The Idiocy of Steel Tariffs

[Nederland]

http://www.msnbc.com/news/968866.asp?0cv=CB10

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That conclusion is subject to fierce debate. A study backed by steel — using companies concluded that by the end of last year, higher steel prices had cost the country about 200,000 manufacturing jobs, many of which went to China. Small machine-tool and metal stamping shops say they have been decimated by steel costs that rose in some cases by as much as 30 percent.

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Perhaps worse for Bush, the tariffs alienated thousands of small businessmen who run steel-consuming companies. “He didn’t win the steelworkers over, and he sure as hell didn’t win the users over, and there are a hell of lot more of us,” said Jim Zawacki, chief executive of G.R. Spring & Stamping, Inc., a small manufacturer in Grand Rapids, Mich. “A lot of people feel burned,” said Mike Lynch, vice president of government affairs at Illinois Tool Works, a large machine tool company outside Chicago.

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Poor little George. He tries to buy the steelworker vote with an idiotic tariff and they end up going for Gephardt anyway. If he had only stuck to his free trade rhetoric... Let this be a lesson to Shrub and all Democratic challengers: when the government tries to pick winners and losers we all lose.

Anybody know Dean's position on tariffs?