Congress Enters the Red Zone

My favorite way to watch NFL football is on the Red Zone channel — it shows all the best plays from each game and has zero commercials. The best part is when it turns into the “witching hour” at about the beginning of the fourth quarter for all the games. As the host says, the witching hour is when losses turn into wins and wins turn into losses.

Right now for Congress watchers it is the witching hour — the lame duck month at the end of a two year term of Congress. Anything can happen and often does.

Remember that even though the Republicans regained control of the House of Representatives, those changes do not take place until January. For now, Speaker Pelosi is still in charge and has the votes to pass legislation that targets our businesses. This Congress came within one vote of awarding tax credits to only union-made EV’s — we need to stay vigilant until the 117th Congress ends.  As we have seen from the language included in the Inflation Reduction Act, there is currently a majority on Congress that supports programs that try to pick winners and losers in the transition to EV’s rather than letting the free market decide. 

America’s global trading partners have already expressed their discontent over Congress’ efforts to make imported electric vehicles and vehicle parts more costly. If the U.S. Treasury and IRS are unwilling, or unsuccessful, in their attempts to shape the legislative language of the Inflation Reduction Act into something less incendiary towards our global allies, we will surely be in for retaliatory actions. And once trade retaliation starts, it can be nearly impossible to de-escalate. Remember, 58 years ago a similar trade disagreement with Europe is how we got saddled with the 25% “chicken tax” on light trucks that still haunts us today.

Fortunately for us, AIADA has a very experienced team that is prepared to throw cold water on any outlandish ideas against international nameplate dealers that may pop up over the next few weeks.

Now is a good reminder to stay in touch with your congressional representatives to help make sure that no anti-business legislation gets attached to any must pass legislation by the end of the year. AIADA is always available to help — simply go to aiada.org and get connected with our Legislative Action Network and Dealer Visit Network.  Please stay involved and know that AIADA is your insurance policy in Washington, D.C. to help protect your business.

I’ll be sure to reach out to you to help defeat any last-minute shenanigans — thank you for your support!

John Connelly
2022 AIADA Chairman
Johnconnelly@acuracolumbus.com
513-290-5646 (call or text)