[central_va]

Protectionism is conservative if you don't believe me just read about George Washington and the first congress. Protectionist policy conserves our industrial base. A child could understand that.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"Protectionism is conservative if you don't believe me just read about George Washington and the first congress."

I don't even know where to begin with this statement. If you would like history, then I'll give you one. The Smoot/Hawley act. This was unbridled protectionism and is universally credited with taking America from a deep recession into a full blown depression that lasted for the next 12 years.

"This year, we have it within our power to take a major step toward a growing global economy and an expanding cycle of prosperity: the historic free trade agreement negotiated between our country and Canada. And I can also tell you that we're determined to expand this concept, south as well as north. Our goal must be a day when the free flow of trade, from the tip of Tierra del Fuego to the Arctic Circle, unites the people of the Western Hemisphere in a bond of mutually beneficial exchange."

From Ronald Reagan's 1988 state of the union address....

[MadIsh32]

Goodness this rational is terrible.

Protectionism is as communist as it gets.

You need to expand gov’t to have protectionist policy. Gov’t is picking winners and losers. Businesses can’t make the best decisions for their shareholders.

Businesses do not exist to create jobs for Americans, or anyone. They exist to maximize shareholder wealth.

Protectionism does everything to prevent that