Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Wednesday that Democrats’ narrative about “affordability” is proven a lie by the left-wing fuel-efficiency standards imposed on automakers, which have driven up car prices.
Duffy spoke to the effects of the Biden-era Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards at an Oval Office press conference alongside the president, announcing they were resetting the standards.
“Yesterday at the cabinet meeting, the president was talking about affordability, and the way that Democrats talk about affordability is a lie,” Duffy said.
“Biden and Buttigieg…used EVs and hybrids to come up with a 62 mile-an-hour per gallon standard, which the car companies will tell you, is completely unattainable,” Duffy said.
He noted that this forced automakers to spend big on technology in trying to reach the standard and cost them billions in carbon trades if they could not meet it.
“So they spent a lot of money on technology trying to meet the unattainable standard, driving up the cost of a car, number one,” Duffy said.
“Number two, if they couldn’t meet the unattainable standard, they had to trade for carbon, costing billions of dollars, and again, driving up the price of the cars,” he added.
The Department of Transportation, under former Secretary Pete Buttigieg, announced in April 2022 a rule increasing fuel efficiency standards on automakers by eight percent for cars and light trucks built in the 2024-2025 model years, followed by a 10 percent increase for 2026 models.
The Biden DOT announced a two percent per year increase for 2027-2031 model passenger cars and 2029-2031 model light trucks in April 2024.
Duffy told reporters Democrats “were not making cars more affordable, they were making them less affordable.”
As the secretary pointed out, Trump called out Democrats on their affordability narrative on Tuesday after Bidenflation unleashed major affordability problems for Americans.
“I inherited the worst inflation in history. There was no affordability. Nobody could afford anything. The prices were massively high,” he said before acknowledging Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rolins and her work to bring prices down.
Trump added, “The word affordability is a con job by the Democrats.”
For example, Trump pointed to the price of gas, which AAA notes ranged from $2.40 to $2.66 per gallon of unleaded regular in 11 states on Wednesday, with the national average at $2.98. In comparison, under President Joe Biden, gas prices reached an all-time high of $5.01 per gallon of regular in June 2022.
Trump predicted gas prices could fall to $2.00 a gallon or even lower, which he said would be easier to accomplish if he were not working to build up strategic reserves that Biden used before the 2024 election.
Trump highlighted the crippling inflation brought about under Biden at levels unseen since the Carter administration. Biden and Democratic lawmakers’ spending in the last administration, including the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan and the so-called Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, had a hand in sending prices rocketing upward.
Trump touted that his administration has tackled inflation, but said, “There is still more to do.”
“There’s always more to do, but we have it down to a very good level,” he said. “It’s going to go down a little bit further. You want to have a little tiny bit of inflation; otherwise, that’s not good either. Then you have a thing called deflation, and deflation can be worse than inflation.”
Vice President JD Vance echoed Trump’s sentiment during the meeting and detailed “the average American family lost over $3,000 of household income” under Biden, while “under the first 10 months of this Trump administration, they have gained over $1,000 of household income.”
