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Buy America, weaken America
usnews ^ | 3/25/06 | Richard J. Newman

Posted on 03/25/2006 8:07:17 PM PST by ncountylee

The Durabrand 10-inch portable DVD player available at Wal-Mart retails for $199.94. A group of senators would like to raise the price to $254.67. The Creative Zen Nano Plus 512-megabyte MP3 player seems like a bargain at $89.72; less so at $114.39, the price the senators would prefer that you pay. The price hikes would be the result of a 27.5 percent tariff on goods imported from China, a proposal sponsored by Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York and Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and is scheduled to come up for a vote in the Senate this week.

Schumer and Graham aren't crazy, of course—they know better than most that taking money out of voters' pockets is a sure way to be sent packing. In other words, that 27.5 percent price hike won't be coming to a retailer near you anytime soon. But as an attention-getter, it's pretty good, and attention is what the two senators, and a number of colleagues who support them, are after. The chief bogeyman they want to flog is China's communist government, which—according to Schumer and the rest—deliberately keeps its currency undervalued in order to sell more cheap imports to the United States and other countries. Reasonable economists differ on that question. The tariff, if you buy the argument, would bring prices on Chinese imports closer to their unsubsidized value, leveling the playing field for honest tradespeople in, say, New York and South Carolina, who can't possibly produce goods as cheaply as the Chinese and still earn enough wages to buy all the DVD and MP players that they need.

(Excerpt) Read more at usnews.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 109th; china; economics; globalization; trade
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To: Number57
Or them, with incredible surplus?

Actually China has a trade deficient, just like the US.

101 posted on 03/25/2006 9:33:19 PM PST by jec41 (Screaming Eagle)
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To: ncountylee; 2A Patriot; 2nd amendment mama; 4everontheRight; 77Jimmy; Abbeville Conservative; ...
Lindsee and Chuckie.

Where's the pic of them holding hands?

South Carolina Ping

Add me to the list. / Remove me from the list.

102 posted on 03/25/2006 9:33:54 PM PST by upchuck (Wikipedia.com - the most unbelievable web site in the world.)
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To: jec41

Just for fun... gimme a source. Then I'll back up my assertion.


103 posted on 03/25/2006 9:34:34 PM PST by Number57
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To: dr_who_2
exactly like gasoline. Has there been any reduction in use? no. has there been revolts in the street? no. will there be? no. People buy it because they need it and it is cheap. If you think a paltry 27 cents on the dollar increase on what people want to buy is going to stop them from buying the cheap crap China produces I have a bridge you might be interested in.
104 posted on 03/25/2006 9:35:33 PM PST by CzarNicky (The problem with bad ideas is that they seemed like good ideas at the time.)
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To: Number57

Joe MetalStamper can keep making 40 $/hr wages plus meds and pension...




That's the root of the problem amongst so called conservatives....there is a snobbish and a deepseated hatred for the blue collar class by some folks.....How do people think the middle class came about in this country? Joe Metalstamper should really be making $6.00 an hour with no benefits because that's all he's really worth...come on, admit it....but CEO's that drive a company into the ground and still get 30 million a year...well watch them justify that one, spin it into "well that's what he's worth to the shareholders"....i can't wrap my pea brain around that mentality.


105 posted on 03/25/2006 9:35:45 PM PST by teldon30 (Far right, elitist, sexist, cynical religious bigot and looter)
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To: antaresequity

Well said. I thought I was on the Socialist Worker webpage for a moment there. Tariffs don't make a product competitive; they worsen an already bad situation.


106 posted on 03/25/2006 9:36:22 PM PST by July 4th (A vacant lot cancelled out my vote for Bush.)
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To: Number57

The biggest problem for automakers is that they have already sold everyone in
America a car or two. It is called market saturation. they had a slick plan to deal with that called planned obscelence, but Ralph Nader put a stop to that. Now cars cost a lot more and last a lot longer. It might have been better if union thugs had put out a contract on him, better for the UAW, that is.


107 posted on 03/25/2006 9:36:32 PM PST by ClaireSolt (.)
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To: ClaireSolt

Don't get me started on Nader. Unsafe at any speed, that guy.


