Good Idea: Keep Most Stimulus Package Money From Going Abroad

March 4, 2010 RSS Feed Print

By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

I cannot believe that it took four Democratic senators to hit the White House mule with a 2 by 4 on such an obvious matter of good politics and policy yesterday, but kudos to Bob Casey, Jon Tester, Sherrod Brown, and Chuck Schumer for insisting that funds from the 2009 stimulus bill be used to create American jobs, not foreign ones. Sure, I recognize that the U.S. manufacturing base has been so hollowed out that we cannot purchase everything we need from domestic factories to build things, like wind farms, authorized by the stimulus package. It would be stupid to halt all funding, and lose the jobs that the stimulus will create here in America, because one or two parts are available only from China.

But allowing 80 percent of the money spent on wind turbines to go to foreign firms, as an American University study claims, is pure folly. The Obama administration and the industry dispute the study, but the figures provided to the Washington Post by the American Wind Energy Association aren't much better. According to the industry trade group, from 37 to 47 cents out of every dollar spent on the wind farm program has gone overseas.

That is unacceptable. And, apparently, there is more in store. The four senators were prompted by the news that a Texas firm is thinking about asking for $450 million in stimulus funds to build a giant wind farm with turbines manufactured in China.

"It is a no-brainer that stimulus funds should only go to projects that create jobs in the United States rather than overseas," Schumer said. Exactly.

There is nothing wrong with having multinational firms bid for the work, or to buy some parts overseas, as long as an overwhelming majority of the jobs go to American workers. And that may be difficult, but it is not impossible. The Obama administration points to the work done by a Spanish firm, which is building turbines at a former U.S. Steel plant in Pennsylvania. Bravo.

But isn't that proving the senators' point? If the work can be done in the United States, it should be, and Congress needs to fix the program so it happens.

Tags:
Bob Casey,
Jon Tester,
Sherrod Brown,
economic stimulus,
Chuck Schumer

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The National Science Foundation recently made a grant of 143 million to the University of Alaska Fairbanks for the construction of a new Oceanographic Research Vessel, all of this money came from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, the largest single grant so far. The contract for construction of the vessel was given to Marinette Marine in Wisconsin thereby creating work for American workers, as the Act intended. But it stops there. My firm (a winch-builder in Seattle) bid on the winch system (about 4 million) against a Norwegian winch-builder Rapp-Hydema... guess who was selected, and not totally based on low price, we weren't even asked to submit a best and final offer. There are four winch-builders in the UNITED STATES that could have built the equipment, including us. So much for enforcement of the Buy American requirements. How can anybody look themselves in the mirror while sending taxpayer money, intended to help the nation recover, out of the country? It is incomprehensible. And probably only the tip of the iceberg.

Blaine Dempke of WA 11:51AM April 08, 2010

So what's new?! Ever since the 1970's when the idiots in Washington of both parties approved and decided to export American products to foreign countries, perhaps without realizing it they were in the process of dismantling the greatest economic and infrastructure system on this planet. And because of their inconsideration of trying to outdo each other they voted to export U.S. products overseas with incentives to business owners without any regard to the impact to American families then and in the future. And by doing so Washington felt that the political position of the U.S. would be more stable and appreciated by foreign leaders. But, at the expense of the American family. And here we go again!! After living comfortably for the last 30 years even with the lack of jobs, Americans were able to survive knowing that the government was not interfering in their lives, until now! Now with Obama a confused Dem Soc / Communist leader who feels he's in a position to give back to his people, what he since a child has perceived as an injustice perpetrated by the white man on the black man, (disregarding history that it was the African tribal leaders that had sold their tribesman and families into slavery) is determined to destroy the greatest and fairest nation on this planet since the beginning of history. Now the Obama Soc / Communists Admin instead of returning the corporations paid-off stimulus package loans to the U.S. Treasury to create jobs and help Americans with financing, want to use tax payer money to finance foreign companies to create jobs to pay their employees pennies per hour, for products to be shipped to the U.S. who in turn will pay for those services. Is this what Americans voted for? I don't think so! If Americans from the very poor who struggle every day to feed their families, to the very rich who live in mansions with servants had interpreted his true intentions of changing America and the way we live to what he perceives as to the way we should live which is Socialism, he would have been grabbed by the back of his neck and runned out of town. But now it's too late, he's president and we have to deal with it! It seems that we're on our own, no help from our elected representatives or parties. But there is a way to create jobs here in America and that is to remind your representative through petitions and updates, you will be informed as to how they vote and if they really have the American constituents interests in mind. And if not, the next election they're out of a job! Perhaps this is a lesson to all Americans of all cultures, the freedom we have enjoyed up to now is not free and we're one step away from losing it all. Next time listen carefully to the campaign speeches, which should stress jobs for Americans (No double talk), don't be sympathetic towards race or history of the candidate (experience is what matters), your vote will determine the future of America. VOTE OUT THE DEM SOC/COMMS!!

BORN AMERICAN of CA 6:58PM March 07, 2010

Leslie has many good points I think,only problem I think wind power over rated and can't provide whats needed,good suppliment.Barry and Candor,foreign aide is a needed,ugly as it is.First we need to promote democracy around the world for several reasons(we don't need more Hugo Chavezes)mainly so we have other countries to sell our goods to.We produce more in this country than we can ever consume,we need markets.We CAN NOT afford a tarriff war.However I do agree we need to keep as much of the stimulus money in this country as possible.

Hunter of WI 5:40PM March 04, 2010

John A. Farrell

John A. Farrell

John Aloysius Farrell is a contributing editor at U.S. News & World Report. An award-winning Washington reporter, he has written for The Boston Globe and The Denver Post and is the author of Tip O’Neill and the Democratic Century and an upcoming biography of the great American defense attorney, Clarence Darrow.

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