Biden Promotes a Hummer That Doesn't Even Qualify for His Electric Vehicle Tax Credits
Biden sat in a truck that costs as much as $120,000 to promote a tax credit that only applies to electric vehicles retailing for up to $80,000.
As part of President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Congress authorized tax credits on electric vehicles (E.V.s). Starting January 1, motorists wanting to buy a brand-new E.V. could qualify for up to $7,500 toward their purchase without worrying about factors like whether the manufacturer had already qualified for too many credits.
This week, Biden tweeted a picture to tout the program, grinning from the driver's seat of a GMC Hummer EV:
On my watch, the great American road trip is going to be fully electrified.
And now, through a tax credit, you can get up to $7,500 on a new electric vehicle. pic.twitter.com/n3iZ9etL4A
— President Biden (@POTUS) January 30, 2023
But there are some obvious problems with the president's claims, down to the fact that the truck he's sitting in wouldn't qualify for the credit.
Long seen as a clear example of an egregious polluter, an all-electric version of the Hummer H2 seemed more likely to show up in The Onion than on the road. But the behemoth exists nonetheless; Business Insider noted its "sheer absurdity" but admitted it's "surprisingly fun" to drive.
But the IRA establishes very exacting standards for vehicles to qualify for tax credits, and the Hummer EV comes up short on most of them. First, the IRA's E.V. tax credits only apply to vehicles with retail prices up to $80,000, and even the base model EV2, the least expensive version, now starts over $84,000. (That's not to mention that the cost could reach almost $120,000 when it's fully decked out.) The credits also only apply to buyers who make up to $150,000 individually or $300,000 jointly; it's hard to imagine anyone earning less than that amount shelling out up to six figures on a luxury truck.
No matter which version of the truck Biden was pictured in, it wouldn't qualify for the tax credits he was promoting with the tweet. And vanishingly few E.V.s qualify for the tax credit to begin with since only those "assembled" in North America are eligible.
Under the IRA, a qualifying vehicle must source 40 percent of its battery's minerals and 50 percent of the battery's parts from either the U.S. or a free trade partner country. That's a high bar to meet when China controls 80 percent of the world's refining capacity for raw battery minerals.
In December, the Treasury Department postponed the mineral requirement until March as it continued to formulate final rules for implementation. But Sen. Joe Manchin (D–W. Va.), who insisted upon the anti-China rules in the first place, submitted a bill that would go around the Treasury Department and not only implement the mineral requirement as written but make it retroactive to January 1. Notably, the requirements would exclude not only China but the European Union, which, unbeknownst to Manchin, also lacks a free trade agreement with the United States.
Regarding the law's restrictions, French President Emmanuel Macron told Manchin during a visit to the U.S. last year, "You're hurting my country."
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Monica Lewinsky previously provided presidential endorsed hummers.
Didn’t the current VP provide mayoral endorsed ones?
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Pretty sure Marilyn Monroe did too.
Now we have a VP who specializes in them apparently.
Corn pop is a moron….China flying spy ballons over America and Corn Pop is eating ice cream before they put him to bed. Can’t shoot it down because all our ground to air missiles were sent to Ukraine so Blinkin can avenge what the Czar did to “his” people 150 years ago. JC…someone send up an F15 and take it out…
Reason’s biggest problem with government handouts is that Biden used the wrong vehicle to promote them, not that they exist in the first place.
And that we can’t buy the minerals from France. Because THAT’s what hurts their country.
And that the car companies have raised the prices of EVs by the amount of the rebate?
Are we even reading the same articles? If Reason has ever published anything praising subsidies, it’s news to me. Pointing out that any given subsidy is particularly egregious is hardly the same thing as suggesting that other subsidies are either necessary or desirable.
Regarding the law’s restrictions, French President Emmanuel Macron told Manchin during a visit to the U.S. last year, “You’re hurting my country.”
Oooh, we better watch out, wouldn’t want to upset the French.
Watch it there buddy, calling the French, “the French” is bigoted and racist according the AP.
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Maybe I didn’t understand this chain.
There’s a few commenters here I could name that might fit that description.
Wasn’t kid slapper part of that too?
Believe it is just yanking his daughter off her bed by her feet. Totally normal parenting. No way responsible for her keying cars later in life.
No widespread child abuse.
Laughed at this. Was the wrong?
Mostly peaceful child rearing.
At the time, his blood alcohol content was mostly not alcohol.
I’m confused is it Manchins job to do what’s in Frances best intrest?
It’s not like he had idea where he even was or what he as doing. Someone told him to sit in the truck and smile for the camera, so he did.
“But there are some obvious problems with the president’s claims…”
I am thinking we are getting used to this…. sigh.
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How about that? An entire article in Reason that mentions Biden but doesn’t find a way to mention or blame Trump for Biden’s dopiness.
China Spy Ballon over US airspace for days..Biden does nothing…still collecting checks from the Chicoms Joey?
This hummer blows.
Those limits don’t apply if you buy them with your small business…
This is all so stupid. Li-ion batteries are just not good enough to transition to EVs right now. It’s about making it impossible for us to move around and nothing to do with climate. Bunch of collectivist fucks.
Buy a Tesla
Is that a Hummer or a Bummer?
Regarding the law’s restrictions, French President Emmanuel Macron told Manchin during a visit to the U.S. last year, “You’re hurting my country.”
Because we’re not giving tax credits to people buying products made in other countries? How very libertarian of us.
“On my watch, the great American road trip is going to be fully electrified.”
How long does Biden think his watch will last? Even if he declares himself President for Life he’s still going to kick the bucket in an America with less than 10% of its cars and trucks powered by electricity.
Biden clearly has never been on a road trip otherwise he’d understand that you can’t stop every 3 hours to spend an hour charging your EV. That will destroy the “great American road trip.”
At his age, there’s no way he can make it 3 hours without stopping.
Why wouldn’t he sit in a car that the people can’t buy of benefit from? Biden implements and proposes policies that only serve a tiny minority of oligarchs, while gaining the support of ignorant peasants who think they benefit from more power in Government. Identical to everything he does and deceives people with every day. Straight from the LBJ playbook.
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Even a Washington Post editorialist is critical of Biden’s EV stunt, mostly for how big and heavy the Hummer (and the F-150 EV) is.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/01/31/hummer-ev-biden-emissions/
I agree that damage-free transition to EVs is impossible nowadays, and it’s still pretty harmful for the environment, so I think that there’s no need to immediately switch to electric vehicles. Right now, I think about buying 2023 Toyota Sequoia after it gets released, and I think I won’t even think about buying Tesla or anything like that with electric motors because the damage is inevitable anyway.
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