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Bush Tariff Repeal a Political Quagmire

By LARA JAKES JORDAN (...Will be squaring off with, thebug - tha malcontent)
Associated Press Writer  Dec 8, 5:32 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) � By scrapping steep tariffs on imported steel, President Bush puts himself in the middle of an electoral brawl between Midwest and Rust Belt states he will need to win re-election, even as he averts a global trade war targeting other political battlegrounds.

 

(ap) - Can we start with the headline? Isn't it nice how the AP has adopted the use of one of the Democrats favorite buzzwords? I'm sure it is just a coincidence. Let's move on. First of all, the steel union workers were never going to vote for Bush anyway and the garbage that Bush "needs" these states to get re-elected, when he didn't have those states when he was elected, is well.....garbage. - thebug)


Minutes after the White House announcement Thursday to repeal the tariffs, Democratic presidential candidates lambasted Bush as shunning the U.S. steel industry by caving in to threats from global trading partners.

(Let's explore this, all the Dems have done up to this point is lambaste the President for alienating our allies and now they are saying he should have stood up to them, keeping tariffs in place and beginning a trade war, while before he was supposed to subordinate our national security to NATO and the UN. Is this making sense to everyone? It's okay to start a trade war with the entire European Union, but it's not okay to ask the EU to support the US in enforcing UN resolutions? Let's all thank the AP for asking the Dems such tough questions. - thebug)


Even more telling, Republicans who usually ally with Bush from politically key Rust Belt states declared their dismay in what Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, described as "bad news" and a "disappointing setback."

(Does the edited quotes by one Republican constitute and example of "Republicans who usually ally with Bush". Don't you at least need to have two in order to make something plural? - thebug)


But the decision will surely endear Bush to manufacturers of automobile parts, refrigerators, door hinges and hundreds of other steel products in just-as-politically-crucial states in the Midwest that eluded him in 2000.

 

(A little background info here that will complete the story this lazy AP writer is trying to tell. Bush put tariffs, i.e. taxes, on imported steel so that it would not be cheaper than US produced steel. This of course is supposed to allow the US to keep producing steel at a higher price than other countries, due to higher labor costs and inferior, more costly technology, rather than forcing them to compete on the local market. This sounds good for steel workers, they get to keep their high paying jobs, and they don't have to compete with companies overseas that can pay their workers much less. Now, what about all of the companies in the US that use steel for their products? Weren't they then forced to pay a higher price for steel than they would have had to had no tariffs been in place? Didn't the workers of those companies have to bear the extra costs now being forced on them by the federal government? Were not jobs lost, raises not given and prices raised to make up for the higher cost of steel? All this because one industry, the steel industry, didn't want to have to compete on the free market with everyone else. - thebug)

 

"There's no question it will help," said Rep. Joe Knollenberg, R-Mich., who represents 1,500 auto parts businesses in his district and fought to end the tariffs when they were imposed in March 2002. Bush lost Michigan in 2000 by a slim 217,000 votes out of more than 4.1 million cast.�Michigan, along with Minnesota and Wisconsin, account for a total of 37 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win next year's presidential election. The key steel-producing states of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio hold 46.

 

(Just in case you were wondering, the only states Bush won of the above listed is Ohio and West Virginia. Of the three states that were most positively affected by Bush lifting the tariffs, not one of them went to Bush. If Bush were to lose Ohio and West Virginia based on this one issue, but gain Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin for the same reason, that would be a net gain of 13 electoral votes. Pennsylvania is a non-issue since Bush never won it in the first place. - thebug)

 

Facing the threat of a trade war, Bush lifted the nearly 2-year-old tariffs but promised to continue monitoring imports vigilantly to guard against a sudden flood of foreign steel entering the country.

(That's right, we wouldn't want the American people to benefit from a flood of cheaper steel that would bring down prices on goods and services we use everyday because we need the steel industry to keep using archaic technology and over-paying their workforce. - thebug)


Bush's decision - a turnabout from his own policy - came in the face of threats by the 15-nation European Union to retaliate with $2.2 billion in duties on U.S. products such as Florida oranges and pajamas made in the Carolinas.�Analysts said the list of products was carefully chosen to put pressure on Bush; sanctions could have created significant political pain for him in next year's race.�Within minutes of Bush's decision, the EU withdrew the threat, which was based on a World Trade Organization ruling that the tariffs were illegal.

