That is the provocative question asked by Peter Schweizer at Big Peace. I think the answer is No, but let's let Peter explain why the question arises at all:
That may seem like an absurd question, but it's hard to come to any other conclusion when you consider what is happening to our energy industry on the Gulf Coast. As the Wall Street Journal reports today, the Obama Administration may have lifted its ban on drilling in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, but there are still long delays in getting other permits approved to drill for oil. Why? No one seems to know. We assume that politicians do what is in their own self-interest, but in this case Obama seems to be damaging himself because he is dragging down the economy. As the Journal puts it, "The Gulf coast economy has been hit hard by the slowdown in drilling activity." And Obama doesn't seem particularly eager to change that fact.
Schweizer recalls Bobby Jindal's bizarre encounter with President Obama at the height of the Gulf oil spill crisis:
In his recently released book Leadership and Crisis, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal recounts an exchange with President Obama during the Gulf oil drilling moratorium. (Full disclosure: I co-wrote the book with Jindal.) After telling Obama that the moratorium would potentially cost tens of thousands of jobs, "The president went on to assure me that anyone who lost their job would get a check from BP. When I explained that BP might not write them checks because it was the federal government that imposed the moratorium the president said, 'Well, if BP won't pay the claim, they can file for unemployment.' I was amazed by the level of disconnect. The people of Louisiana want to work, not collect unemployment or BP checks."
For Obama, getting an unemployment check is about the same as getting paycheck.
Now, let's set aside the Obamunists specifically on this next piece because I think it sheds some light on the impact of anti trade policies (this occurred before the Obamunists took power).
Over at Forbes, they have a piece on magnesium here's the intro.........
In 2005, U.S. Magnesium Corporation, the sole producer of magnesium in the United States, succeeded in convincing the U.S. International Trade Commission and U.S. Commerce Department to impose duties on imports of magnesium from competitors in Russia and China. Before toasting this outcome with some clichéd or specious utterance about how the antidumping law ensures fair trade and a level playing field for U.S. producers, it is important to understand that downstream, consuming industries (those U.S. producers that require for their own production the raw materials and intermediate goods subject to the antidumping measures) have no legal standing in these cases. Statute forbids the U.S. International Trade Commission from considering their arguments or projections about the likely consequences of prospective duties. Statute requires that the ITC consider only the conditions of the petitioning industry.
Now by keeping magnesium prices high in the US, it encourages any US production using magnesium to move overseas where the magnesium is cheaper.
Now class, when a manufacturing facility moves overseas, who are the people most directly impacted.
a) Investment Bankers
b) Doctors
c) Commodity traders
d) CPA's
e) Lower skilled people who work in manufacturing facilities.
Anyone. Anyone. Buehler?
Who is most impacted when drilling is halted in the Gulf?
a) Attorneys
b) College professors
c) Senators
d) Engineers
e) Lower skilled people who work in manufacturing facilities.
It's absolutely maddening to watch governments kill all incentives for manufacturers to exist in this country and then watching these same people stand around and cry about the evaporating middle class.
If they're not deliberately trying to kill our economy, I'm not sure what they could do that's more harmful.
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