Steel of the Century (Tariffs cost American jobs)

President Bush meets with his economic team at the Crawford ranch today to discuss how to help the economy create more jobs. We have a modest proposal: Repeal his own 30% steel tariffs.

At this stage in his Presidency and the business cycle, there isn't much else Mr. Bush can do. Fiscal and monetary policy are more or less baked in the cake for 2004. The tax cuts are beginning to kick in and the Federal Reserve has the monetary gates wide open; its statement yesterday holding the fed funds rate at 1% suggested a rate hike later rather than sooner.

higher steel prices cost some 200,000 American jobs and $4 billion in lost wages from last February to November.

Hello Willie Green! You paying attention?

No doubt you'll write this off as some kind of propaganda, since it doesn't jibe with your world view that all taxes are good taxes, even when they're called "tariffs".

Hello Willie Green! You paying attention?

Yeah, narbs, I'm here.
But it would be helpful if you learned to put my name in the "To:" box when you want to address your reply to me.

This article was actually previously posted here: Steel of the Century (WSJ Editorial). I'll just repeat the same reply I made on that thread:

The WSJ is right about the targetted tariffs hurting other industries. But they conveniently neglect that those industries are headed offshore anyway due to other factors. Abolishing steel tariffs will do absolutely nothing to halt that trend, and will deprive the Treasury of what little revenue the tariffs are generating. Furthermore, the steel industry layoffs that would occur would merely aggravate Dubya's reelection headaches.

It would be much more beneficial to match a reduction in steel tariffs with the implementation of a relatively low, flat-rate revenue tariff on ALL imported goods. Then Dubya can make an honest reelection claim that he took the necessary steps to halt the collapse of America's industrial infrastructure while also raising revenue to address the budget deficit. Without taking these steps, he's gonna wind up being a national version of Grey Davis.

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