Labor Secretary Buys a Foreign Vehicle By Mistake, But At Least It Was Built By Foreign Union Workers

Her Chevrolet Equinox Was Not "Made in the USA"

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.