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He idolizes Reagan but wasn’t Reagan himself a protectionist especially when he dealt with Japan and their auto exports in the early eighties?

Look up Barley Davidson tariff.....done by Reagan.

Levin modified facts to fit his agenda. What doesn't fit, he simply ignores. Many of his so-called arguments are little more than half-truths and innuendos and some outright lies.

http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa107.html

Consider that the (Reagan) administration has done the following:

— Forced Japan to accept restraints on auto exports. The agreement set total Japanese auto exports at 1.68 million vehicles in 1981-82, 8 percent below 1980 exports. Two years later the level was permitted to rise to 1.85 million.

— Tightened up considerably the quotas on imported sugar. Imports fell from an annual average of 4.85 million tons in 1979-81 to an annual average of 2.86 million tons in 1982-86.

— Negotiated to increase restrictiveness of the Multifiber Arrangement and extended restrictions to previously unrestricted textiles. The administration unilaterally changed the rule of origin in order to restrict textile and apparel imports further and imposed a special ceiling on textiles from the People’s Republic of China.

-Required 18 countries—including Brazil, Spain, South Korea, Japan, Mexico, South Africa, Finland, and Australia, as well as the European Community—to accept “voluntary restraint agreements” to reduce steel imports, guaranteeing domestic producers a share of the American market. When 3 countries not included in the 18—Canada, Sweden, and Taiwan— increased steel exports to the United States, the administration demanded talks to check the increase. The administration also imposed tariffs and quotas on specialty steel.

— Imposed a five-year duty, beginning at 45 percent, on Japanese motorcycles for the benefit of Harley Davidson

— Raised tariffs on Canadian lumber and cedar shingles.

— Forced the Japanese into an agreement to control the price of computer memory-chip exports and increase Japanese purchases of American-made chips. When the agreement was allegedly broken, the administration imposed a 100 percent tariff on $300 million worth of electronics goods.

— Removed Third World countries from the duty-free import program for developing nations on several occasions.

— Pressed Japan to force its automakers to buy more American-made parts.

— Demanded that Taiwan, West Germany, Japan, and Switzerland restrain their exports of machine tools, with some market shares rolled back to 1981 levels. Other countries were warned not to increase their shares of the U.S. market.

— Accused the Japanese of dumping roller bearings, because the price did not rise to cover a fall in the value of the yen. The U.S. Customs Service was ordered to collect duties equal to the so-called dumping margins.

— Accused the Japanese of dumping forklift trucks and color picture tubes.

— Redefined “dumping” in order “to make it easier to bring charges of unfair trade practices against certain competitors.

— Extended quotas on imported clothespins.

Harley Davidson is exhibit A.