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Economic Nationalism is a Big Hit

by | Mar 11, 2018 | Trump Administration

If you’re multi-tasking, click here for an audio version

In a recent Harvard-Harris poll, the latest numbers are proof positive that Americans are rallying around the President’s America First agenda.  The poll, a pulse check on Trump’s economic policies, showed a whopping 83% of registered voters “strongly approve” of his trade and economic nationalism policy.

As President Trump inked into law his tariff on imported steel and aluminum, naysayers, also known as Democrats in the Swamp, took to the airwaves to warn of impending Armageddon.  After all, that diet soda habit was going to cost a few cents more thanks to the old meany in the Oval Office.  But once again, they were stopped dead in their tracks as Americans, gasp, rejoiced. 

The Curse of NAFTA and Globalism

The North American Free Trade Agreement, proposed by President George H.W. Bush and pushed through by President Bill Clinton in 1994, created tariff-free trade between Canada, Mexico and the United States and thoroughly decimated America’s middle class, especially the Rust Belt:

“Despite the rhetoric, the central goal of NAFTA was not “expanding trade.” After all, the U.S., Mexico, and Canada had been trading goods and services with each other for three centuries. NAFTA’s central purpose was to free American corporations from U.S. laws protecting workers and the environment. Moreover, it paved the way for the rest of the neoliberal agenda in the US—the privatization of public services, the regulation of finance, and the destruction of the independent trade union movement.

The inevitable result was to undercut workers’ living standards all across North America. Wages and benefits have fallen behind worker productivity in all three countries.”

NAFTA paved the way for the last administration to attempt to thrust the U.S. into a global economy, thereby placing the American worker on the pole in a race to the bottom.  A once great economically powerful nation relegated to the status of mediocre.

President Trump is said to be reviewing NAFTA; although the current tariffs signed into law exclude Mexico and Canada.

Pay to Play

Tariffs, 25% on steel and 10%  on aluminum, are a necessary buy-in for the U.S. to level the playing field for industry workers.  Over 700,000 laborers lost their jobs in the rust belt over ill-thought economic policies of free trade—the same displaced Americans elected Trump to do something about their predicament.  And he is keeping that campaign promise.

Currently, America has 20 free trade agreements in force with other countries and relationships with every geographic area around the globe.  We are doing our part in fostering an open global dialogue; but American interests should supersede the benefits other nations receive due to ill-conceived, overly-generous agreements.  Bully for Trump to “just say no.”

The primary goal of Trump’s tariffs is to protect, and in this case, re-energize an industry.  This is nothing new, as our government has levied fees on imports since enacting the shrewdly titled Tariff Act of 1789, which states in part:

“Whereas it is necessary for that support of government, for the discharge of the debts of the United States, and the encouragement and protection of manufactures, that duties be laid on goods, wares and merchandise.”

Ooh, back in the day when the U.S. was worried about debt while building the greatest nation on earth.  Let’s face it; our Founding Fathers were America First. And before the bleeding hearts start in on elevating third world countries; free trade didn’t elevate, economically, our friends south of the border. In fact, the opposite occurred, which has led, in part, to mass illegal immigration in search of a living wage.

The erroneous belief of detractors who cry that President Trump is greedy and shameful in this latest economic policy reversal with levying taxes on our friendly international importers should perhaps conduct a quick consult of other nations who impose a duty on imports.  It’s a must read and you can click here for that tome of insatiable global money grubbers and their fees.  Yes, my friends, there is a cost of doing business whether you like it or not.

Pandering to Americans—it Works

Have the Never Trumpers and our wily Democratic pals learned any lessons over the past 18 months?  It appears that answer is a resounding “no.”  When Trump pulls numbers on policy decisions as definitive as “83% strongly approve” it’s time to rethink this ridiculousness of a global economy, kowtowing to foreign popularity polls, and instead focus on enforcing laws and enacting economic policy that will boost America from just average to Her former glory of the greatest nation on earth.  Pander to Americans first.  And by restoring a solid middle class, and protecting our interests, Trump’s American citizen Dreamers, and this nation, finally have a solid chance to succeed.  What’s that message again? Oh yeah, “Make America Great Again.”

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