Austin, Texas It must be election season because the pandering has begun to hit full stride.
Today, US Senator Sherrod Brown announced a new effort to “boost domestic apparel and textile manufacturing.”
According to Sherrod Brown’s own blog, “The current Buy America statute states that only 51% of apparel purchased by the federal government be made in America. Sherrod Brown’s new Wear American Act of 2012 would revise that law, and require that the federal government purchase only apparel that is 100% American made.
Brown said, “Manufacturing helped make this country great. Good-paying manufacturing jobs have allowed hundreds of thousands of Americans to buy homes, send their children to college, and retire with security. But for too long, we’ve seen American manufacturing jobs—including textile and apparel jobs—shipped overseas due to unfair trade that has stacked the deck against American workers. We know how to make things in America, and the textile sector employs more than half a million workers in the United States—which is why the federal government should be purchasing, whenever possible, apparel that is domestically produced. With our widening trade deficit, we should be doing everything we can to support American manufacturing and job creation.”
I think it is a good move to mandate a certain level of government spending on US-made products. But 100%. Seems a bit unreasonable.
However, the downside is that other countries can enact similar laws– thereby starting a trade war.
Do you think this Wear American Act is a good idea?
Please share your comments.