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Trump to China: “Listen, you motherf***ers, we’re going to tax you 25 percent”
Hot Air ^ | April 28, 2011 | ALLAHPUNDIT

Posted on 04/29/2011 7:16:11 PM PDT by RobinMasters

Via Mediaite, which has excerpts from last night’s F-bomb cavalcade. One of our commenters in Headlines watched the clip and observed that Trump is basically a leftist caricature of Republicans brought to life. Precisely — but with the caveat that something like 20 percent of the GOP wants to embrace the caricature. (That number might already be slipping.) He knows he’s too compromised on conservative principles to get traction with the base so he overcompensates with tell-it-like-it-is populist bravado aimed at framing himself as the ultimate regular-guy outsider. Calling the Chinese MFers is the logical extension of that; if he can’t address economic anxieties with a serious policy solution, at least he can do it with rhetorical empowerment. That’s why Reagan, who did have a serious Cold War strategy, didn’t have to say “Tear down this motherf***ing wall” instead.

Just to follow up on the point about leftist caricature, though, I’m intrigued by this tidbit from his trip to New Hampshire:

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


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Foreign Affairs; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS:
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To: RobinMasters

I sometimes wish FR had a place where we could cuss.


121 posted on 04/30/2011 5:57:25 AM PDT by Crawdad
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To: 4rcane
We could reduce all sales taxes to zero and the Chinese would still be able to make things cheaper because of their extremely low pay scale.

How is your free trade world going to deal with that?

I am sorry, but I just don't think free trade is good.

122 posted on 04/30/2011 6:18:43 AM PDT by TexasFreeper2009 (Obama = Carter 2.0 The Epic Fail Edition)
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To: 4rcane
If the tariff were in leu of the income tax then I am for it.

I don't shop at China Mart so this tariff would impact me very little.

123 posted on 04/30/2011 6:23:49 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed, and I do not give a damn.)
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To: TexasFreeper2009

its not their extremely low pay scale that make China the best place to invest. If that was so, Zimbawae would be the mecca of the manufacturing world. Free trade is good, because freedom is good


124 posted on 04/30/2011 6:25:12 AM PDT by 4rcane
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To: Tainan

tremendous thanks for all that.
Foxconn is probably still doing 99% of engineering and design on Taiwan. Then does the manufacturing on the Mainland

Unless FoxConn has tremendous security... The ChiComs are stealing every bit of technology they can at the Apple assembly factory and other FoxConn factories.

Doesn’t FoxConn have to have allow 50% ChiCom princeling participation& ownership in their Mainland factories???


125 posted on 04/30/2011 6:30:04 AM PDT by dennisw (NZT - "works better if you're already smart")
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To: central_va; TexasFreeper2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDh3FNuwrTc
listen to this, best explanation on trade by Peter Schiff


126 posted on 04/30/2011 6:31:19 AM PDT by 4rcane
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To: 4rcane
From the founding of this Nation until Bush the elder we had tariffs on all foreign goods to protect our industries.... and we prospered.

Free trade has nothing to do with freedom, except the freedom of others to destroy our industries.

You can choose to be free and unemployed, I choose to stand up for America.

127 posted on 04/30/2011 6:31:53 AM PDT by TexasFreeper2009 (Obama = Carter 2.0 The Epic Fail Edition)
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To: TexasFreeper2009

standing up for America is supporting free trade. Its not free trade that is killing America but government taxes and regulation and federal reserve devaluing of the currency. Who would invest in USA if their currency is losing value every day, who would invest in USA if they lose money from the investment? Please watch the link I provided on Peter Schiff


128 posted on 04/30/2011 6:35:08 AM PDT by 4rcane
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To: TexasFreeper2009

-— FREE TRADE IS FOR CHUMPS AND LOSERS-—
No other nation plays that way. We run a 600 billion dollar trade deficit. This is what spend thrift losers do. This is what drunken sailors in a bar do.


129 posted on 04/30/2011 6:35:08 AM PDT by dennisw (NZT - "works better if you're already smart")
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To: TexasFreeper2009
I am sorry, but I just don't think free trade is good.

