Tucker: Washington's policies are the source of problems for American workers
U.S. government has encouraged companies to invest abroad, keep wages low, ship jobs overseas in the interest of serving multi-national companies.
Let's begin with a thought experiment. What if the Republican leadership here in Washington had bothered to learn the lessons of the 2016 election? What if they cared enough to do that?
What if they had understood and embraced the economic nationalism that was at the heart of Donald Trump's presidential campaign? What would the world look like now, two and a half years later?
Well, for starters, Republicans in Congress would regularly be saying things like this:
"I'm deeply grateful for the opportunities America has given me, but the giant American corporations who control our economy don't seem to feel the same way. They certainly don't act like it. Sure, these companies wave the flag, but they have no loyalty or allegiance to America.
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"Levi's is an iconic American brand, but the company operates only 2 percent of its factories here. Dixon Ticonderoga, maker of the famous No. 2 pencil has moved almost all of its pencil production to Mexico and China. And General Electric recently shut down an industrial engine factory in Wisconsin and shipped the jobs to Canada. The list goes on and on. These 'American' companies show only one real loyalty to the short term interests of their shareholders, a third of whom are foreign investors. If they can close up an American factory and ship jobs overseas to save a nickel, that's exactly what they will do, abandoning loyal American workers and hollowing out American cities along the way.
"Politicians love to say they care about American jobs. But for decades, those same politicians have cited free market principles and refuse to intervene in markets on behalf of American workers. And of course, they ignore those same supposed principles and intervene regularly to protect the interests of multinational corporations and international capital.
"The result? Millions of good jobs lost overseas and a generation of stagnant wages, growing inequality and sluggish economic growth. If Washington wants to put a stop to this, it can. If we want faster growth, stronger American industry, and more good American jobs, then our government should do what other leading nations do and act aggressively to achieve those goals, instead of catering to the financial interests of companies with no particular allegiance to America.
"The truth is that Washington policies, not unstoppable market forces, are a key driver of the problems American workers face. From our trade agreements to our tax Code, we have encouraged companies to invest abroad, ship jobs overseas, and keep wages low -- all in the interest of serving multinational companies and international capital, with no particular loyalty to the United States. It's becoming easier and easier to shift capital and jobs from one country to another. That's why our government has to care more about defending and creating American jobs than ever before, not less.
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"We can navigate the changes ahead if we embrace economic patriotism, and make American workers our highest priority, rather than continuing to cater to the interests of companies and people with no allegiance to America."
Now, let's say you regularly vote Republican. Ask yourself, what part of the statement you just heard did you disagree with? Was there a single word that seemed wrong to you? Probably not.
Here's the depressing part: Nobody you voted for said that or would ever say it.
In Washington, almost nobody speaks for the majority of voters. You're either a libertarian zealot controlled by the banks, yammering on about entrepreneurship and how we need to cut entitlements. That's one side of the aisle. Or worse, you're some decadent trust fund socialist who wants to ban passenger cars and give Medicaid to illegal aliens. That's the other side.
Republicans in Congress can't promise to protect American industries. They wouldn't dare to do that. It might violate some principle of Austrian economics. It might make the Koch brothers mad. It might alienate the libertarian ideologues who to this day fund most Republican campaigns. So no, a Republican did not say that, sadly.
Instead, the words you just heard are from -- and brace yourself here -- Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. It's true.
On Tuesday, Warren released what she calls her plan for "economic patriotism." Amazingly, that's pretty much what it is -- economic patriotism. There's not a word about identity politics in the document. There are no hysterics about gun control or climate change. There's no lecture about the plight of transgender illegal immigrants. It's just pure, old-fashioned economics -- how to preserve good-paying, American jobs.
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Even more remarkable, many of Warren's policy prescriptions make obvious sense. She says the U.S. government should buy American products when it can, and of course it should. She says we need more workplace apprenticeship programs because four-year college degrees aren't right for everyone. Well, that's true.
She says that taxpayers ought to benefit from the research and development that they pay for. And yet she writes, "We often see American companies take that research and use it to manufacture products overseas, like Apple did with the iPhone. The companys get rich, and American taxpayers have subsidized the creation of low wage, foreign jobs." And so on.
She sounds like Donald Trump at his best. So who is this Elizabeth Warren, you ask? Well, not the race hustling, gun-grabbing, abortion extremist you thought you knew.
Well, unfortunately, Elizabeth Warren is still all of those things, too. And that's exactly the problem, not just with Elizabeth Warren, but with American politics.
In Washington, almost nobody speaks for the majority of voters. You're either a libertarian zealot controlled by the banks, yammering on about entrepreneurship and how we need to cut entitlements. That's one side of the aisle. Or worse, you're some decadent trust fund socialist who wants to ban passenger cars and give Medicaid to illegal aliens. That's the other side.
What there isn't is a caucus that represents where most Americans actually are -- nationalist on economics, fairly traditional on the social issues. Imagine a politician who wanted to make your health care cheaper, but wasn't ghoulishly excited about partial-birth abortion. Imagine someone who genuinely respected the nuclear family and sympathized with the culture of rural America, but at the same time, was willing to take your side against rapacious credit card companies bleeding you dry at 35 percent interest. Would you vote for someone like that? My gosh, of course you would. Who wouldn't? That candidate would be elected in a landslide every single time.
And yet that candidate is the opposite of pretty much everyone currently serving in our Congress. Our leadership class remains resolutely libertarian, committed to the rhetoric of markets when it serves them, utterly libertine on questions of culture. Republicans will lecture you about how payday loan scams are a critical part of our market economy. Then they'll work to make it easier for your kids to smoke weed because hey, freedom! Democrats will nod in total agreement. They're on the same page.
Just last week, the Trump administration announced an innovative new way to protect American workers from the ever-cascading tidal wave of cheap third world labor flooding this country. Until the Mexican government stops pushing illegal aliens north over our border, we will impose tariffs on all Mexican goods that we import.
Now, that's the kind of thing you propose to protect your country if you cared about your people. The Democrats, of course, opposed it. They don't even pretend to care about the American people anymore. But here's what Republicans said.
" Look, I think it's safe to say you've talked to all of our members who are not fans of tariffs," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said. "We're still hoping that this can be avoided."
"We're not fans of tariffs." Imagine a more supercilious, more out of touch, more infuriating response. Well, you can't, because there isn't one.
In other words, says Mitch McConnell, the idea may work in practice, but we're against it because it doesn't work in theory. That's the Republican Party 2019.
No wonder they keep losing. They deserve it. Will they ever change?
Adapted from Tucker Carlson's monologue on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" on June 5, 2019.
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