Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, the new Senate Republican majority begins on January 3, 2025. So our day one starts in 3 weeks. Republicans are going to enter the next Congress with a long ``fix it'' list on behalf of the American people. And at the top of the list is an agenda to lower costs and to restore American energy dominance.

Prices today, we know, are 20 percent higher than they were 4 years ago, and, just this morning, we learned, once again, that prices have gone up in November. And we know the culprits, the problem behind the high prices: wasteful Washington spending. And we have seen a lot of it the last 4 years. The other reason, of course, is the Democrats throttling American energy production.

Republicans are going to fix the fiscal insanity of the last 4 years. We will put Americans--not Washington bureaucrats--back into the driver's seat.

We are going to start by repealing the Biden car bribe. This is something that President Trump strongly supports, and he is supporting what we are promoting. He has asked for it. He has campaigned on it. Eliminating this car bribe by the Biden administration--it is one of the most wasteful policies we have seen from this administration over the last 4 years. It is the Democrats' $7,500 subsidy for people buying electric vehicles. It was included in their reckless tax-and-spend legislation. It received zero--zero--Republican votes, not a one.

It is an attempt by the Democrats to bribe the American people to go along with their unpopular climate fantasy. It is a welfare check for wealthy elites and for green corporations. It is a giveaway to communist China, which controls key parts of the EV supply chain.

We were initially told by the Joint Committee on Taxation that these subsidies would cost about $14 billion. Well, the pricetag has continued to tick up since then. Today, there have been some revised estimates, and they have ballooned to projected costs of way over $300 billion. That is right, over $300 billion. And that is for vehicles that most Americans don't want, can't afford, and don't work for them or their families.

The auto dealers in Wyoming tell me it takes much, much longer to try to sell these things compared to the traditional gas-powered vehicles. They say they can't even sell them at a loss, and they are stockpiling them on the lots.

Less than 10 percent of the new car sales in America last year were EVs. The sale figures have been abysmal. EVs lost market share. It is hard to believe. They actually lost market share in 2024.

So you have these carmakers from around the country who are hemorrhaging cash. They are losing tons of money. And we have autoworkers who have lost their jobs.

The CEO of Ford says his company is projected to lose $5 billion this year on their EV market. Stellantis, which owns Chrysler, is also in the ditch. In August, it announced plans to lay off thousands of autoworkers at its plants in Michigan. Yet, last week, it won a $7.54 billion loan--a loan, an additional loan--from the Biden administration, over $7.5 billion for something that is failing.

Joe Biden is leaving the White House the same way he led it: by doubling down on failure.

America now has fewer manufacturing jobs today than it did last year. And do you want to know the dirtiest secret of Democrats in terms of the Biden car bribe? It sends taxpayer money to communist China. But the original law was clear. It said, if your EV was made with Chinese batteries or used their critical minerals, it would then be ineligible--not eligible--for taxpayer-funded subsidies. Chinese batteries, Chinese components can't get any of the subsidy benefits.

Senator Manchin actually wrote that provision into that bill. Republicans still voted against the entire bill. We thought it was a waste of taxpayer dollars. Joe Biden signed it, and then EV sales stalled out.

So what did the Democrats do? They double-dealed. They could have made it easier to mine more critical minerals in America, to use our own supply chain. But, no, President Biden decided to overrule the China ban.

The Department of the Treasury came out with lax rules on sourcing materials, meaning that communist China will benefit from American tax dollars. It also means that American workers will pay a higher price for a policy and for vehicles they don't want.

We need to go back to a consumer-driven, free-enterprise system. This is the United States of America. We should never be dependent on dictators and despots, like those that we have in communist China.

Electric vehicles make sense for some people, but they are not an option for all people. Consumers have legitimate anxiety about the range of these vehicles, about costly repairs, and about extremely expensive insurance, because, often, a minor ding on one of these electric vehicles, with damage done, well, they call it a total and complete loss of the vehicle, not something that can be repaired. That is why the insurance is much higher on electric vehicle than traditional vehicles.

And, frankly, if EVs were better options, then government wouldn't need to bribe Americans all across the country to buy them or to bribe businesses to build them.

Electric vehicles are a luxury item. They are toys with severe limitations. They are not must-have means of transportation. Taxpayers shouldn't be forced to pay for the cost of luxury vehicles. It is wrong for taxpayers, tax dollars, and for working American families to subsidize the car purchases of the wealthy elites.

The American people have proven that they refuse to be force-fed these electric vehicles. They can't be pushed into buying, can't be bribed into buying them. ``No, thank you,'' said the American consumer.

But that is exactly what the Democrats have been trying to do--to ban traditional vehicles and to bribe people to buy electric vehicles. Democrats want to pick what you can drive. They want to punish everyone who doesn't want to do it--all as a result of their smug, moral superiority.

Well, I have a message for my colleagues. It is the same message that Americans sent in November. When taxpayers and voters went to the polls, they said: Government--big government, Democrat government--does not know better than we the people. Senate Democrats don't know better than we the people. We the people have a right to decide what is best for us, what is best for our families.

The incoming Trump administration and the Republican Senate majority will get rid of the Biden car bribe and the Biden car ban. We are going to embrace free enterprise and fiscal responsibility. We will lower prices for the American families and restore America's energy independence and dominance.

We are going to strengthen our manufacturing. We are going to bring back good-paying jobs. We are going to put Americans back in the driver's seat.

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