 

(Let me show you how the last three paragraphs should have been written. Every item in this country that is made from steel products has been more expensive to produce for the past 20 months than it needed to be, all because the steel industry couldn't, on it's own, make the changes it needed to compete on the global market without artificial help from the US government. Now the steel industry blames Bush for dropping tariffs against imported steel when he was faced with opposing tariffs to US industries that have no problems competing on the world economy. Companies that have no problem selling their products to companies overseas. So Bush was supposed to force other companies to deal with problems that come when their products become more expensive overseas through no fault of their own, just so the steel industry wouldn't have to deal with theirs. - thebug)


The tariffs, covering a wide range of steel products, had been scheduled to remain in effect for three years, until 2005, to give U.S. steelmakers protection from foreign competition. Bush said the tariffs had been imposed to give the domestic industry critical time to modernize and to protect jobs.


"These safeguard measures have now achieved their purpose, and as a result of changed economic circumstances, it is time to lift them," the president said in a statement.�U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said that neither political calculations nor the EU threat directly contributed to Bush's order. But, Zoellick said, "the politics are part of trying to accomplish an agenda" and "this one worked out pretty darn well.""We avoided any retaliation," he said. "We gave the industry a chance to be back on its feet. And in terms of trade negotiations, I didn't find it (had) any effect. People, of course, use excuses for whatever their position. But it didn't stop us from going ahead."


With 41 steel companies nationwide declaring bankruptcy since 1997, the tariffs are politically symbolic in states like Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, where the industry once thrived. If next year's presidential election is decided by a small margin of voters - as it was in 2000 - the tariffs may be enough to tip the balance in those swing states, said Ben Fischer, a labor relations professor at the H. John Heinz School of Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

(If 41 steel companies declared bankruptcy since 1997, why didn't President Clinton even get mentioned in this article? Was he not the President from 1997 til the beginning of 2001? Didn't a large fraction of those companies go under while he was the President? While Gephardt, Kerry, Edwards, Lieberman and Kusinich were all in office? Shouldn't all of these Dems be asked why they didn't do anything to help the steel industry back in 1997? Shouldn't someone ask the Dems why it took a Republican President to institute these tariffs that were intended to stop these companies from going out of business, the tariffs the Dems are now criticizing the President for ending? Someone should be asking these questions, but obviously it won't be the AP. - thebug)


"There are a lot of people who still feel an identification to the industry," Fischer said. "I have no friends who are steelworkers, but all feel that this community somehow revolves around steel."


In 2000, Bush lost Pennsylvania by just 204,000 votes out of more than 4.7 million votes cast.

(Which of course means he doesn't need it in order to get re-elected. Additionally, why should the President sacrifice the people in the other 50 states just to win the electoral votes of one of them? Not to mention that no matter what Bush did, the steel workers union was not going to endorse Bush anyway. You can take that to the bank, and now that the tariffs are gone, you will have more to take there. - thebug)


Four Democratic presidential candidates - Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt, Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and retired Gen. Wesley Clark accused Bush of abandoning steel producers without offering plans to retain jobs in the industry and other manufacturing sectors.

(None of these four have offered any plans since 1997 to retain jobs in the industry and other manufacturing sectors either, but then the AP isn't asking them too. - thebug)


Gephardt said that "rather than bow to the pressure of our trading partners," Bush should have negotiated further with the WTO. Dean said the tariff repeal "is just another example of this administration playing politics with peoples' lives."

(Actually, the institution of tariffs in the first place was an example of playing politics with people's lives and it affected a lot more people than lifting them will. - thebug)


But even lawmakers disappointed with the repeal said Bush still could carry the Rust Belt states if the economy continues on the upswing.

"I think there would be criticism of Mr. Bush regardless of what he decided on this," said Rep. Phil English, R-Pa., who chairs the Congressional Steel Caucus and is a Bush loyalist who pushed the administration to keep the tariffs.

(Truer words have never been spoken, especially from the AP. - thebug)


But, he added, "If, at the end of the day, the steel industry is revitalized and we've bounced back, and the manufacturing sector is bouncing back, then I think Mr. Bush is going to do very well."

(No doubt, all of the economic numbers are demonstrating that Mr. Bush is doing very well, and the AP just hates it. - thebug)

 


� Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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