To Heck with Gore and Clinton :-)
As far as Washington, PA and Michigan voting for Gore, thank Clinton for violating his one decent legacy - that of free trade and no protectionism, to get the vote of domestic steel producers in states where the outcome was too close too call in the last few weeks. Clinton would normally have vetoed this bill. But Gore would not allow him to help in the campaign, so he did what he could to bribe voters. He allowed a bill to pass that gives tariffs imposed on foreign firms who underprice the U.S. steel prices directly to the producers themselves, not to the government. "Call it welfare for steel."
"The Steel Drumbeat" Wall Street Journal. October 23, 2000 Review & Outlook
interactive.wsj.com
"The U.S. steel industry appears to have finally figured out a way to get Bill Clinton to violate the one decent slice of his legacy -- free trade. An industry-inspired piece of protectionism made it through the House last week by an overwhelming vote, and Senate approval will lay the bill at Mr. Clinton's feet.
The bill proposes an amazing twist in the punitive-tariffs game. Normally any money reaped from tariffs imposed on foreign firms allegedly selling in the U.S. at below cost flows into the Treasury ledger as general revenue. But under the provisions of this latest effort, the proceeds of any punitive tariffs levied by the U.S. in response to antidumping complaints about imported steel would be be given to . . . domestic steel producers.
Obviously the amendment provides steel producers with a very big incentive to gin up antidumping complaints against foreign competitors. But it also creates subsidies to domestic producers under a different name. Call it welfare for steel.
Now, as we've noted here routinely, President Clinton has taken the right course on some important free trade issues. But the greater part of the Clinton legacy is the various Faustian pacts he's made with anyone and everyone who can help him win an election. And as it happens, the protection issue is hot in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington -- all key battleground states for Al Gore, who forked over most of what's left of his own independent judgment on these issues to secure organized labor's support for his nomination.
Vetoing this bill is, in one of Mr. Clinton's favorite phrases, the right thing to do. Indeed the President has held up entire appropriations bills in the past over single provisions with which he disagreed. Not this time. His office has indicated they're prepared to let this one slide. They claim they'll fight for the amendment's repeal after passage. But with labor and farmers in the balance (the bill cuts the same deal for apple growers), there's fat chance of Bill Clinton outputting much effort on this before he shoves off to subsidize his golf handicap.
When negotiations over China's entry into the WTO ground to a standstill recently, one Chinese negotiator complained that the world was being too hard on them. "Even the United States has laws on its books that violate the WTO," he chided. He should know. The steel industry was also in the forefront of the lobbying that helped persuade Bill Clinton to jilt Zhu Rongji on WTO entry when he came to the U.S. in 1999 in expectation of sealing the bargain. The damage was later repaired, but it was a reminder that protectionist politics still has life in the U.S.
As we said, free trade is a praiseworthy part of the Clinton legacy. It's a little sad, if expectable, that even some of this would get thrown off the sled of another Clinton-Gore election ride.">>
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I think you are being too hard on Microsoft (and Bush) too. They both had their work cut out for them. Have you read Wired Magazine -Novemeber issue? There was no way anyone could anticipate the amount of people and money involved; the politicians, the PACS, lobbyists, freaks, lawyers, CEO's, lawyers in the DOJ, members of the Senate Judiciary committee, governors etc who got together to launch this massive attack on Microsft. Their competitors, consumed with hate; tried for years to recruit the government to help them. They finally succeeded. Microsoft is guilty of being politically naive. They are learning, late, hopefully not too late. But it makes me very angry that it can happen. I always voted for the Democrats before, before I knew what I know now. |
