Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News
President Joe Biden has a new vision for the future of America, and it is an odd blend of nostalgia and not-yet-developed technologies.
Speaking Wednesday at an electric-vehicle-centric car show in Detroit, Biden said he wanted to see the United States go all-in on electric vehicles.
“The great American road trip is going to be fully electrified,” Biden said during a speech at the Huntington Place Convention Center. “Whether you’re driving coast to coast along the I-10 or on I-75 here in Michigan, charging stations will be up and as easy to find as gas stations are now.”
If that sounds like a pipe dream, perhaps a noble aspiration that is generations away from even being possible, the president’s concept of how much this will cost in the short term reads like a fairy tale.
“We’re also going to be investing $7 billion to make American car companies and have the batteries and other critical materials they need,” Biden.
As with many of the president’s remarks, this sentence requires some dissecting, which can take the shape of optimistic and pessimistic readings.
The more optimistic view, relatively speaking, is that, for the low-low price of $7 billion, the American taxpayer will boost private companies’ development of new technologies. The pessimistic view is that the president just announced the American taxpayer was on the hook to create electric car companies that will compete with the likes of Tesla.
The president rambled numerous times in the speech, but he eventually identified Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler as partners in the plan, so likely the $7 billion is meant to induce efforts from existing American car companies.
And if other companies are jealous of the car manufacturers’ good luck, they need not be. President Biden announced well over $100 billion in electric tech spending.
“So, folks, all told, my administration is investing more than $135 billion to advance America’s electric vehicle future,” Biden said. “Our infrastructure law is also helping to make it in America and win the economic race of the 21st century — a once-in-a-generation investment in our nation’s roads, bridges, railroads, ports, airports, lead-free water systems, [and] high-speed Internet. It’s the biggest investment in American infrastructure since President Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway system.”
Even Biden still loves gas guzzlers
Amusingly, of all the cars present at the show, including numerous new all-electric models, Biden raved about the new Chevrolet Corvette Z06, a gasoline-powered sports car that starts at $105,000 and boasts just 12.1 miles per gallon in the city, at best.
Naturally, Twitter lit up with mockery of how out-of-touch with reality the president is.
President Biden tweets praise of 'electric vehicles', but photo shows gas-guzzling Corvette Z06, which gets 12.1 MPG in cities https://t.co/Qt4sB3Fl5i.
Earlier today while driving an electric Cadillac, Biden said, 'It’s a beautiful car, but I love the Corvette' https://t.co/9izWeY0IFA
— Steven Nelson (@stevennelson10) September 14, 2022
To call the president’s vision unpopular with the right would be something of an understatement. Critics point to Biden’s immense spending ventures as the primary catalyst for inflation and the simple reality that, even as private entities attempt to develop robust and affordable electric vehicles, the cars themselves and the infrastructure needed to support them are many years away from being a sustainable and quality replacement for traditional fuel-powered vehicles.
“If electric vehicles are so great, why does the government have to pay people to drive them,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) tweeted Thursday. “ It’s clear Pres. Biden is extremely out of touch with most Americans.”
If electric vehicles are so great, why does the government have to pay people to drive them? It's clear Pres. Biden is extremely out of touch with most Americans. pic.twitter.com/P1p4LwkFEI
— John Neely Kennedy (@JohnKennedyLA) September 15, 2022
Biden’s speech went beyond merely painting a rosy future that is likely unattainable in the short term. This was almost a secondary concern for a president whose recent speeches have been either meant to vilify the right or, as was the case in Detroit, rally the left around the administration’s victories.
If there is an area in which Biden has won and continues to win, it’s in spending large quantities of money on any number of green programs, particularly through the infrastructure bill and recently passed Inflation Reduction Act.
On numerous occasions in his speech, Biden touted the amount of money his administration has spent or intends to spend to support American auto manufacturers and their employees, especially those who are members of the United Auto Workers union, a group that got frequent presidential mentions.
Republicans, who still hope that the economic woes Americans are experiencing will lead to success in the midterm elections, have routinely linked Biden’s spending to inflation. This week was no different.
Even the day before Biden’s pro-EV speech, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) said of the Inflation Reduction Act, “ Today’s inflation numbers are another reminder of the economic pains this admin has unleashed on hard-working Americans. Most concerning: As Americans watch their paychecks shrink, @POTUS and congressional Dems are taking a victory lap for passing their socialist spending bill.”