Protectionism & stimuli

[0ni0n]

Buy American Rules May ‘Stymie’ Obama’s Stimulus, Companies Say

By Mark Drajem

Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama’s goal of creating jobs from the stimulus measure may be hampered by a Buy American provision for all manufactured goods, companies and business lobbyists said.

Lawmakers are set to vote today on a $789 billion economic stimulus plan that includes a mandate that all the steel and manufactured goods purchased with the funds be made in America. A compromise last week would allow countries with U.S. trade agreements to supply some goods.

The requirement that government agencies determine the source of the products they purchase, including those with many components, may delay the projects and purchases the stimulus is supposed to spur, government suppliers say.
“The stimulus plan is supposed to stimulate, not stymie,” said John Joyce, chief executive of Ambient Corp., a Newton, Massachusetts, maker of equipment for a smart electrical grid, which is funded in the stimulus.

Steel companies, such as U.S. Steel Corp. and Nucor Corp., and labor unions pushed for the mandate that all stimulus spending be for U.S.-made steel and manufactured goods. ‘Good for All’ Supporters of the measure say concerns about delays are overblown, because companies are well-versed in the requirements that they use American-made steel in highway, mass transit and road building from rules that have been in place since 1982.

“Contractors are well-prepared for compliance issues,” said Scott Paul, executive director for the Alliance for American Manufacturing, a coalition of steel companies and the United Steelworkers. “Buy America will not delay projects or increase costs, but it will create more American manufacturing jobs, which is good for all of us.”

About 90 percent of the steel, cement and other materials used to build new roads, bridges and other infrastructure will be domestic, according to government data analyzed by Robert Pollin, an economist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, who was hired by steel companies.
“A lot of the value added is going to be domestic, without any kind of law mandating it,” Pollin said in an interview.
While the overall stimulus plan may add 2.6 million jobs, the added benefit of excluding all imported goods would be a relatively small impact of 77,000 jobs, he predicts.

China, India
After Senate negotiators agreed last week to amend the legislation to certify that Buy America will be implemented “consistent with international obligations,” the main effect would be to exclude Chinese, Indian and Brazilian suppliers from the new contracts.
European nations and Canada and Mexico signed trade deals that guarantee their ability to bid on U.S. government contracts, with the exception of transportation, according to David Phelps, executive director of the American Institute for International Steel. China, India and many other developing nations haven’t signed those accords, and figuring out how to exclude their products will be a regulatory headache, he said.

The stimulus package also includes billions of dollars in new funding for agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security and Army Corps of Engineers, which don’t have the regulations in place for Buy American and haven’t thought through the implications, said David Burgett, a lawyer at Hogan & Hartson LLP in Washington.

Closed-Door Meeting “The paradox is that the point of the stimulus is to spend money quickly, and so they don’t have time to go through the rulemaking process,” said Burgett. “It could be very complicated.”

Makers of information technology software, in particular, could be caught up in the new rules. “Could globally produced IT products potentially be ruled out by overzealous regulators under a Buy American rule?” asks Dale Curtis, a spokesman for the Business Software Alliance, which represents companies such as Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp.

Lobbyists for software makers warned White House officials in a closed-door meeting last week that Obama’s plan to put medical records online could be stymied by requirements that the software be American made, said Gary Shapiro, president of the Arlington, Virginia-based Consumer Electronics Association, which represents 2,200 companies including Dell Inc. and Panasonic Corp.

In addition, “every electronic product has components from all over the world,” making the effect “devastating,” Shapiro said in an interview. “To layer on another ridiculous requirement like this one, you have created a scenario where instead of having projects months away, they are years away.”


Lawl

[Valkrish]

Buy War Bonds Today!

Buy American Goods Today!

Buy National Goods Today!

Support America Today, Join the Army!

Buy American Steel!

Buy American-Wrought Science!



see the trend ? (1930 is only 21 years away)

[Skjie]

Hey, my Country at least got our shit in there.

[SephYuyX]

Since this is the only relevant thread about the stimulas voting today.
Id like to extend a personal FU to all who voted democrat in the past years. ^_^

[Cephius]

Since this is the only relevant thread about the stimulas voting today.
Id like to extend a personal FU to all who voted democrat in the past years. ^_^

And I'd like to thank everyone who voted Republican prior to the past few years for plunging our country into it's current situation ^_^

Seriously though, like if Republics were still in charge, they wouldn't have passed some kind of equally-as-retarded stimulus package? Methinks not (even if you don't count the time they bailed out the Banks and then couldn't track where said bailout money actually went, nor thought it be prudent to commit some oversight to it)

[Dimmauk]

Since this is the only relevant thread about the stimulas voting today.
Id like to extend a personal FU to all who voted democrat in the past years. ^_^

Explain please.

[0ni0n]

Since this is the only relevant thread about the stimulas voting today.
Id like to extend a personal FU to all who voted democrat in the past years. ^_^

I vigorously oppose the "buy american" clause but to say that a republican led congress or administration will do a far better job is a bit of stretch.

[MrW]

I can't wait for my 26 installments of 30 bucks. Lunch on Friday just got that much better.

Edit: I disagree with the buy American clause as well. Hopefully efficiency doesn't take a back seat for some of these companies.

[archibaldcrane]

Since this is the only relevant thread about the stimulas voting today.
Id like to extend a personal FU to all who voted democrat in the past years. ^_^

I take it you're upset about all the money we're spending?

[Kuya]

I think the only people who have a right to bitch would be the independents. The republicans didn't do a better job, and the only other party that ever wins is democrat. Enjoy your shit party politics.

[Dimmauk]

If you are against the Stimululz then you are against America, and should be labeled a Terrorist.

[pohibaba]

And I'd like to thank everyone who voted Republican prior to the past few years for plunging our country into it's current situation ^_^

The recession was bound to happen either way. That's the thing about markets, they're cyclical. The reason why this is a national catastrophe, though, is because Congress artificially inflated the housing boom which also caused the burst to be much worse. The Democrats did absolutely nothing to stop that spending; they're as much to blame for this as the Republicans are.

[Demosthenes]

Bring all the damned IT jobs back here from india. Yeah... I'd like that.

[Beckwin]

The recession was bound to happen either way. That's the thing about markets, they're cyclical. The reason why this is a national catastrophe, though, is because Congress artificially inflated the housing boom which also caused the burst to be much worse. The Democrats did absolutely nothing to stop that spending; they're as much to blame for this as the Republicans are.

yeah the market had no role in inflating/otherwise fucking up the housing boom.

at all.

[Skjie]

That's the thing about inflating something, it had to exist in the first place.

[eunhye]

they needed to push that bill through as people are starting to get tax refund checks now. imagine if the bill was delayed a few weeks and the economic indicators all went up from people spending refunds.. we wouldn't need the damn bill anymore

democrats will credit the economy making a resurgence to Porkulus v1.1