A Mistake Repeated

Would you believe that both former President Trump and President Biden agree on something? It is the old bromide of “Buy American”.

Trump’s economic policy was a belief in mercantilism that had not been in vogue since the 17th century. His tariff man schtick ended up increasing our balance of trade deficit with China and paying subsidies to American farmers to make up for lost business.

Biden’s local preference edict is more ingrained in 1930s smokestack policy and the old AFL-CIO affiliation between the Democrats and the supposed working man. Mr. Biden may have won the votes of the union bosses, but he was solidly ignored by the rank and file.

Trying to have a policy about only using American content in federal contracts doesn’t work. Forgetting about our commitments to the World Trade Organization (WTO), narrowing the number of vendors the government can use drives up costs. The fewer companies that can compete the higher the cost.

An argument can be made that by putting Americans to work instead of Chinese or Germans should be a goal of government. I agree that a top priority should be full employment for our citizens. The best way to do that is by widening economic choices not narrowing them.

This idiocy is non-partisan in scope. President Obama proposed the same thing in 2009 and Mark Perry from the University of Michigan claimed that for every job created two would be lost. As soon as the Obama rule that American steel must be used in government projects was announced…