New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez loves the idea of taxing the rich. Why, she adores it so much she even had a high-priced fashion designer craft a dress emblazoned with those very words for the exclusive Met Gala in 2021.
This all raises the question of what AOC wants to spend it on. The easy answer is: What won’t she spend it on? However, dig down a little deeper and you’ll find one of the bills Ocasio-Cortez is a co-sponsor on could have you paying to make it easier for her to charge her electric car.
(Here at The Western Journal, we’ve been chronicling all the handouts the Democratic Party has been giving EV owners — who necessarily are among the highest-earning Americans, considering the fact the average price of an electric vehicle is well over $50,000. We’ll continue pointing out how this is a regressive redistribution of wealth to well-to-do liberal urbanites. You can help us spread the truth by subscribing.)
A little over two years ago — in February of 2020, just before the nation shut down for COVID-19 and we stopped caring about anything else but case counts and Andrew Cuomo’s meandering afternoon pressers — AOC and Michigan Democrat Rep. Andy Levin introduced H.R. 5770, otherwise known as the EV Freedom Act.
“Cars, above all else, have historically represented America’s problem with dirty oil. Establishing a nation-wide network of electric [vehicle] charging stations helps us reduce emissions, creates good-paying jobs, and will help transition the U.S. economy to a cleaner future,” Ocasio-Cortez said at the time, according to industry publication Daily Energy Insider.
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Levin, meanwhile, used that most Democrat of excuses for spending your money: It’s “infrastructure“!
“President Dwight D. Eisenhower once implemented a radical idea — a system of highways that would bring America together,” Levin said. “Six decades later, it’s time to expand on that idea and bring America’s infrastructure into the 21st century.”
The bill would charge the secretaries of Transportation and Energy with creating a plan for the nationwide network of publicly available chargers along the National Highway System. That plan would be submitted to congressional leadership no more than three years from the enactment of legislation.
“The implementation of this Act will encourage the widespread adoption of light-, medium-, and heavy-duty electric vehicles by eliminating ‘range anxiety,’ allowing drivers to charge vehicles more quickly; and ensuring that vehicle charging is equitably accessible and reasonably priced, enabling long-distance travel along eligible roads.”
Do you support spending federal money on charging stations?
The benefit of that infrastructure would only be reaped by those who are wealthy enough to buy an electric vehicle that suits their transportation needs. You know — people like AOC and her Tesla:
BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: Multiple sources confirm AOC owns a Tesla, parked it illegally in front of the Whole Foods connected to her luxury apartment buildinghttps://t.co/39RmcnZMHG pic.twitter.com/iAgI0oKCW6
— Brent Scher (@BrentScher) May 19, 2021
Granted, the EV Freedom Act didn’t end up passing during the 116th Congress. That doesn’t mean that a similar plan couldn’t be adopted under President Joe Biden’s administration or that the bill couldn’t be wrapped up in an omnibus spending package.
In fact, a less-ambitious program than the one the EV Freedom Act would end up spawning is currently underway; according to NBC News, $5 billion of the president’s infrastructure plan is going to states to build a network of charging stations. The administration hopes to up the number of stations to 500,000, despite the fact EVs only make up 3 percent of all cars sold.
And, according to a report from The Hill last Wednesday, the Democrats now want to resurrect some of the EV-centric spending in the Build Back Better omnibus spending package, one which was torpedoed when Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia refused to vote for it.
Tax credits for electric vehicles was one of the sticking points for Manchin — specifically, the $12,500 tax credit for buying an EV and a $4,500 credit for union-made EVs.
“As talks appear to have resumed on a slimmed-down package, Manchin in recent weeks has expressed some skepticism about incentives for electric vehicles more broadly,” The Hill reported.
However, Manchin is known to look more favorably on anything that can be plausibly characterized as infrastructure — meaning perhaps AOC’s legislation to chart an over-ambitious course to electrify the National Highway System gets resurrected.
And how are we going to pay for that?
I’m not eating between now & Halloween so I can fit into my AOC “Tax the Rich” gown costume pic.twitter.com/jUHaaQoAHO
— Pericles ‘Perry’ Abbasi (@ElectionLegal) September 17, 2021
And the not-so-rich, too. And the flyover-staters and pretty much everyone the Democrats can find. Then, use the money to give the rich a handout in the form of EV charging stations.
I’m guessing that couldn’t fit on the back of a dress, however.
