[Swiftwater Gazette] Ben Stein on Pork

[Brad Haslett]

More bad "stuff" in the so-called Stimulus Bill.  Remember, it was the
Smoot-Hawley Tarrif under Hoover that accelerated us into the Great
Depression. Obama is owned by the unions and this is the first of many
"bones" he's throwing their way.  The restraint of trade provisions in
this bill are the same as Smoot-Hawley.  Our biggest creditors are
China, Japan, and Great Britain.  What's going to happen when they
pick-up their bat, and ball, and glove and leave the field?  The One
is totally clueless - I'm not just saying that as a partisan, this is
scary shit! His wife has him by the balls at home and Nancy has his
balls at the office.  Is there anyone out there with any sanity?
Hello!  Anyone?

Brad

----------------

US-EU trade war looms as Barack Obama bill urges 'Buy American'

The prospect of a trade war between the US and Europe is looming after
"Buy American" provisions were added to President Barack Obama's $820
billion (£573 billion) stimulus package.


By Alex Spillius in Washington
Last Updated: 12:27AM GMT 30 Jan 2009


The EU trade commissioner vowed to fight back after the bill passed in
the House of Representatives late on Wednesday included a ban on most
purchases of foreign steel and iron used in infrastructure projects.

The Senate's version of the legislation, which will be debated early
next week, goes even further, requiring that any projects related to
the stimulus use only American-made equipment and goods.

The inclusion of protectionist measures has quickly raised hackles in Europe.

Catherine Ashton, the EU trade commissioner, said: "We are looking at
the situation. The one thing we can be absolutely certain about, is if
a bill is passed which prohibits the sale or purchase of European
goods on American territory, that is something we will not stand idly
by and ignore."

Despite the parlous state of the US economy, some major American
firms, including General Electric, are also opposed to the Buy
American stipulations, fearing reprisals from overseas and further
damage to the global economy.

Bill Lane, government affairs director for Caterpillar, which has just
laid off nearly a fifth of its 112,000 work force and is the tenth
largest US investor in Britain, warned it was a dangerous step.

He said: "We are the first to recognise that if the US embraces Buy
American then the whole notion of buying national will mestastasize
and limit our ability to take part in overseas projects.

"We are students of history. A major reason a very deep recession
turned into the Great Depression was the fact that countries turned
inward."

Countries in Europe and Asia are planning major injections of cash
into infrastructure to boost their economies, and US firms don't want
to be left out of potentially lucrative contracts.

"We would be a primary beneficiary of any type of infrastructure
project in the US, but at the same time we are one of the country's
largest exporters," he added.

Some industrial giants also question whether the Buy American laws
would contravene US obligations reached in various World Trade
Organisation agreements.

They also point to the 1930s as a lesson in the perils of
protectionism. Congress passed the Buy American Act in 1933, allowing
the government to favour US products for government contracts.
Restrictions were eased in 1982, but the plans currently working their
way through Congress would bring the new law close to its forebear of
75 years ago.

Foreign steel would only be allowed if using US steel drove up the
cost of a project by more than 25 per cent, while the bill passed on
Wednesday required that the Transportation and Security Administration
use American-made uniforms.

Supporters of Buy American argue that tighter measures are required to
protect American jobs and point out that the US steel industry is
losing out to Chinese imports subsidised by Beijing.

"As we are losing jobs in record numbers, we obviously need to devote
these funds to direct creation of American jobs," said Sherrod Brown,
a senator from Ohio, part of the struggling industrial heartland.

Unemployment in his state has risen to 7.6 per cent, up from 5.8 per
cent in December 2007.

"To do that, we must ensure that federal funds are used to buy
American products and to help promote manufacturing in our country.
Ultimately I want taxpayers to know where their dollars are being
spent. Are they being spent on American products or products coming
from Germany or Mexico?"

Mr Obama has sent mixed signals on free trade throughout his campaign
and the early days of his presidency. He has argued that the North
American Free Trade should be recalibrated in favour of American
workers, but has stressed the need for a co-operative international
approach to the economic crisis.

Though fellow Democrats in the house and senate drafted their versions
of the stimulus bill, the new president and his advisers had major
input and influence over the contents.

The bill failed to win a single Republican vote in the house, despite
a major charm offensive by Mr Obama, which included a visit to
Congress and an invitation to Congressional leaders to drinks at the
White House.

It passed thanks to the Democrats' healthy majority, but the senate
bill could see a tougher fight. Each rendering of the bill will be
merged at a process known as conference, before being returned to both
chambers for a new vote. The president has asked that a final bill be
presented to him by February 13.




http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/4389597/US-EU-trade-war-looms-as-Barack-Obama-bill-urges-Buy-American.html
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On Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 8:16 AM, Bill Effros <bill at effros.com> wrote:
> Brad--Dead horse.
>
> My question is "Why does everyone keep throwing in the 'recession might
> be over' canard?"
>
> This country is going through a fundamental restructuring.
>
> I doubt we will ever go back to the days where everyone thought they
> would earn above average incomes.
>
> There will be a lot of flailing while people settle into a different
> standard of living than they thought the future would bring.
>
> Wealth is not being redistributed, it is simply being reduced for almost
> everyone.
>
> Bill Effros
>
>
>
> Brad Haslett wrote:
>> Stein remains one of my favorite financial and government observers.
>> Here is his latest.
>>
>> Brad
>>
>> --------------
>>
>> A Bleak Day
>>
>> By Ben Stein on 1.29.09 @ 9:31AM
>>
>> I love this. The new kind of politics of hope. Eight hours of debate
>> in the HR to pass a bill spending $820 billion, or roughly $102
>> billion per hour of debate.
>>
>> Only ten per cent of the "stimulus" to be spent on 2009.
>>
>> Close to half goes to entities that sponsor or employ or both members
>> of the Service Employees International Union, federal, state, and
>> municipal employee unions, or other Democrat-controlled unions.
>>
>> This bill is sent to Congress after Obama has been in office for seven
>> days. It is 680 pages long. According to my calculations, not one
>> member of Congress read the entire bill before this vote. Obviously,
>> it would have been impossible, given his schedule, for President Obama
>> to have read the entire bill.
>>
>> For the amount spent we could have given every unemployed person in
>> the United States roughly $75,000.
>>
>> We could give every person who had lost a job and is now passing
>> through long-term unemployment of six months or longer roughly
>> $300,000.
>>
>> There has been pork barrel politics since there has been politics. The
>> scale of this pork is beyond what had ever been imagined before -- and
>> no one can be sure it will actually do much stimulation.
>>
>> Further, no one can be sure that we are not already at the
>> trough/inflection point of the recession such that this money will be
>> spent mostly after the recovery is well under way.
>>
>> How long until the debt incurred under this program is so immense that
>> it causes a downgrade in the sovereign debt of the USA? What happens
>> to us then?
>>
>> This has been a punch in the solar plexus to the kind of responsible,
>> far-seeing, mature government processes that are needed to protect
>> America. This is more than the pork barrel. This is a coup for the
>> constituencies of the party in power and against the idea of a
>> responsible government itself. A bleak day.
>>
>> Unfortunately, it is only the latest in a long series of such days
>> stretching across decades of rule by both parties, to the point where
>> truly responsible government is only a distant echo of our forgotten
>> ancestors.
>>
>> Letter to the Editor
>> StumbleUpon| Digg| Reddit| Twitter| Facebook
>>
>> Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer living in Beverly
>> Hills and Malibu. He writes "Ben Stein's Diary" for every issue of The
>> American Spectator.
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