OPINION:
The time when the United States was the richest, most powerful nation in the world was also when we were our own best customer.
Our current supply-side trade policy partners American multinational importers with foreign manufacturers to inflict unsavory, artificial competition that undercuts U.S. domestic manufacturing. This deteriorates our productive capacity to the extent that surviving domestic manufacturers depend on imports for parts. We blame tariffs on these foreign parts for declining jobs and prosperity instead of just abandoning this Ponzi lookalike altogether.
Use of U.S. tariffs can initially be tricky but reciprocal trade agreements have worked successfully in the past. China successfully uses stiff tariffs and taxes on imports because it has become much more self-sufficient than we are. Japan is a small country with no natural resources, and it could not compete with our manufacturing and technology during World War II. Yet recently they have all but run our steel, electronics and auto industries out of business. What kind of trade “partnership” has been made to permit Japan’s dominance in this predatory, one-way trade arrangement?
This supply-side system is the brainchild of former President Reagan and his protege, former Rep. Jack Kemp. It benefits Pacific ports in Mr. Reagan and Mr. Kemp’s home state of California but annually compounds trillions in national debt. The resulting reduction of average American incomes does not provide sufficient tax revenue to run the country. This subversive scheme compromises our independence and weakens our viability for future disasters and conflicts.
Fostering a system that makes chronic, overwhelming debt our national product can only end one way. Unified concern and patriotic action in remedying this issue is imperative for our future national security.
LOUIS L. BOEHM
Orchard Park, N.Y.
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