Patrick J. Buchanan Examines "The Slow Awakening of George W."

Washington Times ^ | 09-17-03 | Buchanan, Patrick J.

[Theodore R.]

The slow awakening of George W.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: September 17, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc.

Last July, U.S. Trade Representative Bob Zoellick delivered a halftime pep talk to dispirited globalists, thrown on the defensive by the hemorrhaging of U.S. manufacturing jobs.

"What ... a surprise," Zoellick railed at his troops, "to see that the proponents of [free trade] ... have so often abandoned the debate to the economic isolationists and purveyors of fright and retreat."

But by September, Zoellick's own boss seemed to be drifting toward the camp of the "economic isolationists and purveyors of fright."

At a rally in Ohio, which has lost 160,000 manufacturing jobs since mid-2000, President Bush railed: "We've lost thousands of manufacturing jobs because production moved overseas. ... America must send a message overseas – say, look, we expect there to be a fair playing field when it comes to trade."

Yes, friends, at long last, we have their attention.

What's behind this radically revised presidential rhetoric? It is this: U.S. manufacturing jobs are vanishing, and unless he turns it around, Bush's presidency may vanish along with them.

The numbers are breathtaking. Manufacturing jobs have been disappearing for 37 straight months. Not since the Depression have we lost production jobs three years in a row. Since 2000, one in every six manufacturing jobs, 2.7 million, has disappeared. These jobs paid an average wage of $54,000.

Unfortunately for President Bush, while he has a good heart, he was horribly miseducated at Harvard. He simply cannot comprehend that it is free-trade globalism that is destroying U.S. manufacturing jobs, and may yet destroy his presidency.

The serial killer of manufacturing jobs is imports, which are now equal to almost 15 percent of GDP, four times the level they held between 1860 and 1960. What has caused this flood of imports? The trade deals that people like Robert Zoellick negotiate and George W. Bush celebrates.

Consider the numbers.

In July alone, the United States exported $86.1 billion in goods and services. But we imported $126.5 billion, for a trade deficit of $40.4 billion. The total trade deficit for 2003 is estimated at between $480 billion and $500 billion. But the deficit in goods will run closer to $550 billion.

The president's father and Bill Clinton contended that every $1 billion in exports created 20,000 jobs. Thus, a $550 billion trade deficit kills 11 million production and manufacturing jobs.

Say goodbye to blue-collar America.

What is the Bush prescription for curing this metastasizing cancer? In Ohio, he declared, "See, we in America believe we can compete with anybody, just so long as the rules are fair, and we intend to keep the rules fair."

How, Mr. President?

Consider the nation that runs the largest trade surplus with us. In July, we bought $13.4 billion in goods from China and sold China $2.1 billion. U.S. imports from China this year should come in around $160 billion, and U.S. exports to China at $25 billion.

We will thus buy 10 percent of the entire GDP of China, while she buys 0.25 percent of the GDP of the United States. Is this "fair trade"? But how does Bush propose to close this exploding deficit? How can he?

Where a U.S. manufacturing worker may cost $53,000 a year, a factory in China – with $53,000 and using the same machinery and technology as a U.S. factory – can employ 25 reliable, intelligent, hardworking Chinese at $1 an hour.

If you force U.S. businessmen to pay kids who sweep the floor a $5-an-hour minimum wage, while their rivals pay highly skilled Chinese workers $1 an hour, how do you square that with the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection of the laws?

Does the president, when he goes on about keeping "the rules fair," mean he will insist that China start paying its skilled workers $25 an hour and subject their factories to the same payroll taxes, wage-and-hour laws, OSHA inspections and environmental rules as ours?

Beijing will tell him to go fly a kite, Made in China.

It is absurd to think we can force foreign nations to accept U.S. rules and regulations on production and American standards on wages and benefits. And why should foreign nations comply, when – with their present policies and laws – they are looting our industrial base and walking away with our inheritance?

