[maestro]

Protectionism far from patriotic

Right!

Tell that to 8 nations with 'Mad Cow' notions?

[RFT1]

Like what the Reagan admin did 18 years ago with the Plaza accord, the drop in the dollar pushed by the Bush admin is a de facto tariff. Since the Dollar has dropped 30% in value against other currencies since the tariff was put in place, the need for steel tariffs no longer exist.

[Willie Green]

For instance, Thomas Paine, the fiery orator of our revolution, argued that free trade was deducible from the principles "on which government ought to be erected,"

During enactment of The First Federal Revenue Law, James Madison declared that Congress must "remedy the evil" of "the deficiency in our Treasury." He argued that "[a] national revenue must be obtained," but not in a way "oppressive to our constituents." He then proposed that the House adopt legislation, virtually identical to the unimplemented Confederation tariff, imposing a five-percent tariff on all imports...
A single, uniform tariff, he insisted, was consistent with the principles of free trade.

Making protectionism even worse is that its transfer of wealth from American consumers to American producers is a negative- sum game.

This erroneous and irrational statement fully discredits the author of this article.
He schizophrenicly assumes that Americans can be consumers without being producers. And he totally ignores that it is in the value-added, goods-producing sectors of our economy that wealth is created.

[Last Dakotan]

We have exporters?