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A Rubio-sponsored bill would have effectively removed requirements to source EV chargers from U.S. manufacturers—though Rubio would have you believe otherwise.
Recently, the U.S. Congress passed a wildly misrepresented measure related to making electric vehicle, or EV, chargers in the United States. While the bill’s sponsors and supporters pitched the measure as protecting manufacturing workers in the United States, the effort would have effectively removed requirements that EV chargers purchased with federal dollars be made here.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and the other members of the GOP who backed this effort hoped that misleading rhetoric and outright lies would trick U.S. auto workers and their supporters. But the measure was never about supporting auto workers, it was about jeopardizing and slowing the transition to clean vehicles at their expense. Workers deserve more respect than that.
President Joe Biden cut through this façade and put workers first by quickly vetoing the bill. But this isn’t the first—and won’t be the last—time that the GOP tries to co-opt the fight for workers’ rights to advance its own agenda.
Many of these lies to workers are based on the same premise: Investing in the clean economy somehow means sending all our jobs and money to China—no matter how we do it.
We live in strange times. Politicians gleefully vote against bills that will lift up their communities to satisfy their big money donors, while happily cheering clean economy projects funded by the bills they voted against and bragging about investments in the electric vehicle technologies they have fought tooth and nail to derail. They defend U.S. auto manufacturing workers from one side of their mouth, while fighting against the policies that will keep our auto industry competitive in the global market from the other side.
Across the nation, working people are joining together—supported by allies in the environmental movement—to stand up for a better world for themselves, their communities, and for future generations. During its historic Stand Up Strike, the United Auto Workers (UAW) refused to fall for former President Donald Trump’s insincere attempts to court the union, seeing right through his “rally” at a non-union facility. Meanwhile, the UAW concentrated on getting the best deal for their workers and they were able to do just that—right in the face of Trump’s attempts to distract and divide.
Many of these lies to workers are based on the same premise: Investing in the clean economy somehow means sending all our jobs and money to China—no matter how we do it. We know that the opposite is true. Investing in a clean economy is our only shot at keeping jobs here.
The Biden administration and Democrats in Congress have carefully written infrastructure, manufacturing, and clean energy laws that create jobs and investments here in the United States—particularly in low-income and underserved communities. That means these laws will greatly benefit blue AND red states, which is why you see a lot of Republicans running to embrace the very projects they voted against.
Requirements in laws enacted by the Biden administration specifically call for sourcing materials from U.S. manufacturers and building out the U.S. supply chain, which will create good, union jobs across the nation. And yet, the GOP rails against these investment and laws, even voting to repeal them. For example, the Rubio bill mentioned above would have effectively removed requirements to source EV chargers from U.S. manufacturers—though Rubio would have you believe otherwise.
This sort of dishonest rhetoric is only going to ramp up throughout this election year. We’ve seen it before and we’ll see it far into the future, but workers in the United States are sick and tired of this dog and pony show. There are real-world impacts from the damaging policies the Republicans are hawking. Politicians should give workers in the United States the respect they deserve and stop with the lies.
One critic called the South Carolina Republican's comment nothing short of "incitement to genocide."
Human rights defenders on Wednesday accused U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of "incitement to genocide" after the South Carolina Republican urged Israeli forces to destroy Gaza—and he wasn't the only prominent GOP figure to make such an incendiary call.
Appearing on Fox News on Tuesday night, Graham asserted that "we are in a religious war here, I am with Israel. Whatever the hell you have to do to defend yourselves; level the place."
In a social media post, U.S. political analyst, author, and activist Josh Ruebner tagged the International Criminal Court with the caption, "ATTN... Incitement to genocide."
Critics noted that as Graham was calling for the destruction of Gaza, Israeli forces were actually doing just that. A surprise infiltration attack by Gaza-based militants killed more than 1,200 Israelis since the weekend, and Israel has responded by launching a massive assault on the already-besieged Gaza Strip—home to around 2.3 million Palestinians, nearly half of them children—by air, land, and sea.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to exact a "mighty vengeance," while members of his far-right government made even more inflammatory statements, including Knesset lawmaker Ariel Kallner's call for a "Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of '48. Kallner was referring to the ethnic cleansing of over 750,000 Arabs from Palestine during the founding of the modern state of Israel in 1947-48.
"This war is not only against Hamas," Israeli Foreign Minister Emmanuel Nahshon said on Wednesday, vowing the "complete and unequivocal defeat of the enemy, at any cost."
Since Saturday, Israeli air and artillery attacks have struck civilian targets including apartment buildings, hospitals, schools, mosques, and the Jabalia refugee camp, Gaza's largest.
At least 1,100 Palestinians—including at least 326 children—have been killed in Israeli attacks, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. As was the case in previous Israeli assaults on Gaza, entire families have been wiped out.
The emphasis, Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari explained Tuesday, "is on damage and not on accuracy."
Additionally, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday announced a "complete siege" of Gaza, which was followed by an intensification of a 16-year blockade of the densely populated strip. Israel is blocking food and fuel from entering Gaza and has cut off its electricity—actions that experts say amount to war crimes.
In stark contrast with the intense American corporate media coverage of the Hamas massacres in southern Israel, there has been little mention in the mainstream media of the Palestinian death toll in the U.S.-backed war.
Meanwhile, other prominent Republicans have taken to corporate and social media to make similar calls to Graham's.
Appearing on Fox News over the weekend, 2024 GOP presidential candidate and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley implored Netanayahu to "finish" the Palestinians, a remark Palestinian author and journalist Ramzy Baroud described as "an outright call for genocide."
