Trump
is restoring US capability to defend itself by seeking to increase US steel and
aluminum manufacturing. After the Industrial Revolution, the US was in the
perfect position to manufacture everything.
We
were able to provide military equipment for World War I and World War II,
because neither of these wars occurred on US soil. Our industrial
infrastructure was not interrupted and we were able to have our automobile
manufacturers make tanks and our aircraft manufacturers to make military
aircraft. We already had shipyards making ships and we had them make ships for
military use.
We had
the Atlantic Ocean on our East side and the Pacific Ocean on our West side. Our
citizens owned guns and we were able to prevent invasion.
We had
developed our own military equipment and weapons and had a century of
experience with the War of 1812, the Mexican American War of 1846 and the Civil
War of 1861.
We
were fully capable of providing weapons to our allies in the early years of
World War I from 1914 to 1916 and World War II from 1938 to 1941. The US
entered World War I in 1917 and won it in 1918.
We entered World War II in 1941 and won it in 1945.
In
1945, the US faced an expansionist Soviet Union that had gobbled up all the
nearby countries to its West including half of Germany. We had an opportunity
to address this in 1945, but we didn’t.
In the
1950s, the US believed it could stop the spread of Communism and our defense
policy broadened beyond our ability to protect everybody. We entered the Korean War in 1950 and ended
it with a tie in 1953. We entered the
Vietnam War in 1955 and lost it in 1975.
The US
always had a policy of self-reliance until the 1960s. We kept a list of
strategic resources and managed our trade policies accordingly. Our Defense
Department required our economy to include the raw materials and manufacturing
capability to enable us to provide the US military with whatever it needed.
Demand
for our peacetime products remained high until the 1960s, when our policies
changed to abandon self-reliance. The US stopped mining and timber harvesting
due to over-the-top environmental programs.
The
combination of inflation from monetizing US debt, the expansion of US
government spending, the decline in US productivity, the tyranny of US labor
unions and better quality foreign-made products, especially automobiles,
created the conditions that would encourage the eventual off-shoring of our
manufacturing capabilities.
In
2017, the US imported 26.9 million metric tons of steel. Top exporters of steel to the US includes
Canada, Brazil, South Korea, Mexico and Russia. Trump is calling for a 25%
Tariff.
In
2017, the US imported over 6 million metric tons of aluminum. 90% of aluminum
used in the US is imported. The EU is now dumping aluminum into the US and our
defense-related supplier is operating at 40% of capacity. This prompted the
addition of aluminum to the list for a 10% Tariff.
Norb
Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
No comments:
Post a Comment