In terms of being good at messaging the Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden-Harris administration has not been doing well. First, the name is just...not true. Townhall reported multiple evaluations of the legislation that found it would have marginal to zero impact on inflation, and may even increase inflationary pressure that's already running for 40-year highs.
Even before it was signed into law, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer spilled the beans and heralded the legislation that pretended to address inflation as "the most significant action ever to fight the climate crisis." That's because, again, the bill had nothing to do with inflation and everything to do with enacting Democrats' radical energy-killing so-called "green" agenda.
So of course, when Vice President Kamala Harris was asked at an event this week to explain her favorite parts of the Inflation Reduction Act, she faltered.
"S- I mean, so much, so m- I- one of the things that I'm very excited about is what we have been doing in terms of electric vehicles," Harris decided was her favorite part of the *Inflation* Reduction Act. "And I have a particular fondness, I must tell you, for electric school buses," she gushed. "I love electric school buses," she added to a smattering of applause from the audience.
"I really do. And we're manufacturing them in our country," Harris continued. "I've been to the manufacturing plants, I've been on these electric school buses — and think about it — aside from the pandemic, on a daily basis, 25 million children in our country everyday go to school on those diesel fueled school buses," the VP added. "And hundreds, thousands of school bus drivers are driving those buses which are then — these people, these children, these adults — are inhaling what is toxic air," Harris claimed. Does she think vehicle exhaust is piped into the buses?
Harris' admission that electric buses are her favorite part of the Inflation Reduction Act is yet another confirmation that the legislation isn't really helping Americans, it was just a vehicle to force more of the left's agenda through leaving just electric buses to be pointed to as an "exciting" provision.
It's also not her first time championing electric school buses. Back in May, she said they were great because they allow drivers to... "hear the road."
Kamala Harris: Electric school buses help bus drivers "hear the road." pic.twitter.com/mIlLvFgCOt
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) May 20, 2022
Not for nothing, even bus manufacturers note the significant issues with electric vehicles that are prohibitive to adoption by school districts such as the higher purchase price compared diesel buses, the need to also invest in expensive charging infrastructure, the need to retrain maintenance technicians and drivers, and the issue of "range anxiety" caused by electric buses.
As a reminder, Americans have not seen inflation reduced at all under Biden — and electric school buses won't help now. It continues to spike skyward, even accelerating in recent months. The Federal Reserve's aggressive interest rate hikes haven't tamed inflation. The Inflation Reduction Act didn't reduce it. And month after month of reports on producer, consumer, and PCE inflation show price increases continuing. The PPI and CPI for September — the last to be released before the midterms — showed inflation reaching new 40-year highs, growing at a faster rate than in August, and showing no relief in sight for weary Americans trying to make ends meet under Biden's "Build Back Better" policies that have failed to build back, let alone better.