Banning Certain Chinese Cars Unconstitutional
Two Michigan lawmakers want to ban Chinese cars in U.S.
6/10/20262 min read
It’s an election year, and like every election year, politicians are working full time to pander to idiotic special interest groups and their idiotic followers. In Michigan, that means cars and the automotive industry. Combine that with fear of China, and what you have is idiotic policy rather than good old-fashioned, honest competition.
Two protectionist Michigan politicians not only want to ban Chinese vehicle sales or imports to the US, they also want a complete ban on any entry into the country, including daily rentals booked in Canada and Mexico.
Could there be anything more un-American than denying people their vehicle of choice? Our cars define us. Already, protectionism and other miscellaneous rules deny us small foreign-made trucks like the one-time Toyota SR-5… perhaps the best running vehicle I ever held title to.
Moves to protect the US auto industry are nothing new. Former President Biden added a 100 percent import tariff on all Chinese-made cars. He also had the Department of Commerce draw up new rules that banned the import of certain cars manufactured by Chinese companies. If you thought that was a Trump scheme, you would be wrong.
Two communist-style Democrats from Michigan, Senator Elissa Slotkin and Rep. Haley Stevens don’t think those measures go far enough. They’re introducing the Protecting America from Chinese Cars Act. The bill would ban “connected” cars built or designed in China and other adversarial nations from entering the country, even if built in a U.S.-friendly country. “[Exemptions] could only be granted under strict conditions, with both transparency and congressional oversight,” the bill says.
In other words, they don’t want you to drive a car you consider awesome to own. But what else is new? Politicians don’t want you to own the stove you want, heat your house the way you want, or do anything else you want. You’re their pet and the masters know what’s best for you. That smells of horse manure. It’s dictatorial and very unconstitutional.
But wait! It gets worse. Customs and Border Protection would have 90 days to implement the rules and draw up a list of prohibited vehicles. Seriously? So cars are now on par with smuggled illegal aliens? In this world of AI, why not? Apparently machines are people. Can I claim my car as a dependent?
“We’re gonna be aggressive here because Michigan jobs are on the line, but also so is national security,” Stevens said. Not only does that sound like horse manure, it is. Jobs should not be legally protected at the cost of individual autonomy. As far as national security, what is the average driver going to do in a car that will cause bombs to come crashing down or a virus to take down Wall Street? Cameras won’t see anything that can’t already be found on Google Earth.
If cameras/digital tech really are a national security risk, then ban ALL “connected” cars – something that arguably never should have started in the first place. It’s just as easy for a high-skilled Chinese hacker to hack into an American-built car as it is to sell Chinese “spy-cars”.
Source used: arstechnica.com
