The Economic Populist makes the case:
The problem with the original stimulus wasn't that it wasn't big enough. It was not smart enough. What we need is true domestic stimulus. If you're going to spend our money to stimulate our economy, stop shipping our dough to China instead.EP points out that 84 percent of the $787 billion stimulus money for green jobs went offshore. We need to stop that.
We need to stop this too:
San Francisco is importing its new Bay Bridge from China. Then came the New York Times dispatch about the Big Apple awarding Chinese state-subsidized firms huge taxpayer-funded contracts to "renovate the subway system, refurbish the Alexander Hamilton Bridge over the Harlem River and build a new Metro-North train platform near Yankee Stadium."
Astounding as all of that is, it was quickly topped by news last week reminding us that the new Martin Luther King monument in Washington was designed by a Chinese government sculptor and assembled by low-wage Chinese workers.Buying and Making American is not just a no-brainer, it's a no-brainer for the overwhelming majority of Americans. According to a recent poll, 90 percent of those surveyed support Buy American policies "to ensure that taxpayer funded government projects use only U. S.-made goods and supplies wherever possible." And 95 percent favor keeping "America's trade laws strong and strictly enforced to provide a level playing field for our workers and businesses."
Here's what we need to do, the Economic Populist says:
How about a recall of all CEOs who ship jobs offshore? The AAM has a great idea. Why not at least kick these Benedict Arnolds out of the White House.
How about a domestic tax on any corporation who offshore outsourced and a tax credit for any business who brings back jobs which were offshore outsourced previously? After all, that is the original point of the corporate tax code, to use incentives to generate economic good behavior in the national interest, not to enable more tax havens and double dutch loopholes.And how about an end to job-killing trade deals?
