A major toy executive is slamming President Biden's plans to save Christmas from global supply chain backlogs by keeping West Coast shipping ports open around the clock, calling the move 'too little, too late.'
MGA Entertainment CEO Isaac Larian, the billionaire toy maker behind Bratz dolls, warned that the supply chain crisis is too far gone to be remedied in time for the holiday season.
'I think this directive is too little, too late. And frankly, it's a political gimmick to me,' Larian said on the Fox News show 'America's Newsroom' on Thursday.
His remarks came the day after Biden announced that he had reached a deal with unions and business leaders from Walmart, FedEx, UPS and others to expand operations at one of the country's largest shipping ports in a bid to ease supply chain bottlenecks that are driving up consumer prices and emptying store shelves.
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Isaac Larian said that President Biden's plans to address supply chain shortages are too late to save Christmas
Larian is the billionaire toy maker behind Bratz dolls
But Larian said that keeping the ports open doesn't address labor shortages.
'Whether the ports are open 24 hours a day or 48 hours a day, you cannot get labor,' he said. 'If you cannot get labor, you cannot get trucks, you cannot get the merchandise out. And even if you get them out, it's gonna be too late for Christmas.'
Larian said his company's most popular toy – L.O.L. Surprise! O.M.G. Movie Magic Studios – is only fulfilling about 60 percent of its demand from stores in America. 'That means a lot of kids are not going to be able to get their LOL Surprise Movie Magic under the Christmas tree or Hanukkah tree this year,' he said.
'I've been doing this for 42 years. I have never, ever seen something like this before,' he added. 'And frankly, the administration knew about this and what they are doing is too little, too late to save this holiday.'
He argued that Biden's administration isn't doing enough to incentivize people to come back to work. 'If you're paying people to stay home and they make more money just staying home than working, they don't want to come to work,' he said.
Larian said, 'I have a solution. There are hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers who do want to work and we're keeping them in cages at the border. Let them come to work, let them free instead of feeding them and giving them money to live where they are living . . . just let them come to work.'
Supply chain bottlenecks have led to empty shelves and high prices for American consumers (pictured: bare shelves seen at a Minneapolis Walgreens on October 9)
Under the agreement. the Port of Los Angeles will join the Port of Long Beach in working around the clock
But Biden touted the agreements with ports, unions, and shippers as 'a sign of major progress in moving goods from manufacturers to a store and to your front door.'
His remarks came yesterday shortly after White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters: 'We are not the postal service or UPS or FedEx. We cannot guarantee. What we can do is use every lever at the federal government's disposal to reduce delays, to ensure that we are addressing bottlenecks in the system, including ports and the need for them to be open longer hours.
Once implemented the proposed changes could increase output by more than 3,500 shipping containers per week, White House officials said.
'Traditionally, our ports have only been open during the week, Monday through Friday. And they're generally closed down at nights and on weekends. By staying open seven days a week through the night and on the weekends, the port of Los Angeles will open over 60 extra hours a week,'
