Commentary: Democrats vote against auto workers and American-made electric vehicles

It was a stunning scene. Dozens of people packed into a Senate committee room on Aug. 1 witnessed one party stand with America’s auto workers and the other stand with big corporations.

In years past, one would have assumed the Democrats would always be on the side of the union worker, but not that day. Not anymore. Every single one of my Republican colleagues voted with me to protect working-class interests. And every single Democrat sided with Wall Street and radical special interest groups.

The focus of the vote itself — an amendment to a government spending bill — was very straightforward. It simply answered a request the United Auto Workers had repeatedly submitted to the Biden-Harris administration to “harmonize” federal investments in electric vehicle manufacturing with common-sense made-in-America requirements.

Earlier this year, UAW told the U.S. trade office that a coherent industrial policy that truly aims to build a resilient supply chain must focus federal investment on domestic production with high-road standards. Incentives that are open to foreign-made vehicles immediately undermine the purpose of industrial policy and any gains achieved by reforms to our trade policy. UAW made the same point just a few months before.

My amendment was a direct answer to the problem. It would have extended the made-in-America requirements already integral to the federal government’s biggest EV tax credit (the 30D credit) to all the other federal EV subsidy programs, which cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars. Under this arrangement, for an EV to be entitled to generous federal subsidies, most of the vehicle’s value would need to come from manufacturing activities in North America.

Such a guardrail is more important than ever as American automakers — and the millions of workers and families who rely on them — are facing an existential threat.

Over the past decade, China has surged to become the largest vehicle exporter in the world. It hasn’t done this by making higher-quality vehicles. Instead, China’s communist government is heavily subsidizing its vehicle industry — both electric and internal combustion — which allows Chinese automakers to sell their vehicles at a loss and “buy” market share in countries around the world, putting competing automakers out of business.

But the seriousness of this threat seems lost on my Democrat colleagues. Not only did all Democrats on the committee vote unanimously to oppose my amendment, one argued that prohibiting U.S. taxpayer dollars from going to Chinese EVs would somehow help China and hurt America. It’s an insulting and false argument that attempts to conceal an inconvenient truth: Americans are currently subsidizing automakers that are controlled by China’s communist government and threatening to wipe out our domestic automakers.

Democrats opposing my amendment know better than their talking points suggest. Some represent states with significant auto manufacturing, such as Michigan and Illinois. Others have spoken out against China’s threat to the American worker.

Nevertheless, they opted for weak, non-binding “report language” that encourages the Biden-Harris administration to think about these problems, but falls short of outlining a clear solution and putting it into law. Even more ironically, by opposing my amendment, Democrats opposed current guardrails to a law they wrote and passed on a party-line vote.

Things are changing in America — with our economy, but also in our politics. It is increasingly clear that Democrats are now more concerned with catering to green-energy special interest groups than protecting the American worker. Their perspective could be summed up by one economist’s callous observation that “(i)t would be cheaper just to let the Chinese cars come in. … Yes, it would be disruptive. But EVs would get on the road in the U.S. a lot faster.”

Thankfully, that hasn’t happened just yet. Right now, Chinese automakers face a 102% tariff on EVs and a 27% tariff on internal combustion vehicles. This is better than nothing, but it is not enough to prevent China from putting American auto workers out of business in the future.

As Chinese automakers set up shop in Mexico, they could take advantage of our free trade agreement with Mexico and lower the tariff to zero percent. There are steps we can take to prevent that, but my Democrat colleagues seem reluctant to consider those steps as well. This shouldn’t be a partisan issue. China’s success will come at the expense of American auto workers in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and beyond.

Importing cheap products may be good for some company’s bottom line, but it is terrible for our country. America needs to be a nation that builds great things with well-trained and highly paid workers who can provide for their families. This is a future worth fighting for, no matter which party you represent.

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(Marco Rubio is a U.S. senator from Florida.)

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