Comments on: Congress vs. open trade

By: Ted

Ted — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 17:34:56 +0000

There's apparently plenty of bipartisan blame for this anti-consumer fiasco, though is certainly doesn't help that the incoming Democratic chair of the relevant committee is one of the strongest opponents. The LA Times is surprisingly good on this issue.

By: Walter Olson

Walter Olson — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 14:32:08 +0000

The underlying New York Times report (now linked in the post) in its first sentence reported that the Administration withdrew the plan “bowing to opposition expected to deepen in a Democratic-controlled Congress”. However, I see Jay Wilson’s point that there can be more than one way to characterize the politics of a controversy like this, and I would not want to take as the last word the way the Times elected to characterize it.

By: jay wilson

jay wilson — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 13:20:06 +0000

I just read the blog post you reference. I think you should wait until the Democrats actually have their fingerprints on something before describing something as a “lurch toward protectionism.” The changeover has not yet occurred, and yet a Republican Administration with a still-Republican Congress is already pushing the “look what the Democrats made us do” propoganda.

However, if you merely meant to point out a piece of “protectionist” legislation, and did not mean to imply one thing or another about any particular party–my apologies.