By Mannix Porterfield
CHARLESTON — Buy American and save jobs?
If you answered yes, join the overwhelming majority in the House of Delegates in its Wednesday vote to send a message that stimulus money should be devoted exclusively to American products.
Leading a small but vocal minority, Delegate Mitch Carmichael, R-Jackson, failed to defeat a House resolution with its American-only theme.
Carmichael saw it as another example of liberal isolation which he said was a major cause of the Great Depression.
On the other hand, majority whip Mike Caputo, D-Marion, pointed to foreign steel and aluminum dumping that erased good-paying jobs with health care benefits in West Virginia.
Their debate came as a warm-up in the lower rotunda to a “Buy American” rally hosted by the West Virginia Labor Federation, AFL-CIO.
Caputo challenged his colleagues to make out two lists — one of American products in their homes, the other detailing foreign goods.
“We can’t buy televisions made in this country anymore,” he said. “But we can get $150 tennis shoes for our children and grandchildren that are made in sweat shops that use 6-year-olds, paying them pennies a day, and we turn a blind eye to it.”
Caputo said everyone, himself included, must share the guilt of passing up home-grown businesses to buy cheaper goods from across the seas.
“The bubble has burst in America and we’re all guilty,” he said. “Every one of us is guilty. We look for the best price oftentimes instead of what’s best for America.”
Caputo alluded to the $9 trillion trade deficit with countries such as China while jobs are vanishing right in West Virginia.
But Carmichael said economists agreed that a tariff in the 1920s helped trigger the Depression when other countries reciprocated with heavy taxation on their imports.
“Ask yourself: Would you want every nation, every hamlet, every city, every state throughout the word to pass similar restrictions and lock down their borders?” he said.
Carmichael maintained that free and open trade has been good across the globe and he cited Gov. Joe Manchin’s figures in his State of the State address that state products are shipped more and more to foreign lands — a 41 percent increase.
“Why would we send a message that we don’t want to buy your products, but we want you to buy ours?” he asked.
“Presidents from Reagan to Clinton have championed free trade. It’s been a good thing for America.”
— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com
