A Democratic Primary is Needed in the 26th Congressional District
By: Alan Bedenko
Date: February 8, 2006
Tom Reynolds is my Congressman. He’s a swell friend of Tom DeLay’s. I’m not crazy about that.
Jack Davis is the owner of a manufacturing concern in my district. He is anti-free-trade. He would like to, essentially, raise tariffs on imports to the United States so that those imports become more expensive. He believes that this would prompt the American economy to grow more domestic manufacturing jobs.
Because when you want to buy, e.g., an iPod (made in China), it’s better if it has a 100% price increase due to tariffs and duties, because then maybe Apple will make them in a plant in the United States - where economic realities would render the iPod considerably more expensive to make. And certain raw materials used for making the iPod might need to be imported, and a tariff would ostensibly be imposed on that, thus further heightening the price. Now multiply that by every single item in just about every single store.
Hey, when gas went up to $3.80/gallon, you handled that just fine, right?
But on the flip side of that, the imposition of tariffs would violate the many trade agreements that we’ve signed, and would prompt our trading partners to follow suit. So those items - consumer goods, industrial goods, and raw materials - that the US produces would become prohibitively expensive abroad.
We’d have shut our own companies off for literally hundreds of foreign markets. So, when Air France needs a jet, they buy Airbus because Boeing’s planes have a tariff slapped on them. When American carmakers try to sell American-made cars abroad, they’ll be at a competitive disadvantage that has nothing to do with bad ergonomics and huge panel gaps. Lumber and the export of other commodities will cease.
I’m not saying that the WTO or NAFTA or CAFTA have been fantastically wonderful for everyone concerned. But what I am saying is that a return to tariffs and a wholesale withdrawal from the world marketplace - which is what Davis has been promoting - would be a complete and utter Earth-shaking disaster. Plus, the last time Davis ran, his campaign was downright xenophobic. Not on TV or radio or in interviews, but the phone calls and literature - the stuff that not everyone sees and isn’t mass media.
All companies must compete or die. In 2006, they compete not only domestically, but internationally. Why would we shut them off from international markets? Why is it a foregone conclusion that tariffs would “Save American Jobs”? Because I think Davis’ platform would do the exact opposite.
Alan Bedenko is the author of the website BuffaloPundit.com and a contributing author to Buffalo Spree Magazine.
© Alan Bedenko, 2006.
The opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not represent those of the WNY Coalition for Progress.
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