NOW we're talking.
Posted on 12/10/2019 6:20:59 AM PST by Kaslin
Why are Democrats Sen. Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi teaming together to lobby for a tax bill that would provide about 80% of the benefits to Americans who make more than $100,000 a year?
Schumer and Pelosi are the ones who, for the last two years, have been railing against income inequality and tax cuts for the rich, but now they are head cheerleaders for a bill that would extend and even expand tax favors padding the pockets of mostly wealthy Americans who can afford to buy pricey Tesla and GM electric vehicles. The price tag for taxpayers could reach $16 billion for this bill.
What's next, tax breaks for buying a Porsche or a Rolls Royce?
Half of the tax breaks would go to residents of just one state. Guess which one? California, the home state of Pelosi. Coincidence? The voters of 49 states would get stuck paying most of the tab to underwrite the cars of those living in Silicon Valley.
These tax credits are far and away more generous than the rebates the car dealerships typically use to entice buyers. Uncle Sam offers a $7,500 tax credit for electric car buyers -- a policy that is supposed to be phased out this year for the two biggest manufacturers, Tesla and GM. Surprise, surprise; they are lobbying furiously to keep the money flowing.
Schumer has threatened to hold this year's tax bill hostage if the Tesla "temporary" subsidy isn't renewed. The credits are to be phased out beginning next year, but the Senate bill would give them a new lease on life. The House bill is even worse: It would triple the existing cap on subsidies of 200,000 per manufacturer. There is also talk in the House of creating a new credit of up to $2,500 for used electric vehicles. So you buy it, you get $7,500, and when you sell it, the new buyer gets $2,500 on the same vehicle.
The bill also includes billions of dollars for extensions of wind and solar subsidies (that were also supposed to expire many years ago). They even added in $5 billion of new spending on "environmental justice" grants to universities -- as if green campus leftists needed any more help.
The head start program for EVs is especially egregious because, as my Heritage Foundation colleague and economist Nick Loris notes, many states have their own EV incentives, and in these states taxpayers are essentially writing a $10,000 rebate check to EV drivers. Loris also notes that because EVs don't use gasoline at the pump, they receive an added subsidy because they don't pay directly for the roads, highways and bridges they use.
Even worse, while Congress is preparing to expand this program, the Treasury inspector general has recently uncovered rampant fraud. The inspector general found an astonishing 16,510 tax returns with "potentially erroneous" electric vehicle tax credits, worth a total of $73.8 million.
It appears that credits are being claimed for ineligible vehicles and that many leased vehicles are being fraudulently double-subsidized with one valid claim by the leasing company and a second, invalid claim by the lessee. The additional $2,500 per vehicle credit for the sale of used EVs will open a whole new garage full of fraudulent claims.
"The credit is working. It just needs a little more time," says Genevieve Cullen, president of the Electric Drive Transportation Association. But experience teaches us that these green subsidies never go away once they are extended. They become lifetime entitlements.
The biggest single beneficiary of the EV tax subsidy is Tesla founder Elon Musk. He is a billionaire, and if Congress extends the tax credits, the value will be capitalized into Tesla stock, and he is about to get a lot richer. Rather than unworkable wealth taxes on America's millionaires and billionaires, wouldn't it be better if Pelosi and Schumer stopped subsidizing them?
NOW we're talking.
Then they shouldn't be able to use roads and bridges.
Dollars to Donuts both of these quisling senators have investments somewhere in the supply chain for electric vehicles.
Elec exploding golf carts shouldn’t even be allowed on the road.
“Porsche has the all-electric Taycan”
The Tin Can? That’s fitting.
Without subsidies the bird and bat choppers just go away. Without subsidies Tesla goes away. Somehow I think we will survive without them.
Where does the Constitution authorize subsidies for carriages/wagons and by extension automobiles? No need to reply.
I was watching a YouTube video recently about the glut of Tesla Model 3s on the used market, barely used. The video maker surmised that a significant number of people bought these to get the rebate and then turn around and immediately sell them. So, when it isn’t the rich being subsidized to buy expensive cars, it’s scammers being enriched. These rebates should be limited to cars that the average person can actually afford, if not outright eliminated. The province of Ontario eliminated these subsidies (we never had them at the federal level in Canada) after a new, Conservative government was elected.
At the national level it a tax credit versus a tax rebate. So in order to get the full $7500, the buyer needs a tax liability of at least $7500.
Ohio recently added a $200 per year additional registraion fee for electric and plug-in hybrid cars and $100 for hybrid cars to make up for the loss of gas tax. That's equal to 520 or 260 gallons of Ohio gas tax which is pretty close to my gas powered car's gas tax ($231 for 15000 miles).
In Ontario and other Canadian provinces that have/had it, it is/was a straight up rebate on the price of the car. Money in the purchaser’s pocket, essentially. Almost all of these rebates went to people buying Teslas, although some would have gone to purchasers of Nissan Leafs, Chevy Bolts, and Kia Soul EVs. But even those mostly appeal to well-heeled buyers who can afford to lay out that kind of money for what is most likely a second (or third) car.
CONGRESS?
I thought we TAXPAYERS did this?!
No doubt. They are as crooked as the day is long. Democrats get rich from duping the ignorant and covetous.
“Almost all of these rebates went to people buying Teslas, although some would have gone to purchasers of Nissan Leafs, Chevy Bolts, and Kia Soul EVs.”
Here is an interest web page that keeps track of how many EVs have been sold and if OEMs have met the 200K threshold for phasing out the tax credit here in the states..
https://evadoption.com/ev-sales/federal-ev-tax-credit-phase-out-tracker-by-automaker/
I bought an electric vehicle and the tax credit will be really nice this coming April. The solar panels gave me a nice credit the year before last. So now I have solar and an electric car and when liberals talk about climate change I can be all holier than thou with them. I’m doing my part to combat climate change.
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