Buy America

A recent survey of 65 historians organized by Rice University professor Douglas Brinkley for the television network C-SPAN rank Abraham Lincoln as our greatest American President. See here and here. Few would argue the choice. So what did our greatest President say about free trade? As you may be aware, a storm of protest has erupted over the Buy America provisions in the economic stimulus bill which will be signed by President Barack Obama today, with many screaming about “protectionism” and President Obama stating that “we can’t send a protectionist message,” Furthermore the Senate softened the Buy America provision in the stimulus bill. All this goes back to a simple question: What kind of trade policy are we going to have in the Obama administration? Will it be the trade policy which he campaigned on, one that would renegotiate trade agreements which were unfair to American workers, or will he be a free trader in the Bush or Clinton mold? Our greatest President, Honest Abe, saw the issue of Free Trade with clarity and insight. To quote our greatest American President, “I don’t know much about the tariff. But I know this much. When we buy manufactured goods abroad, we get the goods and the foreigner gets the money. When we buy manufactured goods at home, we get both the goods and the money.” And “Abandonment of the protectionist policy of the American Government must result in the increase of both useless labor and idleness, and so, in proportion must produce want and ruin among our people.” Almost sounds like Lincoln was talking about NAFTA. I hope that our current President from Illinois will heed the words of Lincoln and renegotiate trade agreements that have brought “want and ruin” to the American people and stick to the principles of fairness for the American worker. Here is a discussion on the Buy America provisions in the stimulus package. As usual, the great Senator from Ohio, Sherrod Brown, hits the nail on the head, “An $800 billion trade deficit and they accuse the United States of protectionism? Two-billion-dollars-a-day net outflow of trade dollars and they claim we are closing our borders? In Ohio, people would say that accusations like that don’t pass the straight face test.”