Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.): “I Have No Idea What I’m Talking About”

Well, it might as well have said it. If the goal is to create jobs, it only makes sense to buy American.

Here’s a thought. If we want to stimulate the American economy and create new jobs here, we ought to be investing in American-made products with the stimulus money.

A radical proposition? Hardly. But when I added “Buy American” language to the economic recovery bill making its way through the Senate, a lot of big interests that have a habit of moving American jobs overseas began to scream foul.

So, this stupid proposal is a response to outsourcing? Wow. I didn’t think anything could be dumber than the proposal itself, but the “reasoning” behind it is worse.

Think about it. If you are building a bridge in Toledo there will be plenty of jobs created in Toledo as that is where the bridge is being built! (People living in India would probably have problems with the daily commute.) Mandating that all the design and building materials be domestically produced as well is simply overkill and a protectionist restraint pure and simple.

But Dorgan disagrees:

Some decry the Buy American effort as the start of a trade war. They say it’s just disguised protectionism. That is thoughtless nonsense. It’s nothing of the sort. It is entirely within international trade rules to require that these kinds of public projects use American-made inputs.

Those “some” have very clearly identified these provisions as the beginning of a trade war, and they have already indicated they will retaliate against U.S. firms as a result. That don’t care what Dorgan “says” the provisions are meant to do, they care about what the obvious results of the provisions will be. This isn’t the sort of thing Dorgan can win by issuing an Op-Ed to US News.

The utter lack of historical knowledge, logic or common sense in Dorgan’s piece is, frankly, shocking. Of such things are depressions made.