Accountability
Tesla CEO Elon Musk says President Biden’s social spending bill should not be passed
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said late Monday that he is against President Joe Biden’s social and climate spending bill, outlining corners about an “insane” federal deficit.
“Honestly, I would just can this whole bill,” Musk said during the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit (CNBC). “Don’t pass it, that’s my recommendation.” President Biden’s bill, also known as the Build Back Better Act includes tax incentives of up to $12,500 for vehicles built by auto worker union members. This is an attempt to create demand for electric vehicles.
Additionally, this would reinstate the $7,500 federal credit for Tesla, despite the company not having union workers building vehicles. Musk has said Tesla has been doing just fine without the credit, which they have been operating without for the past two years.
Musk also said the nation could do without Biden’s infrastructure bill, which allows $7.5 billion to support electric-vehicle charging stations. “Do we need support for gas stations? We don’t. So there’s no need for support for a charging network. I would delete it. I’m literally saying get rid of all subsidies, but also for oil and gas.”
Musk continued, saying, “As autonomous vehicles come to the fore and it is easier to drive without going through the pain of having to drive, which is absolutely coming, it will be one of the biggest transformations ever in human civilization, and there will be more cars on the road. Traffic will get worse.”
Though Musk admitted that the U.S. needs better infrastructure, he thinks the government should take more of a back seat. Musk fears autonomous cars will flood the roads with traffic, something his company is working to create.
The Tesla CEO also envisions the creation of double-decker freeways and tunnels to allow for more room for traffic. One of his start-ups, The Boring Company, is working on doing just that. Later, Musk admitted that he is not an “extreme libertarian” and values government funding for science and space programs.
Terry A. Hurlbut has been a student of politics, philosophy, and science for more than 35 years. He is a graduate of Yale College and has served as a physician-level laboratory administrator in a 250-bed community hospital. He also is a serious student of the Bible, is conversant in its two primary original languages, and has followed the creation-science movement closely since 1993.
