Key vote Sen. Joe Manchin came out against a proposal within President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better agenda to fund an additional $4,500 tax credit for those who buy a union-built, made-in-America electric vehicle.
The West Virginia Democrat, who has been almost single-handedly responsible for cutting down the package’s overall target price to $1.85 trillion, called the measure “wrong” Thursday and indicated he’s working to get it removed.
“When I heard about this, what they were putting in the bill, I went right to the sponsor [Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan] and I said, ‘This is wrong. This can’t happen. It’s not who we are as a country. It’s not how we built this country, and the product should speak for itself,'” Manchin told Automotive News during an event at a Toyota components plant in West Virginia.
“We shouldn’t use everyone’s tax dollars to pick winners and losers,” Manchin added. “If you’re a capitalist economy … then you let the product speak for itself, and hopefully, we’ll get that — that’ll be corrected.”
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The provision, which is included in the House version of the Build Back Better Act, would allow purchasers of a union-made electric vehicle a credit worth $4,500 beyond the general $7,500 incentive the bill would provide for an EV.
Biden and Democrats see the credit as a way to support their clean energy ambitions and prop up labor unions, a key constituency, but critics assert the measure and others like it would favor certain firms and price others out of the market.
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Manchin’s Republican counterpart, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, has similarly opposed the measure, arguing it would disadvantage foreign automobile manufacturers that operate in the United States.
“We urge Congress to treat all of the nation’s autoworkers fairly and equitably—to let consumers choose the best electric vehicle for them, without being penalized because of their choice,” she said in a recent statement.
