Pirate's Cove

For an administration which apparently wants to control everything they sure seem to like to deflect blame, and just say the craziest things

Commerce Secretary Raimondo to Americans Worried About Christmas Supply Chain: ‘Call FedEx’

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that she tells people to “call FedEx” if they ask her if the supply chain problems will mean Christmas gifts may not be delivered.

Partial transcript as follows:

MARGARET BRENNAN: Supply chains around the world have been massively disrupted over the past few months. We have all of these bottlenecks. Why haven’t the ports? Why haven’t the truckers? Why hasn’t this become unstuck?

RAIMONDO: Yeah, good morning. So, this is, as you say, a top issue for Americans. It’s a complicated- complicated issue. I mean, last year during COVID, we shut our economy down. You know, I was the governor at the time. We shut down Rhode Island’s economy. We have never seen that before. So that meant factories closed. People went home. You can’t just turn the economy back on overnight. So, it takes a little bit of time. I will say we are making progress. You know, due to the president’s leadership, we now have the ports open 24/7 seven and the two largest and busiest ports.

That was their one big idea. That’s it

BRENNAN: But there are reports that those- while the president announced the 24/7 opening, that that’s not actually happening out in California, that there are still backups. The business community has been complaining about that.

RAIMONDO: There are backups. And as I said, this isn’t something that can be fixed overnight. But the important thing is, you know, fundamentally, supply chains and logistics are run by the private sector. People say to me, will Christmas gifts be delivered? To which I say, call FedEx. You know that- that isn’t what the government does. What we are doing, and the president is committed to this. We’re using every tool in our toolbox to be supportive, to help to unstick the ports. An area that I am very focused on is the semiconductor shortage. We are leaning forward into that increasing transparency in the semiconductor supply chain to make sure that we do everything possible. But this is a direct result of COVID. It is temporary and we are working every day to unstick these supply chains.

That’s just so unbelievably condescending. Is there a stronger version of the that word? Without dropping the F word in front of it? These people never go into details as to what they are doing. What does Fed Ex have to do with semi-conductors? In fairness, there isn’t all that much they can do. The government makes virtually nothing. If Trump were still president we’d have most of the same issues. The difference is, Trump and his people would have made this issue number 1, primarily looking to get people to relax, telling them things will eventually be back, to have confidence, to be positive. Heck, from what I’ve seen this is what we’re seeing from the leaders in the UK, Germany, Japan, and France. But, not Joe’s admin. They aren’t focused on this, forgetting that the economy is the #1 thing on people’s minds, and how it affects themselves.

Trump would be looking to temporarily relax rules and regs, help supply chains streamline. Joe’s 24/7 strategy? It’s not working

Union Pacific Corp (UNP.N) – one of two major railroads that haul cargo inland from the backed-up Los Angeles and Long Beach seaports – handled just a few dozen more containers after switching its nearby cargo terminal to 24/7 operations, Chief Executive Lance Fritz said on Thursday.

The railroad’s Intermodal Container Transfer Facility (ICTF) last week added roughly 20 hours in the early mornings on Sunday and Monday to take the facility to round-the-clock operation. The move supported the Biden Administration’s plan to ease snarls at the Southern California ports that process roughly 40% of the container cargo that enters the country.

But so far, it hasn’t made a big dent.

“We’ve seen four dozen incremental domestic intermodal loads come through,” Fritz said in a Zoom interview. “It helps somewhere, and it will stay open 24/7 if that’s what it needs.”

Union Pacific (UNP.N) executives and other logistics experts say that a shortage of available warehouse space and port and long-haul truckers are stymieing efforts to keep up with the surge in cargo to the United States – where the world’s most avid consumers have been buying more goods than ever due to pandemic-related curbs on travel and entertainment.

The Commerce Secretary is being condescending, the Transportation Secretary is MIA, and Biden is focused on other stuff.