[Sam Gamgee]

I guess I now see where the appeal of Pat Buchanan came from. I thought protectionism among conservatives went the way of the dinosaur. The question is how is protecting producers are the expense of consumers fair?

[DannyTN]

Oh conservatives did indeed buy free trade, hook line and sinker. There were some like Henry Hyde that in the 80's pointed to England's history where free trade devastated their industries. But conservatives didn't listen. Now that the results are in, and unemployment is sky high, our dependency of foreign nations is sky high, and our national debt is sky high, a lot of us are starting to realize the error of our ways.

It's not about producers vs consumers. It's about American jobs. When consumers lose their jobs they cease to be consumers.

Not protecting American industries hurts consumers big time. Look at how many former consumers are now on food stamps. They can't afford to buy the cheap imports.

You pay for cheap imports twice. When you buy the import and when you pay for the Americans that are now idle.

If we were at full Employment, it would make sense to make use of cheap overseas labor. But we are not.

How is it fair to allow foreign producers to pay a fraction in taxes of what domestic producers have to pay? How is it fair to consumers to see their jobs dissappear overseas?