Behind The Sound Bites Of Republican Presidential Hopeful Rep. Duncan Hunter (chicoms/trade)

Manufacturing News ^ | 3/13/07 | RICHARD McCORMACK

[pissant]

Hunter: China is doing what [Fed Chairman] Ben Bernanke himself says they're doing, which is subsidizing their exports and companies through currency devaluation. That is cheating. That dis-serves all of the innovative effort, all of the streamlining and all of the capital investment that has been made in American products. There is no individual American business that can single-handedly compete against the Treasury of Communist China. The Republican position is not to appease communists. That is what we do when we allow them to continue that operation.

Hunter comes out swinging.

[pissant]

PING

[MSF BU]

"The second involved the well publicized Joint Direct Attack Munition in which a Swiss company refused to provide the crystals needed for the guidance system of the country's most important "smart" bomb"

...no, that can't be a problem. Somebody call an expert from the CATO Institute to tell us why we shouldn't worry. While your at it, find somebody at the CATO Institute with a son or daughter in a unit that is actually seeing or has seen combat.

[pissant]

LOL!

[Ultra Sonic 007]

Join the "Duncan Hunter for 08'" ping list! FReepmail Sam Hunter if you have a question for Duncan Hunter! What are Sam Hunter's answers? Click here for the Weekly Answers Thread, posted every Friday!

[airborne]

But that Arsenal of Democracy is in trouble, and that trouble is being caused largely by the shift of production overseas, particularly to China, and mostly by the large multinational companies that have controlled the trade agenda for the past 20 years. Those multinationals are now, in fact, "Chinese companies," doing the bidding of the Communist Chinese government in setting U.S. policy, which runs counter to the interest of U.S. workers, taxpayers and U.S.-based manufacturers, says Hunter.

If we aren't careful, we're going to outsource ourselves into chains!

[pissant]

It is China's policy to become the industrial giant of the world. I don't give the commies a nickel.

[Last Dakotan]

Thanks for posting this. It sums up what I as an American manufacturer have to deal with.

Unless you have worked in the industry for 25 years, you have no idea how hollowed out the American industrial machine has become.

[omnivore]

We're handing manufacturing over to China in other ways also. Like excessive environmental regulations, lawsuit mania over harmless things, we're making our own obstacles and the Chinese are smart enough to take advantage where we screw up.

If you want to build a steel mill, are you going to spend years hassling with EPA, OSHA, similar state-level agencies, and local-level busybodies, before you can even break ground in the US? Or just go to China, maybe pay some bribes, but get the thing built and going relatively easily?

All I'm saying is, there are more than just economic-incentive reasons, why this is happening. Part of it is subsidies and screwing with currency exchange rates. But another part of it is just the accumulation of decades of counterproductive legislation and regulations that have been building up in America, and have finally reached the threshold where there are a lot of kinds of businesses that just can't start up here, and can barely stay alive at this point.

[Leatherneck_MT]

I've been saying this for a very long time. I'm glad to see at least ONE congressman saying the same thing.

Our Manufacturing capability going to ANY country overseas is NOT a good thing.

Militarily and security wise, it's insanity at best. It's stupidity at least.

[Sender]

There is protectionism, then there is reality, and then there is survival. Clearly we must make some changes now or soon even our food will come from China.

I like Chinese food, but that's different.

[Paperdoll]

China owns an enormous share of our debt. It would take a flick of her wrist to call that debt, and even nationalize the multinationals (formerly known as American companies) doing business on her soil. Who else but Rep. Hunter is talking about China? Indeed, who else is as well equipped to deal with her?

[Sender]

I haven't worked in manufacturing but from what little I know, it seems that China is an inviting prospect. Send your production over there, and you will have an inexhaustible supply of cheap labor who will work long and hard and cannot complain or quit. You'll save money and hey, who can blame you? Other companies are doing it. You have to stay competitive. China will build your widgets and they'll work until they die. You can't compete. Just give in and outsource production. No one will blame you. They will make your product cheap enough so that even unemployed Americans can afford them.

[airborne]

A vote for anyone but Hunter is a vote for "more of the same"!

[airborne]

It's a question of putting our national security (and our very lives) ahead of profit.

Not a popular choice for the rich,country club RINO's in DC.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

Fat chance in hell of that happening.

[CitizenUSA]

Last Dakotan wrote: "Unless you have worked in the industry for 25 years, you have no idea how hollowed out the American industrial machine has become."

Agreed! For example, there are plenty of American companies selling electronic components, but few actually manufacture them. Seriously, many key defense parts are now down to one or no domestic suppliers.

I generally support free trade, but this is ridiculous. How can our manufacturers possibly compete against foreign companies who don't have the same taxes, labor costs, or regulations? That some of them do and still survive is truly amazing, but their number grows smaller every day.

[Last Dakotan]

You'll save money and hey, who can blame you?

I don't fault the US firms who buy there, or even the Chinese, but rather the American politicians who set up such a one sided deal. As a conservative I've learned that the government does very little well. Why should it negotiate trade any better?

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

Hunter tells it like it is. He gets my vote.

[Digger]

THIS MAN GETS IT!!!!