US Labor Secretary Bills Taxpayers for Her New SUV… Made In Canada

From Dr. Perry’s Carpe Diem blog:

In the video above, President Obama’s Labor Secretary, Hilda Solis, explains why she recently bought a new Chevy Equinox:

“What better example could I set if I encouraged my staff to go and purchase and seek how we could acquire a vehicle that would for me would send a signal that we’re for supporting our American workers, American-made products, fuel efficient as well.”

One problem: The Chevy Equinox is not built by American workers, because it’s not American-made. It’s built by foreign workers, in a foreign country: Canada. If Secretary Solis wanted to buy the “most American-made possible” to show her support of American workers, she should have considered the two most “American-made cars” available in America today: the Toyota Camry or the Honda Accord (according to Cars.com).

The Labor Secretary could have also considered one of the other top 10 “American-made” cars like the Honda Odyssey, Toyota Sienna, or the Toyota Tundra. But we all know why that won’t ever happen – those cars are mostly built in “right-to-work” states by non-union American workers. And so for political purposes to maintain union support, it’s more important for the U.S. Labor Secretary to support union workers in a foreign country than to support non-union workers in America. That just politics as usual in Washington. Better to support Canadian Auto Workers north of the border than support non-union workers in Texas or Alabama.

Ms. Solis tried to defend her purchase of a foreign import by saying that “66% of its parts were made in America.” Nice try. When Cars.com conducts its annual “American-made” list, it doesn’t even consider models like the Chevy Equinox with a domestic parts content rating below 75 percent.