The Biden Administration and California Democrats have more in common than party affiliation and policy positions that lead to higher taxes and bad outcomes. Both Lyin’ Joe Biden and California lawmakers caused a supply chain mess, and they have no solutions.
Joe Biden’s handlers prompted him to read a series of remarks about greasing the supply chain bottlenecks that saw a record-setting 70 cargo ships anchored off California’s coast unable to dock and offload. The White House mandated West Coast ports to run 24-7, despite previous attempts at extended hours falling flat. Transportation, logistics, and trucking industry insiders have expressed opinions why opening 24-7 during the week didn’t improve pickup and delivery efforts.
Marine Exchange of Southern California executive director Kip Louttit indicated that “the ships are double or triple the size of the ships we were seeing 10 or 15 years ago. They take longer to unload. You need more trucks, more trains, more warehouses to put the cargo.”
Harbor Trucking Association CEO Matt Schrap went on the record stating, “We’re also storing thousands of empty containers at our yards because we don’t have the ability to return them. The marine terminals are either out of space, or they’ve reached the allocation limit the steamship lines have given them for that particular type of container.”
But Total Terminals International chief executive Bill Peratt told the blunt truth about the after-hours debacle. “So far, we have had zero deliveries. We want to gather information, make adjustments, and see if we can change behaviors.”
What Democrats, from sea to shining Washington, D.C., are not funneling through the establishment media is the chilling effect their policies have had on business, particularly independent truckers. California passed an anti-independent contractor law (AB5) that forces owner-operators to work with freight carriers outside the Golden State. These often long-haul truckers who used to charge into Port of Long Beach and Los Angeles for big-box retailers and logistics outfits are banned from working as their own boss.
The Democrat law designed to eliminate such free enterprise resulted in truckers seeking work elsewhere. It’s no wonder expanding hours has not resulted in the White House’s promise of increasing supply chain output by as much as 40 percent.
Port Los Angeles executive director Gene Seroka reportedly agreed that increasing shipyard hours would do little other than increase operational costs that will be passed on to consumers. Regional warehouses have no plans to increase their hours because storage space remains scarce. An estimated 98 percent of Southern California warehouses are at or near capacity because they don’t have enough truckers hauling loads to their final destinations.
“It has been nearly impossible to get everyone on the same page towards 24/7 operations,” Seroka reportedly said.
If the supply chain crisis were not yet another self-inflicted wound perpetrated on the American people by Democrats, why aren’t Republican-run states suffering the same problems? Florida’s officials recently announced the Sunshine State has upwards of 15 viable ports ready and waiting to receive goods and materials. Rather than alienate independent truckers, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has reportedly created a $3.3 billion capital investment initiative to improve the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico ports.
What Democrats don’t want everyday Americans to know is that their fouled-up, anti-business policies and laws are at the crux of the supply chain logjam.
