs on Chinese semiconductors from 25% to 50%. Populists on both sides will contend that these serve a national security purpose. That’s debatable, though Biden didn’t even make that argument.
In any event, there’s no national security purpose for Biden to raise tariffs from 7.5% to 25% on the components that make EV batteries or quadruple tariffs on EVs from 25% to 100%.
“Trump doesn’t get the basics. He thinks his tariffs are being paid by China,” candidate Biden explained back in 2019, when it was convenient. “Any freshman econ student could tell you that the American people are paying his tariffs.”
Indeed.
So how is this different? The New York Times, in a piece published soon after the White House’s announcement, explains “How Biden’s Trade War With China Differs From Trump’s.” In summation, a Democrat is now president, and his environmental goals, according to the Times, are beyond reproach.
Economic reality doesn’t bend to your strong feelings on the environment, on tariffs or even on electric vehicles. Why do we even assume winning the EV war is a good thing? If an EV future were inevitable, the state wouldn’t have to bribe and force companies to produce them. Then again, whenever Democrats talk about “manufacturing jobs,” they mean the manufacturing of EVs or solar panels. Even in that regard, limiting choices on supposedly “clean energy” alternatives makes no sense.
Really, what we have is a corporate/union bailout. But even the workers supposedly being protected aren’t going to have jobs for too long if we keep propping up technocratic wishcasting with billions in tax dollars.
Even with subsidies, mandates and endless puffery about the alleged upsides, carmakers lose around $6,000 on every $50,000 EV they sell. Ford says it is losing $100,000 on every EV it produces. In 2022, the auto giant lost $2.1 billion on EVs. In 2023, it lost $4.7 billion. In 2024, Ford expects to lose over $5 billion.
Granted, I’m not a business owner, but that sounds like an insane model. Would any company continue producing cars that hemorrhage money if it were not impelled by the state?
Now, these auto giants will be able to function with even less genuine competition. And the losses on EVs will be “offset” by raising the price on cars that people do desire. In the short term, the cronyists in the auto industry also know that if they do the bidding of politicians, they will be bailed out when they fail.
Tariffs play on the good intentions of voters — much like minimum wages — so they are the perfect election year issue. All they do is raise costs for consumers and businesses and undermine innovation. Even if we concede the popular claim that Americans “don’t make anything” here anymore — a myth — we shouldn’t be incentivizing or compelling our largest manufacturing sector to build things that consistently lose money.
If China wants to subsidize the world EV market, let them. Let our rivals pay for our worst ideas.
David Harsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist. Harsanyi is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of five books — the most recent, “Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent.” His work has appeared in National Review, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Reason, New York Post and numerous other publications. Follow him on Twitter @davidharsanyi.
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The lies, cons, deceptions, hypocrisy, and treachery of this treasonous, woke, socialist Democrat Party cabal and their delusional supporters know no bounds. The Democrat Party and its supporters will do or say Anything to be able to dictate control over the U.S. people. It doesn’t matter if it is EV, fuel, food, economics or taxes the treasonous Democrat Party Dictators will tell us how to live. IF WE LET THEM!
The only way to save the American auto industry that began America’s great economic industrial revolution in the early 20th century, is to remove Electric obsessed Joe Biden, who is definitely in need of some mental electric shock treatments.,,, Maybe even a ride on old sparky without the sponge. Talk about killing the economic goose who laid the golden eggs? All Biden has accomplished, is to goose the American Automotive moose and tie his antlers to the trees, and use its head for a trophy on Joe’s Woke wailing wall,,,the very place Joe’s own head belongs. No American President who has so enriched the Chinese, the Iranians, the Russians, and America’s sworn enemies,, to the detriment of actual American prosperity, does such things for nothing. Follow the money, defund the very crime family and families that took much of it back,,, surreptitiously under the table. Can treason be the reason? All treason is done to enrich criminals at the cost to the innocent and the honest.
The god of the free markets is an unforgiving god indeed, especially when Joe proves to be the unforgiving mistrusted servant who by his own actions forfeits his own forgiveness.
AND get rid of the environut DEMS!
Joe Biden and his Central Planning Committee of the Communist Party. In other words, there will be no middle class. Every American will be poor, except for the elitists like Hillary, Bill Gates, Obama, John Kerry and Biden. We certainly have a lot to look forward to under the communist party of the liberals. Our Constitution is being thrown into the garbage dump by these elitist communists.
Meaning pretty much EVERY DEM in office!
“…President Joe Biden promised to transform the American auto industry — “first with carrots, now with sticks,” is the analogy The Washington Post used.”
Dang! That escalated quickly.
“In the old days, a centralized state controlling manufacturing and commerce, production, prices, wages and conditions in our biggest sectors would be called “fascist.” Today, we simply refer to it as the Green New Deal.”
I still choose to call it fascism.
Offering carrots to get people to do things, then the stick to those who refuse to follow them, is why they named the mascot of their democrat party a donkey. Attending their convention will be like Pinocchio and Lambert having so much fun that makes their donkey ears grow at a place called pleasure island, They turn to nominating into power more Woke weasels like Ocasio Cortez whom they elevate to a position of their mythological Queen Circe, who can change humans into animals such as wolves, lions, and swine,,,or in this case Democrat party bleating jackasses.
These days they only DO carrots. NEVER a stick.