Posted on 09/15/2009 8:20:35 AM PDT by RobinMasters
The last President to initiate a trade war during a recession wound up creating the biggest economic catastrophe in American history. Yet the current President appears to have ignored the lesson of Herbert Hoover and the Smoot-Hawley Act in slapping tariffs on China and its tire exports while the economy struggles to come back to life after a deep recession. The Wall Street Journal wonders where Barack Obama is leading the US, or whether Obama wants to lead at all:
The smell of trade war is suddenly in the air. Mr. Obama slapped a 35% tariff on Chinese tires Friday night, and China responded on the weekend by threatening to retaliate against U.S. chickens and auto parts. That followed French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s demand on Thursday that Europe impose a carbon tariff on imports from countries that don’t follow its cap-and-trade diktats. “We need to impose a carbon tax at [Europe's] border. I will lead that battle,” he said.
Mr. Sarkozy was following U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who has endorsed a carbon tax on imports, and the U.S. House of Representatives, which passed a carbon tariff as part of its cap-and-tax bill. This in turn followed the “Buy American” provisions of the stimulus, which has incensed much of Canada; Congress’s bill to ban Mexican trucks from U.S. roads in direct violation of Nafta, prompting Mexico to retaliate against U.S. farm and kitchen goods; and the must-make-cars-in-America provisions of the auto bailouts. Meanwhile, U.S. trade pacts with Colombia, Panama and South Korea languish in Congress.
(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
Why not? He’s already the next Jimmy Carter.
I was shocked to hear of the tariffs. However, thinking about it, I now understand why he is doing it. He wants to totally destroy the American economy and what better way of doing it than to set trade partners against us, causing a further decline in trade deficits and lowering the value of the dollar. This is right up obama’s alley.
China actually has a good point when they say that US government subsidizes our auto industry... after all, didn't we bail them out?
An insult to Hoover. He was a patriot.
Yep...the skinny, prissy version......
Had to remove your comment 1 - IBD/Ramirez is excerpt only, and you can’t excerpt a ‘toon.
Hoover was the 1st Obama.
The BLOWHARD is at it again this morning selling hope and change that is unmeasurable and the so-called American sheeple are digesting it as if it were the truth!
Actually....I think O'bozo make Jimmah look like a God-damn economic genius in comparison.....
Personally, I think history will eventually place BO's Presidency below that of John Tyler and Millard Filmore.....Did I just hear someone say, "Who?"(and that would be my actual point with this comment)
No he’s the next Jimmy Carter/Woodrow Wilson.
No, Obama is FDR. Bush was Hoover.
No, he’s the next Hugo Chavez..................
Obama will be the new measure of the worst president in our nations history.
He is our last black president.
Millard Fillmore's term saw the adoption of the Compromise of 1850, which postponed the Civil War. After leaving office he was President of the University of Buffalo. He ran for President in 1856 as the nominee of the Know-Nothing Party. He is not related to Mallard Fillmore.
I didn't say Tyler and Filmore didn't do anything good....I just said O'bozo won't rate above them in historical terms.
“He is our last black president.”
No. It is not his race but his policies that we abhor. I would welcome a Thomas Sowell, Herman Cain, JC Watts, Condeleezza Rice, or Walter Williams presidency any day.
Your statement plays right into the hands of the left.
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