The men who have custody today of what was once the most awesome manufacturing base the world had ever seen are ideologues, impervious to argument or evidence. Like the socialists of Eastern Europe, zealots like Zoellick are beyond retraining. They are uneducable. They have to go. The sooner they do, the sooner we can get about rebuilding the self-sufficient and sovereign America they gave away.

[Theodore R.]

Though the word "economy" is not in the Constitution, the public expects the president to be "manager of the economy." If a president has a hemorrhage of job losses "on his watch," whether responsible or not, voters may retire him quickly from office.

[apackof2]

UAW

[JohnGalt]

There is political truth in what you say, but again Pat and Bush are going after a simply big government solution, rather than a focus on deregulation and tax cuts, as Reagan did.

While there is no paleo-right consensus on trade, there is one on monetary policy, which is the real culprit for the loss of manufacturing jobs as American products simply cannot compete in foreign markets of Third World countries.

[truthkeeper]

Flame on folks, but this time I think Pat's commentary deserves a big fat BUMP to the top.

[Buck72]

Pat's right about this. We need to level the playing field by using tarrifs and lowering the burden of regulations and taxes on American companies.

[GOP_1900AD]

Hate to pop your balloon, but the vast majority of jobs lost have been in typically non union industries such as electronics.

[TomB]

Separated at birth?

Patrick J. Buchanan...........................Stimson J. Cat

[Lazamataz]

Well argued. That completely turned around my viewpoint on the topic.

[EternalVigilance]

Unfortunately for President Bush, while he has a good heart, he was horribly miseducated at Harvard.

Kinda dumb to criticize someone's education with such twisted syntax.

Pat needs an editor.

[hchutch]

The only reason we had such an industrial base through the 1960s was because everyone else's (Germany, Japan, UK, USSR, China, Taiwan, etc.) had been bombed into rubble in World War II.

Part of this loss was to be expected. The rest of it was stuff we did to ourselves through allowing the trial lawyers to run rampant, and by letting regulations get way out of hand. The big problem that we have is that businessmen and the folks who REALLY made our economy work (the Rich so many people love to bash) have had it with the BS and are voting with their companies.

[republicanwizard]

That's an insult to the gentleman on the right.

[hedgetrimmer]

zealots like Zoellick are beyond retraining. They are uneducable.

This is the truth.

[RLK]

Unfortunately for President Bush, while he has a good heart, he was horribly miseducated at Harvard.

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

A good heart, sort of, a miseducation, no brain, and and an obliviousness characteristic of a social class separated from serious reality.

[hedgetrimmer]

The only reason we had such an industrial base through the 1960s was because everyone else's (Germany, Japan, UK, USSR, China, Taiwan, etc.) had been bombed into rubble in World War II.

This is not true. Canada wasn't bombed. Mexico wasn't bombed but they never established an industrial base. Only 2 cities in Japan were bombed. Where was China bombed in WWII? They had a mostly agrarian economy then didn't they?

[Tokhtamish]

I think the eye openner was that trip Bush made to Midwest and the less than warm reception he got from all those unemployed. And the earful he got from all those manufacturers.

Kinda reminded him how his father seemed oblivious with all the happy talk Sununu was feeding him while anger was building up in the countryside.

[TomB]

Well argued. That completely turned around my viewpoint on the topic.

You eeeeeediot!

I was trying to SUPPORT Pat's argument (whatever it was).

[ImpBill]

Pat, while being a fatally flawed messenger, often has very valid messages. This is one of those times.

[hchutch]

You may want to look at the firebombings of Tokyo and other cities in addition to the two we dropped atomic bombs on. Hrady any city in Germany or the UK wasn't bombed. Japan had been in various wars with China for ten years before Pearl Harbor.

Aside from North America, everywhere else was bombed by one side or the other in World War II.

[truthkeeper]

I feel the same as you.

[RLK]

Your argument won't sell to anyone except various fanatics.

[BMiles2112]

Since 2000, one in every six manufacturing jobs, 2.7 million, has disappeared. These jobs paid an average wage of $54,000.... with $53,000 and using the same machinery and technology as a U.S. factory – can employ 25 reliable, intelligent, hardworking Chinese at $1 an hour.
$54,000? Though I agree that the huge cost of unnecessary regulations and taxes on corporations is a problem, I think this wage is a part of the problem, too. Pay them $35,000 a year and you won't have anywhere near as many jobs being shipped overseas.

