05 Feb 2009
Buy American plan could cost U.S. jobs

What I want to know is exactly how this could be considered "protectionism"? Number 1, we have very, very few manufacturing jobs left to protect. Number 2, is it really protectionism when an economic entity (company, government or even individual) decides to spend it's own funds in it's home country? If I decide to buy an American car because I have relatives who work for GM, is that "protectionism"? If not, how is it different when I direct my government to spend my tax dollars locally because I have relatives who work for GM?

Is it "protectionism" when the government sources it's military hardware purchases locally (or even within an alliance)? By the whining from some foreign leaders in this article it would appear to be... perhaps we should order our next main battle tank from the Russians, I hear they build pretty good ones, and they gotta be cheaper.

If it's not a tariff, and it's not a duty, and it's not an importation tax of any sort, then it's not protectionism. Period

I wonder if the hard core free trade lobby really understands what they've cost this country over the long haul? Have any of them ever stopped to ask how the government was funded before we amended our Constitution to allow income taxation? Here's a hint: tariff's, duties and importation taxes. Somehow, we managed to grow from a motley collection of 13 colonies to a world economic and military power without an income tax, and without "free trade". Trade was a source of huge political contentions in American history - but I'm not so sure that the farmers who pushed so hard for free trade early in the last century would be happy with a 30% income tax. Reliance on tariffs kept government small - reliance on the income tax has allowed it's extraordinary growth. It's my personal belief that this was a core reason the Founder's inserted that line about "no capitation taxes" in the original Constitution - they knew what would happen once it was gone.

Reuters - "Buy American" provisions under consideration in Congress as part of a huge economic stimulus bill could create only 1,000 new steel industry jobs and might cost as many as 65,000 across a number of sectors, a new study said on Tuesday.


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12:56 /Politics | 1 comment | permanent link