It's far better than the alternative. As you note:
We could reduce all sales taxes to zero and the Chinese would still be able to make things cheaper because of their extremely low pay scale. How is your free trade world going to deal with that?

Whether the US has tariffs or not, China will produce things at a much lower cost. US consumers will buy the cheapest alternative. If you raise tariffs on every import to force the US produce to be as equivalent price, it would cause two huge changes: first, the rest of the world would stop buying US products entirely (sharply lowering our production), and secondly, inflation would skyrocket as we would be forced to pay the highest possible global price on every good. The economy would be in tatters. Purchasing power would be cut in half... and production (which is what your fantasy solution is attempting to help) would not increase at all. Our target market would be reduced to 300 million people, rather than the 6 billion we currently serve. We are still the #1 nation in production. Your "solution" would drop us to the middle of the pack faster than any Democrat could ever dream of.

It is never a wise idea to have government setting prices and attempting (feebly) to control markets. Forcing US consumers to choose products at US prices does exactly that. Recall that the Depression was made far worse because of the Hawley-Smoot tariffs. Do you really want to learn THAT particular lesson again?!

130 posted on 04/30/2011 6:38:45 AM PDT by Teacher317 (really?)
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To: 4rcane
Exporting our entire industrial base to the third world is not free trade. It is suicide. Any free trader that was intellectually honest would admit that this is unsustainable. We cannot even fight a sustained major war now, with the type of losses we had in WWII. Thanks Free traders.

I get it. Company ABC can make product x for y dollars in the US and sell it for price z. If you can get slaves to build it for you for (y - 10%) and still sell it for price z. This works until our currency is worthless.

PS most of the jobs off shored were non-union.

131 posted on 04/30/2011 6:38:45 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed, and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Teacher317

Red Herring, a 10 % duty is not going to make “inflation skyrocket”. LOL. Hey you like communist China so much then move there.


132 posted on 04/30/2011 6:40:29 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed, and I do not give a damn.)
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To: central_va

yes the currency system is unsustainable but you’re scapegoating the wrong thing, please watch that link I provided. It explain a lot better than I can


133 posted on 04/30/2011 6:40:43 AM PDT by 4rcane
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To: Teacher317
Recall that the Depression was made far worse because of the Hawley-Smoot tariffs.

BS. So much misinformation is one post. The tariffs of the depression only effected 5% of the economy.

"Imports during 1929 were only 4.2% of the United States' GNP and exports were only 5.0%. Monetarists such as Milton Friedman who emphasize the central role of the money supply in causing the depression, downplay the Smoot-Hawley's effect on the entire U.S. economy.[19]"

Link.

134 posted on 04/30/2011 6:45:55 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed, and I do not give a damn.)
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To: 4rcane
Companies don't flock to places like Zimbabwe because they are politically unstable. No one wants to build a factory only to have it seized by the government as soon as it's built.
135 posted on 04/30/2011 6:46:43 AM PDT by TexasFreeper2009 (Obama = Carter 2.0 The Epic Fail Edition)
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To: TexasFreeper2009

but Zimbawae have very cheap labor, which was the point I was making. Its not simply cheap labor that attract investment. Its low political risk, low taxes, low regulation and most of all, which allow you to keep the profit of your investment. This is not what US have. So even if you stop all imports from China, the investment will not start up in the US, because the shackles on investment is still there


