President Joe Biden’s administration seems intent on micromanaging the basic aspects of how the public buys homes and cars. So, perhaps it’s time we started calling Uncle Sam by his real name: Nanny Sam.
Nanny Sam’s rules are undoubtedly intended to effect change in our society, at the expense of the free market, by forcing the public with good credit to help those with lower credit pay for mortgages and eventually to adopt electric vehicle technology for the sake of the climate crisis.
Bureaucrats and Biden administrators have decided that it would be good for those with higher credit to pay a premium to subsidize those with lower credit scores, effective May 1. A federal rule change governing housing loans fees will also make it more expensive for those with good credit scores and down payments to finance a new home in order to pass that money to someone with a lower credit score.
As someone who has tried and failed to buy a home, I am not saying our current housing market is perfect. But as someone who’s also been working to get some decent credit, why should I pay more now for a house than before paying all my statements on time?
Between scoldings about equity and opportunity, how are we to argue that it would be better to open up ways for poor people to make a decent living so they can afford payments instead of subsidizing riskier loan applicants?
And then you see Nanny Sam looking at your faithful four-cylinder sedan with a disapproving look in his eye. The federal government must use a carrot-and-stick approach to coercing auto manufacturers into entering the electric vehicle-only market through rebates and mandates, he concludes.
The Environmental Protection Agency unveiled its proposal earlier this month to make gas-powered cars the minority of new cars by 2032.
This comes as automakers have begun the transition to all-electric cars in earnest. They’ve already invested massively into making the switch despite questions about if there are even enough minerals to support a worldwide electric vehicle transition and what reliance on China’s heavy metals will mean for our national security.
Nanny Sam stays silent when asked about how those who will soon be getting discounted mortgage rates will be able to afford electric vehicles without putting them further in debt.
New electric vehicles are generally not cheap, and the ones that are have limited range, said Jason Hayes, director of energy and environmental policy for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Hayes said the EPA’s proposed rules would flip the free market on its head by demanding that vehicles are electric-powered instead of fitting into consumers’ lives.
“They’re telling people, ‘You will get this technology, and you will come to like it,’ or ‘Get used to it,’ or ‘Reorder your life so now the technology fits into your life,’” Hayes said. “That has never been the way free markets have worked.”
Hayes said that if electric vehicles could do everything that internal combustion cars can do, the government’s subsidies and mandates wouldn’t be necessary. But instead of waiting for the technology to ramp up to widespread electric vehicle usage, Nanny Sam has taken it upon himself to make demands.
Nanny Sam undoubtedly thinks that these are the right ways to protect the environment and ensure that everyone has a place to live, but the heavy-handed federal rules infringe on fundamental freedoms: We should be able to decide how to live our own lives without the government enforcing its ideals about what is right.
There are certainly ways that we can improve everyone’s lives through well-thought-out policies or programs, but the Biden administration’s far-reaching efforts to remake our society to reflect its liberal agenda more than exceed the constitutional bounds of the executive branch.
But what good does it do to tell Nanny Sam to follow the rules when he’s already making up his own?
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