Posted on 08/25/2003 5:51:41 AM PDT by Brian S
Edited on 07/19/2004 2:11:45 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Aug. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary John Snow, Commerce Secretary Donald Evans and other economic advisers want President George W. Bush to roll back tariffs he imposed on $3 billion in steel imports, people familiar with the matter said.
Bush's economic team will argue that the tariffs ended up hurting U.S. manufacturers more than they helped steelmakers such as U.S. Steel Corp., said administration officials and outside advisers who requested anonymity. They said it hasn't been decided whether the team will recommend that Bush eliminate or just trim the tariffs, which are now as high as 24 percent.
(Excerpt) Read more at quote.bloomberg.com ...
Chinese steel may make some free trade people swoon at the knees, but selling it to middle america is something different entirely.
Pure free traitor BS, that many plus a whole lot more jobs, were lost to outsourcing by the same companies that would gladly stop buying American steel the moment Tariffs were lifted.Their moto is Greed before Country.
Yep, these whistle ass pander monkeys screwed up royally with their political implementation of steel tariffs. These economicly incompetent bozos not only pandered to protectionist special interests with excessively-high, targetted tariffs, the bureaucratic dimwits simultaneously crippled their own efforts with hundreds of loopholes and exemptions to placate the anti-tariff crowd.
The ineffective results of this economic bungling was predictable.
And now we're faced with a projected $500 billion federal budget deficit to add to our National Debt.
The Bush Administration would do well if they listened to the advice of our Founding Fathers:
The First Federal Revenue Law
On April 8, James Madison, once again a congressman from Virginia, addressed the House. He went right to the point. Congress, he said, must "remedy the evil" of "the deficiency in our Treasury." He argued that "[a] national revenue must be obtained," but not in a way "oppressive to our constituents." He then proposed that the House adopt legislation, virtually identical to the unimplemented Confederation tariff, imposing a five-percent tariff on all imports...
The first few days' debate focused on the objectives of the new revenue system. Congressman John Laurence of New York supported Madison's proposal, arguing that "the more simple a plan of revenue is, the easier it becomes understood and executed." Madison elaborated. A single, uniform tariff, he insisted, had two advantages. First, it could be imposed quickly, which was important because "the prospect of our harvest from the Spring importations is daily vanishing." Second, it was consistent with the principles of free trade...
Rather than 5%, we are faced with a situation where implementation of a relatively low (10~15%), flat-rate "revenue tariff" on ALL imported goods would be appropriate. The proceeds from such a tariff could be used to offset further reduction in other forms of domestic taxation, assuring stimulation of the productive resources of our domestic economy. And this shift in tax policy can be done WITHOUT bankrupting the Treasury!
Yes Juanterm, there is a way out of this predicament.
But I don't expect the miserable and corrupt neocon advisors you've surrounded yourself with to lead you in that direction. Instead, the pander monkeys will try to spin and sugar-coat the same old convoluted crap that got us into this mess.
If Bush wants to win their votes, he can pay for it from his own campaign funds, and stop stealing his bribe money from the pockets of consumers.
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