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Who is Congress accountable to in dealing with our huge trade deficit?
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Location: Blogs Jim's Blog |
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| Posted by: Jim Hansen |
2/8/2006 |
A lot of people in Idaho are aware of our nation's growing trade deficit - especially those who run small businesses - are wondering where is the leadership we need to deal with it? Does Congress have the backbone if it is also dependant on campaign contributions from some of the interests that benefit from imbalanced trade?
Several weeks ago, I discussed with some people in Idaho about what it means for us to have such a huge trade deficit. There are a lot of smart people in Idaho who are worried about this, especially those who run small businesses and are trying to participate in supposedly open international markets. We agreed that our federal government needs to demonstrate some backbone and be accountable to all of us who are paying the bill and facing the risks that the trade deficit creates, including the risk of another debt-driven recession.
It appears we aren’t seeing much backbone in Congress because they do not want to offend large multi-national corporations that are benefiting from this trade deficit.
I was reminded of this today when I read a commentary by economist Thomas Palley, an expert in US-China Economic Policy. He notes that not only is the United States’ deficit with China larger than our deficit with any other industrial country, it is also the most unbalanced and the fastest growing. Palley notes that today’s deficit with China substantially exceeds the peak total deficit of the 1980s. That was a big one, and required some tough negotiations to resolve.
Who benefits? Not Chinese families. They aren’t paid enough to buy even the basics they produce, let alone most products from the US. Despite repeated calls for the basic things we take for granted in the US and most other countries we trade with (like worker safety, religious freedom and breathable air) China’s rulers have figured out how ignore them. China's un-elected rulers have become the best friends of multi-national corporations doing business with them.
Those same huge corporations have lots of lobbyists and PACs in Washington, DC so they can keep a close tabs on Congress as well.
Congress has also allowed our country to wrack up a record budget deficit as well. And who are our creditors? Apparently China is one of the biggest and there are lots of brokers charging fees to handle that debt financing who are probably not complaining.
This is not how we manage our family budgets
This is not how a small business manages its budget,
This is not how most states manage their budgets.
I bet if members of Congress did not have to raise campaign cash from the financial interests who are reaping the benefits of our country’s massive trade deficit, we might see more people in DC with the backbone to deal with it.
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