Vivek Ramaswamy on Tuesday questioned the $6.6 billion loan authorized by the Biden-Harris administration to the troubled electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian. The company will use the loan to fund the completion of its Georgia factory.
The Biden-Harris administration on Tuesday approved a $6.6 billion loan for Rivian after the construction of its electric vehicle factory in Georgia after progress stalled in March despite $1.5 billion in state tax incentives brokered by Governor Brian Kemp.
Ramaswamy, the former Republican presidential candidate who President-elect Donald Trump announced will run the forthcoming presidential advisory commission Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, questioned the justification for the loan in a post to the social media platform X.
“Biden is forking over $6.6B to EV-maker Rivian to build a Georgia plant they’ve already halted,” wrote Ramaswamy. “One ‘justification’ is the 7,500 jobs it creates, but that implies a cost of $880k/job which is insane.”
He added, “This smells more like a political shot across the bow at [Musk and Tesla].”
While Musk’s Tesla received a similar loan authorized by the federal government in January 2010, it was much smaller, as the Obama-Biden administration approved only a $465 million loan for Tesla to complete a factory in California.
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA-14), who will lead a new subcommittee in the U.S. House to serve as an interface between Congress and DOGE, shared Ramaswamy’s post to X and highlighted the loan to Rivian as an example of spending that should be cut.
“Why not just cut each person a $880,000 check?! The absurdity of this is the exact type of insanity that we have to stop,” wrote Greene.
She wrote to X, “I can tell you right now Georgians do not support Rivian and are sick and tired of seeing tax dollars handed over to this FAILING company, federal [and] state!”
Interest in the Biden-Harris loan to Rivian from Greene and the incoming DOGE official was posted as Kemp Communications Director Cody Hall insisted the federal government had nothing to do with attracting the electric car maker to Georgia.
Hall wrote to X that Kemp “has been consistent” with the electric vehicle manufacturer, and stated, “Rivian picked GA (and is staying) because we’re the best state for biz. Not because of Biden,” or other Democrats.
After the Rivian factory in Georgia stalled in March, Center for Economic Accountability president John Mozena said the Kemp administration should have treated the project with “far more due diligence and transparency than it received.”
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Vivek Ramaswamy” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0. Photo “Marjorie Taylor Greene” by Marjorie Taylor Greene.
