Those who prattle about the perils of protectionism need to be
asked: What has free trade produced, but a bankrupt America that
must go hat-in-hand to Beijing to borrow the money to rebuild our
crumbling infrastructure? Are we also to use Chinese iron, steel
and cement because they, with their Third World wages, will work
for less than our fellow Americans?As for Europe’s threat of a trade war, bring it on!
We would eat their lunch. As analyst Charles McMillion writes, in
eight years of Bush, Canada ran up $500 billion in trade surpluses
at our expense, Japan ran up $600 billion, the European Union $800
billion.These three trading partners, often by imposing value-added taxes
on U.S. imports, and rebating those taxes on goods sold here,
racked up $1.9 trillion in trade surpluses, sucking jobs, factories
and technology out of the United States. These trade deficits, and
the even larger ones with China, says Paul Volcker, are behind our
present crisis.America is bust. It is shameful to have to go to China and Japan to
borrow the money to rebuild America. But to go to China and Japan
and borrow billions, and not spend the money here, makes zero sense.We have indulged in free trade for a quarter century. And look
where it has gotten us.
Until the American people demand that their elected members of Congress live up to their duties and responsibilities under the Constitution, they will continue to have their pockets picked clean by these corrupt banksters in New York City (and London) and their contemptible facilitators in Washington, D.C.