[AndyJackson]

Kinda dumb to criticize someone's education with such twisted syntax.

What is wrong with the syntax? Perhaps I misunderstood in thinking I understood. Why don't you rewrite the sentance for us according to your view of how it should be written.

[hchutch]

Sorry, but the facts are unchanged.

They're awfully inconvenient, aren't they?

[Lazamataz]

Pay them $35,000 a year

Only if you reduce the costs of living in America concordantly.

Of course, this is called 'deflation' and is very destructive.

[fortaydoos]

Hi tech jobs are not moving offshore because of law suits. They are moving because artifically devalued currencies make it SEEM cost-efficient. The free traitors will argue that in the "long run" China, India etc are hurting themselves by doing this. The flaw in that theory is that before the "long run" is over we will be at war with China, and need the production from their factories.

[tbpiper]

Excellent points.

[woofie]

Wait, Im starting to understand it .....Pat is really a Chinese communist at heart

[EternalVigilance]

Well, I'll do it, with the understanding that I don't agree with Pat's premise, or the spirit it was offered in, sure:

Pat's version: "Unfortunately for President Bush, while he has a good heart, he was horribly miseducated at Harvard."

Revision: "While President Bush has a good heart, he was obviously horribly miseducated at Harvard."

[hchutch]

If, that is, China's Enron-style accounting and demograhpic time bombs don't wreck it before then.

They would not consider bailing out if they didn't have to put up with so much BS here. It ain't the money - it's a lot of the BS and crap they take.

But it's always easier to blame "devalued currency" or "free traitors" than it is to fix the real problems in our economic structure. There needs to be some serious common sense brought to our tort system, regulatory system, and tax cdoe quickly, or people won't want to do business here.

[Texas_Dawg]

A good heart, sort of, a miseducation, no brain, and and an obliviousness characteristic of a social class separated from serious reality.

Thanks, Karl.

[ckilmer]

oil is also a factor in the trade deficit. the US last year net imported 100 billion dollars in oil. Trade deficit with china was also 100 billion dollar.

might also be a good idea to change sewage& garbage to oil for $15@ barrel
http://www.discover.com/recent_issue/index.html
http://www.changingworldtech.com/news-4.html

[Texas_Dawg]

But it's always easier to blame "devalued currency" or "free traitors" than it is to fix the real problems in our economic structure. There needs to be some serious common sense brought to our tort system, regulatory system, and tax cdoe quickly, or people won't want to do business here.

When trade with Japan and Mexico cause us to collapse economically, as Ol' Pat has been predicting for well over a decade, I'll move on to his thoughts on China. He's running about a decade long backlog of doom and gloom that I have to get out of the way first though.

[calchey]

I think you should jump right in and run for President since you think we have "no brainers" running this country. I am interested in your opinion, really. Who would you vote for? Who really has the brains for the job? Do you even vote? Change my mind on who you think can turn this great country in the direction you think we should go.

[hchutch]

Does that $15-per-barrel figure come before or AFTER the EPA/OSHA/Clean Water Act/EEOC regulatory costs are factoed in. Don't forget to tack on all the folks you have to hire so that they can make sure you are in compliance AND to fill out all the paperwork.

[varon]

big fat BUMP to the top

[Poohbah]

This is not true...Only 2 cities in Japan were bombed.

I've seen some stupid and ignorant posts on FR, but this one's in the Top Ten.

[BMiles2112]

Only if you reduce the costs of living in America concordantly. Of course, this is called 'deflation' and is very destructive.
I have two problems with that:
First, if the corporations pay out $20,000 less annually, on average, to each employee, that would have two effects. It would increase the profits of the company, which would be used for some other purpose. The money doesn't disapper from the economy. Also, the price of the product would likely go down, offsetting the deflationary effect of lower wages earned by its employees.
Second, given the option of working for less or not working at all, which would you choose?

