Sen. Marco Rubio this week slammed President Joe Biden’s leftist promotion of electric vehicles, saying his war on cars powered by fossil fuels is enabling Chinese communists.
In an opinion column for The Washington Examiner, the Florida Republican noted that China’s aggressive push to capture a larger share of the EV market over the past 15 years has paid off.
Aided by the Chinese Communist Party’s willingness to use “subsidies, financing incentives, tax breaks, stolen intellectual property, and even slave labor” to boost domestic automakers, China surpassed Japan last year as the world’s leading vehicle exporter.
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“China’s ascent is especially pronounced in the market for electric vehicles, which the Chinese Communist Party identifies as one of the ‘new three’ products, together with solar panels and advanced batteries, that it seeks to export to the world,” Rubio wrote.
“This is a massive threat, not just because of the auto industry’s symbolic role in the U.S. economy, but because vehicles and vehicle parts still contribute more to our exports than any other industrial products.”
Biden, however, is enabling that with his own EV policies that are increasingly unpopular with U.S. consumers and automakers alike.
As Rubio explained, “Regardless of what Democratic climate activists prefer, nine out of every 10 cars made in America run on gas. These vehicles are also the only profitable cars made in America, even when you factor in federal subsidies. Yet Biden’s new tailpipe emissions rule is designed to cripple this highly productive sector, thereby forcing consumers to buy EVs.”
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“Meanwhile, the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act has authorized billions of dollars’ worth of tax credits and grants for EVs. Even here, though, Biden is putting American automakers second,” he continued. “Specifically, he is waiving “Buy American” requirements for EV chargers, meaning U.S. taxpayers are funding the deployment of Chinese charging stations across the country.”
“If this sounds bad, it is about to get far worse,” Rubio added. “Chinese auto companies are setting up shop in Mexico, where they hope to use the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement to bypass our tariffs entirely. U.S. companies are already raising the alarm about what’s coming, calling China’s backdoor in Mexico an ‘extinction-level’ threat.”
“Former President Donald Trump rightly predicted it could precipitate a ‘bloodbath’ for the industry,” Rubio wrote.
Rubio then noted that he introduced three bills in March to level the playing field for U.S. automakers.
For example, one would treat cars made by a “foreign adversary” as produced in their home country, regardless of where the vehicles are made. Another would slap a flat $20,000 tariff on all Chinese cars as a way to overcome CCP subsidies.
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Rubio called for Democrats and Biden to support such ideas.
“‘Scranton Joe’ has branded himself a pro-worker Democrat. Unless he also wants to brand himself a hypocrite, the president must stop subsidizing our adversaries’ factories for the sake of the ‘green transition’ fanatics in his base and instead enforce tariffs on all Chinese vehicles, not just EVs,” Rubio wrote.
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