136 posted on 04/30/2011 6:50:49 AM PDT by 4rcane
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To: 4rcane
standing up for America is supporting free trade. Its not free trade that is killing America but government taxes and regulation and federal reserve devaluing of the currency. Who would invest in USA if their currency is losing value every day, who would invest in USA if they lose money from the investment? Please watch the link I provided on Peter Schiff
  1. This is the error in your thinking
  2. you fancy yourself a libertarian  free market kind of guy
  3. fine!
  4. this can work out great within the borders of the United States of America
  5. we have good rule of law within our borders to keep up a good and honest commerce
  6. one of the first things we did when the US was founded was to eliminate imposts and tariffs between the 13 states
  7. we had courts to enforce this
  8. ---
  9. but International libertarian free markets do not exist
  10. there is no such equivalent for international trade>>>>
  11. because geopolitics kick in and national interests kick in
  12. it is dog eat dog among nations that are not necessarily friends
  13. one nation trying to screw another
  14. The Japanese, Taiwan, Korea screwed us for 30 years on trade but at least it was the Cold War so we had reasons to make sure Japan, Korea were strong allies
  15. China is not an ally or a friend
  16. they are ruthless fierce competitors
  17. why do we accept unequal trade from China that has allowed them to build up their military?
  18. why did we allow China to take so many jobs and industries from us?
  19. they spy on us and have stolen every US technology they come across
  20. it is suicide to let the Chinese get rich off us but this has been the policy of the "free traitors" in Washington
  21. so much for free trade...It is dumb and I curse it. 
  22. FREE TRADE IS FOR CHUMPS!

137 posted on 04/30/2011 6:53:54 AM PDT by dennisw (NZT - "works better if you're already smart")
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To: 4rcane
I don't get it. What is your solution?

lower corporate tax rates? decrease regulation? ok, those sound like good things to do, I agree... but after you have done both of those and we are still getting our asses handed to us by workers in China earning a dollar a month at a factory that pumps it's waste into the nearest river THEN what do you propose?

138 posted on 04/30/2011 6:55:28 AM PDT by TexasFreeper2009 (Obama = Carter 2.0 The Epic Fail Edition)
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To: central_va
Um, a 10% tariff also would not do anything to help our production, either. It would just reduce US purchasing power, period. Our prices are FAR more than 10% higher than imports. The poster asserted that we should use tariffs to make it so that Chinese goods were no longer cheaper than US-made goods. That is what I was responding to. Slap a tariff high enough to make US products comparable, and THEN you'll have the kids of tariffs that would have the effects I mentioned.

Secondly, your childish "move there" comment does nothing to asses the issue. (You're quite short on content and substance.). However, I'd consider it. I've flown to China for business multiple times. I keep an apartment there. 很高信件到你 ("Nice to meet you" in putonghua). China's local economic climate is FAR more capitalistic than ours, and as long as you do not cross the wrong lines (read: local bureaucrats), you can make a very nice living doing business there without much worry. I honestly feel freer there than here. I do not dread the police there. (Local bureaucrats with a chip on their shoulder, on the other hand, are frustrating as hell.) Prices are lower. (You can eat like a king for $8/day in any port town. Try the mantis prawns. Wow!) In most cases, government does not try to control, tax, or PC-liberalize most aspects of your life. I can walk alone in the worst neighborhoods at 3am and never feel an ounce of fear. (Try that in memphis, Whitey!)

In short, if you keep urging government to do more and more to try to control the economy (for example, tariffs), I'll be happy to move there (although I have more beautiful environs that I'm opting for first). The CCP knows that its life-span can only be extended by adopting more and more economic freedoms, and they've (reluctantly) been doing an almost adequate job of it. (Name the last US law that increased any freedom (economic or social) for all our citizens equally! Sadly, most of the Chinese populace is happy to wait "until the economic freedoms are in balance before trying too many of the social freedoms"... I keep telling them that it will be a loooong time for that to happen.) The GOP and the Dems only know the opposite: more government control. Given the trends, I'll happily make the move in a few years, because I love freedom and growth. You apparently love decay and government control. Good luck with that.

139 posted on 04/30/2011 7:06:28 AM PDT by Teacher317 (really?)
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To: Teacher317
Why don't you go there? Free Traitors need to live with those that butter their bread. Practice what you preach. I am sure we could have a fund raiser and get you free tickets.

PS: You didn't address your red herring about tariffs in the 1930's only affected 5% of the economy. Why?

Commie lover traitor,scum of the earth- that is what I think of Free Traitors.

140 posted on 04/30/2011 7:14:05 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed, and I do not give a damn.)
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