[DoctorMichael]

Bump.

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

No, that would be texas_Hawg.

[Dane]

Only 2 cities in Japan were bombed.

Really? Are you saying only Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

I guess the Doolittle raid on Tokyo and subsequent fire bombings on Tokyo and other cities in Japan are just one big conspiracy theory to you.

[GrandMoM]

BUMP

[DoctorMichael]

".......We will thus buy 10 percent of the entire GDP of China, while she buys 0.25 percent of the GDP of the United States..........."

........and what WILL our wonderful trading partners, the Chinese, want to buy with all that surplus of American dollars that they can't already make for themselves?

"Big Ticket" items?

Hmmmmmmmmm.........Cray Supercomputers for modeling nuclear bombs before manufacture?

Hmmmmmmmmm..........Ballistic missle technology?

[Gargantua]

NAFTA and GATT are the cluprits whose hands are dirty with the blood of the slaughtered American manufacturing base.

And, since these (NAFTA & GATT) are merely acronyms for bad policy, they have no hands. It is the hands of the Big-Business, Multinational Corporation-owned American Senators, Representatives and Presidents (plural) who facilitated this selling out of our nation's riches and future.

They are the ones whose hands are smeared with this blood... or are they?

After all, we are the imbeciles who vote them into office, who sign their paychecks, and then sit idle as they vote themselves pay raises, and $100,000.00+ per-year retirement benefits packages.

I guess, looked at fully, it is we, the American sheeple, whose blood is on our own hands. Take pride. We've done a great job with the sacred trust left to us by the Founders.

We blame guys like Perot and Buchanan for being right about this crap, and then we vote for the Dem-Rep Duopoly.

Excuse me now, I have to go puke.

;-/

[Texas_Dawg]

Hmmmmmmmmm.........Cray Supercomputers for modeling nuclear bombs before manufacture?

That would be great. Some friends and I as well as some clients of ours have made a killing owning CRAY. Higher revs would be great.

[Poohbah]

Does that $15-per-barrel figure come before or AFTER the EPA/OSHA/Clean Water Act/EEOC regulatory costs are factoed in.

Before. Most private enterprises use a 2.5-3.5 multiplier to account for indirect costs--i.e., if your industrial process costs $1,000, your final cost will be $2,500 to $3,500.

So, oil at $15 a barrel from this process will cost $37.50 to $52.50 a barrel.

After that, the producer has to make a profit--which means another $3.75 to $5.25 a barrel (assuming 10% markup to cover the cost of capital and have some profit--that evil word--left over).

Total cost: $41.25-$57.75 a barrel.

[TomB]

Only 2 cities in Japan were bombed.

I don't suppose you have a link to support this idiocy?

[Walkin Man]

President Bush is done, put a fork in him. He is well on the way to being a one-term President.

He could care less if millions of Americans are losing their jobs due to the free-trade religious cult that controls the Repub party.

You can not only thank free-traitors for massive unemployment in America, you can say hello to 8 years of demoRat control, all thanks to the free-traitors.

[ckilmer]

I wish you guys would take a moment to read the article from discover magazine that I posted.

the company is funded by the epa and the doe and it has sec clearance. It has one working plant in philadelphia that processes sewage that's been open for two years. another plant in missouri w/$20 million funding from Conagra changes turkey entrails to oil. Both plants do the job for $15@barrel. That is the cost to them of the process of converting carbon based sewage & waste is $15@barrel. The epa loves this stuff.

There are a number of former republican officials who also endorse this technology. it is the real deal.

[Recourse]

Don't buy into Pat's propaganda. Protectionism only weakens our economy. Protectionist measures give domestic producers an artificial advantage over their foreign counterparts. At first glance, such barriers may seem to be advantageous measures that save jobs. In truth, however, policies that exclude foreign products only hurt the global economy and all who participate in it. Consumers in the importing nation have to pay more for that widget—when it could have been produced and imported from another country at a lower cost. These restrictions undoubtedly benefit local producers but are an inefficient use of money for everyone else.

Every job "saved" in a particular industry costs consumers.