Should The Stimulus Bill Contain A "Buy American" Clause?

[KoKo]

Should The Stimulus Bill Contain A "Buy American" Clause?
Joe Weisenthal | Jan 2, 09 8:48 AM

America.jpgYour answer to the above question will tell you something about how you think of the stimulus bill. According to the NYT, the hurting steel industry wants Obama's stimulus plan to make a priority of buying American when it comes to infrastructure:

The (steel) industry itself is turning to government for orders that, until the September collapse, had come from manufacturers and builders. Its executives are waiting anxiously for details of President-elect Barack Obama’s stimulus plan, and adding their voices to pleas for a huge public investment program — up to $1 trillion over two years — intended to lift demand for steel to build highways, bridges, electric power grids, schools, hospitals, water treatment plants and rapid transit.

“What we are asking,” said Daniel R. DiMicco, chairman and chief executive of the Nucor Corporation, a giant steel maker, “is that our government deal with the worst economic slowdown in our lifetime through a recovery program that has in every provision a ‘buy America’ clause.”

The standard thinking is that this would be idea. Governments and companies should be free to choose the best purchasing option out there, regardless of a product's national origin. If the infrastructure part of the stimulus bill is really about rebuilding our aging infrastructure in the best possible way, then it shouldn't make a difference where the supplies come from. On the other hand, if the point of the plan is just to make work for American companies, then it makes a difference. It doesn't do much good if all the goods come from overseas. If such a clause makes it's way into the bill, that'll tell you what Obama's real purpose is.

http://clusterstock.alleyinsider.com/2009/1/should-the-stimulus-bill-contain-a-buy-american-clause

[muntrv]

1. Uh YEAH!!

[tabbycat31]

2. yeah and another clause

do not use tax dollars to have work that could be done by public works employees done by private contractors (ie Halliburton, Blackwater doing Katrina relief "work").

[dflprincess]

7. And a clause that any government contracts that were awarded to a company

that has moved its corporate offices outside the U.S. in order to avoid taxes will be canceled.

[aquart]

10. I adore that clause.

I may set up an altar and worship it.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

3. Oh Hell yeah! If the money does not go to enploy U.S. citezens

Then we are fucked on the bed of multinational corporate greed and the only solution we have is violent social upheavel.

[ogneopasno]

4. Yes.

[DJ13]

5. Building up demand for US made products is the only way to rebuild

.....our manufacturing base.

Obama can throw $100 trillion at the economic problem, but if theres no jobs after he's done its a wasted effort.

If the US corporations that have eliminated their US manufacturing capabilities complain thats just too bad, they need to understand that they are part of the problem.

[orleans]

6. sure, why not? buy american--if you can FUCKING FIND ANYTHING

MADE IN AMERICA.

good luck.

[spag68]

13. There's a new thing called the google

Use it to find"stillmadeintheusa.com"

[orleans]

14. thanks. and i know you weren't being a jerk or anything by the way you let me know.

:sarcasm:

[BlooInBloo]

8. The day the government tells me what to buy is the day I buy the exact opposite.

[Gregorian]

9. I feel the same way about this as I do about a fence on the Texas/Mexico border.

One planet. One human being specie. The moment we start putting ourselves in a box is the moment we become divided. Maybe if we all act like we're part of the same, then we'll have a better world. Like a world minimum wage. And no tariffs. Not to mention no wars.

And I am willing to be wrong about this.

[Kip Humphrey]

12. When it comes to taxpayer money, the needs of the few outweigh the good of the many.

[madrchsod]

11. of course it`s our money ...

that should be spent on buying american made products. yes american companies that off shore for tax reasons do`t get the first bids. why should they reap the rewards when they do`t pay taxes. the last is the foreign companies that own american production facilities.

no chinese steel or any other country that undercuts the us price of steel or any product used in the reconstruction of our country.