We Are in Real Trouble

Frm Senator Ernest F. Hollings:

The trouble with the President and Congress is that there are all imbued with reelection, i.e. the money for reelection.

Now we are in real trouble. We’ve lost the markets for textiles, cameras, radios, TVs, steel, electronics, computers, communications equipment, machine tools, advance technology, robots, steppers, etc. The little that we produce has now been bought up by foreigners. Big Blue, IBM and the Hummer went to China; Westinghouse Nuclear and all of its patents went to Japan; Bell labs and all of its discoveries went to France; Bethlehem Steel to is now Russian; Genentech went to Switzerland. And we can’t prepare for war. Boeing’s fighter planes depend on parts from India and Sikorsky for its helicopter must get its tail motor from Turkey.

We begin a program to stimulate American production and American jobs. But in April President Obama signs a declaration against protectionism at the summit of the big nations. And now The New York Times editorializes “’Buy American’ is a terrible idea.” You would think that having to get a Mexican loan to keep The New York Times going would have sobered them up from their mantra of “free trade” and “protectionism.” Our trouble is most people in the Congress believe The New York Times. Yet Congress is our only hope.

The United States of America began a trade war against the Mother Country’s protectionism. Under the Navigation Act of 1632, England required all production in the colony shipped back to England to be transported in English bottoms. Furthering protectionism, England enacted the Townsend Act with discriminatory tariffs causing the Boston Tea Party, igniting the Revolution. Once we had won our freedom, adopted a Constitution, and adopted a national seal, the first Congress in history, on July 4, 1789, pursuant to Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution, assigning the duty of competing in international trade to Congress, enacted a protectionist tariff on numerous articles. We financed and built the industrial giant, U.S.A., with protectionism. Now, the President, the Congress, the press, and the think tanks, all think that protectionism or “Buy American” is a terrible idea.

Full Story: We Are in Real Trouble | Economy In Crisis.