by Gerard Scimeca
By all metrics, President Biden has made things worse for our country.
Under Biden, almost two-thirds of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck and now more Americans are working part-time for economic reasons.
Real costs for American families are up 17.3 percent, their wages are down 2.5 percent and food, rent, and energy prices have spiked to historic levels.
Our border is in crisis with illegal migrants overwhelming sanctuary cities. Crime is rampant in America’s cities with liberal prosecutors treating violent criminals as if they were low-level petty crooks.
It should come to no surprise that more voters view President Trump’s presidency better than they do of the current president’s.
Another example of President Biden being asleep at the switch is China. China is threatening the U.S. homeland by buying up land across the country and having a major role in the fentanyl crisis that killed thousands of Americans. They are also poisoning American children with unregulated, illegal disposable vapes that are blatantly marketed and sold to children in kid-friendly flavors and packaging.
These illegal disposable vapes, the majority of which are manufactured in China, have been able to operate in a regulatory gray area. Under the Biden Administration, the Chinese have redoubled their efforts to exploit regulatory loopholes and lax FDA enforcement to saturate the market with untested and unapproved devices. Consequently, millions of American consumers, including minors, have unknowingly used illicit and unregulated vapes, putting their health and safety in jeopardy.
According to the latest National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS), the use of flavored, disposable vapes by high schoolers has dramatically increased over the past four years. And most troubling is that nearly 90 percent of the products teens use are manufactured in China.
Make no mistake, the vast majority of illegal disposable vape products sold in the United States are made by Chinese companies affiliated with the Chinese National Tobacco Company and their profits go to the Chinese government. These products come through our ports and airports in purposely mislabeled cargo bins with shipments were mislabeled as shoes, toys, and flashlights.
Our enforcement agencies, at the local, state, and federal levels, need to recognize the magnitude of the threat and respond accordingly. Given the prevalence of fentanyl and illegal disposable vapes, many of which are counterfeit, in our communities, we cannot risk having these ready-made delivery systems on store shelves and within reach of American kids and teens. We need real action now with so many young lives on the line.
Unfortunately, the Biden administration is asleep at the wheel on another issue where the Chinese government is winning. In state legislatures across the country, bills are being introduced to take action where the Biden administration has failed to act. I urge our state leaders to support legislation that provides much-needed enforcement tools to retailers and law enforcement to clean up Biden’s mess and take action against unscrupulous Chinese vape manufacturers and the illegal disposable vapes they peddle to our kids.
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Gerard Scimeca is an attorney and Chairman of CASE, Consumer Action for a Strong Economy, a free-market-oriented consumer advocacy organization.
Photo “Joe Biden with Ice Cream” by Joe Biden for President CCNCSA2.0.
