In 2016, General Motors will roll out for the first time in the United States a new model of Buick built exclusively in China: the Buick Envision.
It’s the first time the iconic American auto manufacturer will sell cars built in China in the United States since receiving a sizable taxpayer-funded bailout at the end of the George W. Bush administration and beginning of the Barack Obama administration.
The Buick Envision–which was available in China for purchase as far back as 2014–will make its official debut in the United States in the summer of 2016.
The Buick Envision bills itself “a luxury crossover designed to turn heads and welcome you in.”
A quick search of “Buick Envision” leads to the Buick Envision’s website where one can explore all the features and design of the vehicle. The website doesn’t appear to make any reference to the fact that the Envision is manufactured in China.
The issue of U.S. auto manufacturers moving production facilities overseas has taken a center stage this presidential election, with the rise of both billionaire Donald Trump in the Republican Party and of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in the Democratic Party.
Trump has drawn attention to GM competitor Ford for the company’s decision to move manufacturing to Mexico, but Ford wasn’t the recipient of a taxpayer-funded bailout. Sanders, meanwhile, has used his opposition to the bailouts to show that he isn’t influenced by crony capitalism–all while former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has tried to take credit for saving the auto industry with her support of the bailout.
Breitbart News reached out to American Jobs Alliance to get its reaction to GM’s decision to import Chinese-produced cars. “When the taxpayers bailed out General Motors, we were told it was all about saving jobs in America. Now GM turns around and throws Americans under the wheels of Buicks made in China. Where does it stop? Will General Motors build Cadillacs, Chevys and GMC trucks in China next?” Curtis Ellis executive director American Jobs Alliance told Breitbart News.
General Motors has also announced plans to sell a Chinese manufactured hybrid Cadillac, the CT6 in American markets.
“Flint was known for decades as Buick City. It’s now jobless, bankrupt and destitute,” Ellis continued.
That’s inevitable if America is stripped of jobs and industry. Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell and Barack Obama promise more of the same with the TransPacific Partnership, another globalist trade deal like the ones that destroyed Flint and thousands of communities across America. This must stop. We must put America and Americans first again. What’s good for GM should be good for America, not China.
Rick Manning, President of Americans for Limited Government, blasted GM’s decision in a statement to Breitbart News.
When the Bush Administration bailed out GM there was an implicit agreement that they would build cars here. GM’s decision to manufacture vehicles in China was an insult, but it takes real chutzpah to import those very cars to compete against American made autos that don’t necessarily have a US companies nameplate. This is an inexcusable slap in the face of American workers and taxpayers. And people wonder why blue-collar workers support Trump?