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Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Buy American

Take a look at the agenda of the upcoming Take Back The American Dream Conference. There is a session on Tuesday titled, Strategy on State Level for Buy America Campaign.

This session will look at ways to trigger state-level procurement rules that say when states use taxpayer money to buy things, they should be buying American-made things, from American companies that employ American workers and pay American taxes.

The situation today is that some state-level procurement laws are very weak. As a result, a lot of tax dollars go to purchase goods made overseas instead of goods made in the USA. The impact of this often includes delays or cost overruns such as what happened with the San Francisco to Oakland California Bay Bridge, as well as the loss of jobs and revenue in the US.

The idea that national and state governments should "Buy American" isn't in any way a partisan issue. If you look at polling you find that Republicans as well as Democrats believe that at least now while we are in economic distress, and trading "partners" are selling to us but not buying from us, our tax dollars should be supporting American companies and jobs.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

The damage that Obama has done to this nation is irreversable , it would take generations to establish the capitalist economy that we used to enjoy.
Anyway, that's the way I see it.

Anonymous said...

Governments should purchase from whoever gives them the best value, whether the products come from the USA or overseas. The primary goal of a politician should be to be a good steward of taxpayers' money. If it saves taxpayers' money to purchase a foreign product, that's what should be done. Mandating that governments "buy American" will lead to higher costs for governments and probably inferior products.

Anonymous said...

Buy American ? Goodness sake , I don't know of anything that's made here in the U.S..(maybe some eatable products)
Maybe that's why the farmers are driving those expensive Cadilacs.
Paid not to grow . They grow anyway and sell the stuff.

Anonymous said...

hey 6:24 , government should purchase from whoever ,
Did you bump your head ?
The government buys paperclips for $100.00 a piece.
Hammers for $500.00 etc.
Your dumb as a brick!

Anonymous said...

To 5:49

You have got that right. This President is absolutely - hands-down - the worse President this Country has ever seen.

Any American CEO worth his salt will tell you that with this President - there is more incentive to go out of business than to stay in business.

Anonymous said...

what do we manufacture anymore?
what I can find is ....well 20 years behind state of the art and not very well made

Bev said...

are you all crazy? if you buy american you are taking care of your own!... or no lets buy it cheaper and then americans may not have a job and you will support them anyway.

Anonymous said...

the jobs and manufacturing were gone long before Obama
its just now nobody has money to buy the foreign crap that our nostalgic all american benidict arnold corporations now produce outside the nation
Wal-Mart's awe shucks down home flag waving patriotism has not helped
It aint your fathers baseball hot dogs apple pie and chevrolet norman rockwell america anymore kiddies
Id give up the Andy Griffith and Waltons fantasies of the American way
Kiss it good by its all gone
swept out from under you for profit whilst you were living the dream

Anonymous said...

The damage that Obama has done to this nation is irreversable , it would take generations to establish the capitalist economy that we used to enjoy.

You are aware you just contradicted yourself aren't you?

Anonymous said...

Bev said...
are you all crazy? if you buy american you are taking care of your own!... or no lets buy it cheaper and then americans may not have a job and you will support them anyway.

I'm with you on that one Bev.

Short of following any trade agreements the U.S. may have, we should have a 3 bid process for AMERICAN companies to compete for government work.

I thought it was always done that way. When did it change?