Obama Says He Doesn’t Want Protectionism In Cap And Trade

Which is a funny thing given that Obama specifically wanted protectionism in the economic “stimulus” spending spree he signed into law in the form of requirements that all goods and services purchased with the money come from America.

In an interview yesterday, President Obama criticized a provision of the cap-and-trade bill that would impose tariffs and other trade penalties on countries that do not enact their own caps on greenhouse gasses. “At a time when the economy worldwide is still deep in recession and we’ve seen a significant drop in global trade,” he said, “I think we have to be very careful about sending any protectionist signals out there.” Proponents of the measure argue that it is necessary, because the bill will put American industry at a disadvantage to countries without similar caps.

This is a bad sticking point for Obama. On one hand, if he cap and trade doesn’t contain a bit of protectionism in it companies (and all the jobs and prosperity they create) are just going to flee to nations like China where they can emit carbon to their hearts’ delight. If he does do it, then it exacerbates an already dire problem with the prices of goods and services going up. If American markets are denied products from places like China access to low-cost goods is going to become scarce.
Meaning the purchasing power of your dollar is going to go down as prices go up.
Even Obama understands this is a bad thing. Protectionism may be good when you’re campaigning for union votes or among the economically illiterate (same thing, really), but in the real world protectionism doesn’t do anyone any good.