Yesterday in the Senate, Sen. Byron ”Smoot” Dorgan (D-ND) held a hearing on whether “free trade is working,” focusing mainly on trade agreements. One of the witnesses was fellow protectionist Sen. Sherrod ”Hawley” Brown (D-OH). Luckily they were offset by trade expert and NAM alum Christoper Wenk who actually was armed with the facts, showing that trade agreements create jobs for Americans. Doncha just hate it when the facts don’t jibe with the hysteria? Dorgan, don’t forget, is also hyping his widely-panned book of (mostly) fiction and hype. (For the record, we think it’s crass to use a public forum to shamelessly hype your [widely acclaimed]book.)
The growing protectionist tide among the Democrats is most troublesome, threatening the prosperity and growth of thee economy. But hey, it sells at campaign time, right? The plain truth is that trade creates jobs and prosperity.
It’s a pretty sorry state of affairs when these protections argue to isolate ourselves economically from other countries, forcing Americans to pay higher prices for goods than they would have to under free trade conditions, all just to placate the string-pulling union masters.