108 posted on 03/25/2006 9:37:58 PM PST by Number57
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To: Cringing Negativism Network

If we boycott China, can I still have General Tso chicken?


109 posted on 03/25/2006 9:38:06 PM PST by Cannoneer No. 4 (Our enemies act on ecstatic revelations from their god. We act on the advice of lawyers.)
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To: Cannoneer No. 4
"How do you stop it without political argument?"

Better to have that argument now while we still have a military advantage than 20 years from now when our entire manufacturing base is gone, and we have no leverage left.

110 posted on 03/25/2006 9:41:47 PM PST by CowboyJay (Rough Riders! Tancredo '08)
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To: RFT1
Through high school ('62) with a graduating class of 500, I can't remember a single working mom or a divorce for that matter.

Different times.

111 posted on 03/25/2006 9:42:04 PM PST by ncountylee (Dead terrorists smell like victory)
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To: Number57

I will agree with the confused part.

Tariffs do nothing but worsen the situation.


112 posted on 03/25/2006 9:44:07 PM PST by antaresequity (PUSH 1 FOR ENGLISH - PUSH 2 TO BE DEPORTED)
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To: newzjunkey
"Given a choice between China or Mexico, I'll buy Mexican-made instead because it might keep folks on that side of the border!"

Amen. Much different pumping money into the economies and government of Mexico or Japan than Comminist China, for Pete's sake!

113 posted on 03/25/2006 9:45:13 PM PST by CowboyJay (Rough Riders! Tancredo '08)
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To: Cringing Negativism Network

Who protected Chrysler?

The US taxpayer to the tune of 13 billion in 1980. they still didn't make it. The government bailed them out the first time.

TIME magazine.Questions about whether a quick federal fix is right—and will be enough The Carter Administration decided last week that now was the time to come to the aid of the nation's most beleaguered major company. After weeks of rising pressure for a federal fix for the multiplying problems of Chrysler Corp., Treasury Secretary G. William Miller produced—and Jimmy Carter approved —a Government bailout. It was designed to prevent the nation's No. 3 automaker (1978 sales: $13.6 billion) from sliding into a bankruptcy that could have put many thousands out of work and sent a shudder...


114 posted on 03/25/2006 9:45:28 PM PST by jec41 (Screaming Eagle)
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To: July 4th

Sombody gets it...


115 posted on 03/25/2006 9:46:48 PM PST by antaresequity (PUSH 1 FOR ENGLISH - PUSH 2 TO BE DEPORTED)
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To: The Great RJ
Besides what use do the Senators have in mind for the money extorted from the taxpayers by such a tax?

Why to help to pay for the costs of feeding,clothing,housing and caring for millions of illegal aliens of course....

116 posted on 03/25/2006 9:47:01 PM PST by joesnuffy
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To: CzarNicky

It's good that you like inflation so much.


117 posted on 03/25/2006 9:49:40 PM PST by dr_who_2
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To: Cannoneer No. 4
"What role do you want the government to play in this economy? "

I'd prefer Congress over three judges in the WTO.

118 posted on 03/25/2006 9:51:32 PM PST by endthematrix (None dare call it ISLAMOFACISM!)
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To: Cringing Negativism Network
"China can eat our lunch."

Yup. The Chinese have been playing the 'free-trade' game for several thousand years. Ever wonder how casinos in Vegas stay open there, free-traitors? It's because they rig the game. China's doing the same thing. If we don't wise-up to that fact real soon, we're going to end up rolling 'craps' as a country.

119 posted on 03/25/2006 9:52:10 PM PST by CowboyJay (Rough Riders! Tancredo '08)
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To: dr_who_2
Inflation is the sign of a growing economy I have no problem with it. Hyperinflation is another matter. Also I am not so blind as to recognize that if the price of raw materials goes up or the demand goes up or the cost of shipping goes up the price of the finished product goes up. There are however many people who do not grasp this simple economic model. That however I blame on the woeful state of the American education system.
120 posted on 03/25/2006 9:56:35 PM PST by CzarNicky (The problem with bad ideas is that they seemed like good ideas at the time.)
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