If you are thinking of Donald Trump as a serious contender for the presidency in 2012, I would probably not agree with you, but it is difficult not to stand up and cheer every time he opens his mouth about U.S. trade policy.
The United States has been an historically lousy negotiator and if we do not turn the situation around, as Trump warns in his Newsmax interview this week, we will be a second-tier power in a very short time.
Our poor negotiating skills do not end with the trade imbalance but trade is our Achilles heel. China has learned, as have the Japanese, South Koreans and Indians, that the only war they need to win against the U.S. is the trade war. And in trade we have no allies.
There are a number of rather simple solutions that could ease the U.S. trade imbalance but politicians on the right and the left seem at a loss to stand toe to toe with our competitors—particularly in the Asian markets—to implement them.
“We have a very weak policy. Whether it’s China, or the horrible agreement just signed with South Korea, or any of the other horrible deals that we make, we don’t have the ability to make good deals with other countries.
“We’re like a whipping post for other countries. We are standing there and being beaten by South Korea, by Mexico, by China, by India. If you have a problem with a credit card and you call somebody up, that person is based in India.
“If we ever taxed Chinese products coming into this country, we would pay off the debt so fast. More importantly, we would start creating jobs in our country.”
What Trump has not said in so many words is that progressivism—the old Ugly American philosophy—is responsible for our trade problems as well as our security agreements. As long as the U.S. seeks to buy allies without attaching strong demands on our friendship we will continue to lose in both arenas.
While I don’t share Trump’s view that a blowout in the Middle East may lead to a downturn in oil prices, he is right about our nonsensical energy policy. The progressive-led move to so-called “green energy” is nothing more than a trendy money pit. Former vice president Al Gore should be arrested and tried for fraud in the greeny scam; P.T. Barnum couldn’t have done a better job of fleecing the public.
In more than 30 years of sinking billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars into one green-energy snafu after another we have yet to find one viable replacement to petroleum as our primary source, yet congress continues to stifle our energy fossil fuel and nuclear production.
The short-term solution to energy is our boundless natural gas reserves, an end to land and offshore drilling moratoriums—all of them—and the development of nuclear power plants. Wind and solar power both create an eyesore that makes old-fashioned drilling platforms look appealing and cannot begin to supply anything close to our growing demand.
Donald Trump may not be presidential material but someone in the GOP should sign him up as a campaign economic advisor.