On Monday, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) wrote on social media that "Israel must respond DISPROPORTIONATELY to this and any future attacks." Disproportionate attacks are war crimes under the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Responding to Israel's brutal assault, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Wednesday: "Let us not forget that half of the 2 million people in Gaza are children. Children and innocent people do not deserve to be punished for the acts of Hamas."
"The targeting of civilians is a war crime," Sanders added, "no matter who does it."
The U.S.-based group Jewish Voice for Peace on Wednesday blasted "U.S. government officials [who] are spreading racist, hateful, and incendiary rhetoric that will fuel mass atrocities and genocide."
"We call on all people of conscience to stop the imminent genocide of Palestinians," the group added. " We demand our government work towards de-escalation, that it immediately stop sending weapons to the Israeli military. A future of peace and safety for all, grounded in justice, freedom, and equality for all, is still the only option."
"All the contributions they make and all their lobbying money gives them a lot of power," Democratic Rep. Peter Welch said of the pharmaceutical industry.
The pharmaceutical industry and its Republican allies in Congress are openly signaling their plans obstruct at every turn as the Biden administration looks to begin implementing a recently passed law that will allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices for the first time in its history.
In November, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and several other Republican senators introduced legislation that would repeal the new prescription drug pricing reforms, which Congress approved earlier this year as part of the Inflation Reduction Act—a measure that Republicans unanimously opposed.
"Though chances of this repeal effort succeeding are vanishingly slim with Democrats holding the Senate and White House, conservative lawmakers and their outside allies want to impede the law's progress before its expansion becomes inevitable," Politico reported Thursday.
Big Pharma lobbied aggressively against the Medicare drug pricing provisions, hysterically claiming the modest and extremely popular changes could send the U.S. "back into the dark ages of biomedical research."
Speaking to Politico, Rubio echoed the pharmaceutical industry's talking points.
"I want drug prices to be lower but we have to do it in a way that doesn't undermine the creation of new drugs," Rubio said. "Companies are not going to invest in developing new treatments unless they believe they have a chance to make back their money with a profit."
While the drug price reforms are far less ambitious than what progressives wanted—and the specific provision requiring Medicare to negotiate prices for a small number of drugs doesn't take full effect until 2026—the changes could still have a significant impact on costs, given that a small number of medicines make up a sizeable chunk of Medicare's prescription drug spending.
Beginning next year, the law will also require drug companies to pay Medicare a rebate if they raise their drug prices at a faster rate than inflation. Additionally, the law will limit monthly insulin cost-sharing to $35 for people with Medicare Part D starting in 2023.
Politico noted Thursday that the deep-pocketed drug industry—which boasts nearly three registered lobbyists for every member of Congress—is "gearing up to fight the law's implementation, using whatever legal and regulatory tools are available."
Sarah Ryan, a spokesperson for Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), told the outlet that the industry will "keep working to mitigate the law's harm and continue to push for real solutions that will bring financial relief for patients."'
NPR reported in September that pharma lobbyists are likely to take aim at "seemingly technical details" that "could have major implications" for the law, which advocates and Democratic lawmakers hope to build on in the coming years.
According to NPR:
One area ripe for gaming is the formula known as average manufacturer price that Medicaid uses to determine whether companies owe money for hiking prices faster than inflation. The law gives companies ample discretion in how they calculate that average, and firms have used that discretion to include or exclude certain sales to avoid triggering rebate payments. Just one loophole in that formula, which Congress closed in 2019, had cost Medicaid at least $595 million per year in lost rebates.
The Inflation Reduction Act essentially duplicates the language of Medicaid's inflation rebate law, making Medicare now vulnerable to the same loopholes.
Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), who is set to be sworn in as a senator next month, told Politico that "it's going to be really hard to reverse" the drug price reforms once they take effect and begin having a material impact.
"If [negotiation] works in Medicare, it can work in the private market," said Welch, who cautioned that the drug industry is still a strong influence that must be overcome.
“All the contributions they make and all their lobbying money gives them a lot of power," Welch said. "But I think what gives them the most power is that everybody can imagine themselves in a position where someday, somebody they really love is going to need a pharmaceutical drug and won't be able to get it. They play on the fear we all have by basically saying, 'If you make us charge reasonable prices, that'll happen.'"
Welch stressed that he views such fearmongering as "bogus."
Patient advocates have similarly decried the pharmaceutical industry's scare tactics, which are often used to shield companies' power to drive up prices as they please.
"Patients like me and those who live with hemophilia need innovative medicine. But what use is there in developing groundbreaking new drugs if we can’t afford them?" Utah-based advocate Meg Jackson-Drage wrote in a letter to Deseret News earlier this month. "The drug price provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act aren't a political 'sound bite'—they are historic legislation that allow for the innovation we need at prices we can afford."
"Patients fought hard for the reforms in the Inflation Reduction Act—and we won't let Big Pharma and its allies' fearmongering scare us," Jackson-Drage added.
Politico reported Thursday that "Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said his committee will be on the lookout for any political or corporate meddling" with regard to the drug price reforms.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is set to take charge of the Senate's Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, has vowed to use his position to challenge the "incredible greed in the pharmaceutical industry."
One Democratic pharmaceutical lobbyist lamented anonymously to The Washington Post last month that Sanders will "go after [the drug companies] at every turn, and they only have a couple friends left in the caucus anymore, so it's going to be tough."