Stephen Moore Quotes
In almost every case, whenever a tariff or quota is imposed on imports, that tax is strongly supported by the domestic industry getting the protective shield from lower-priced foreign competition. The sugar industry supports sugar tariffs; textile mills lobby for tariffs on foreign clothing.
Moore, Stephen. "The Problem With Tariffs." Creators Syndicate, 6 Mar. 2018.
Ruffin is more widely known as the man who fired the first shot of the Civil War.
This historical quotation shows us that the nation under Republican control at the end of the 19th century was highly protectionist. In addition. It shows us how a party can flip flop on its most cherished principles. A century later, free trade was the cornerstone of Republican philosophy and opponents who held to the Republican 19th century principles were accused of being detriments to the American growth and economic system.
It is interesting that the first national women’s political party was a strong advocate of protectionism and saw free trade as an unfair hurdle for mostly male workers. At the time, the Republicans were staunch protectionists, and the Democrats, the free traders thus illustrating that the major parties continuously flip-flop on major issues.
The issue of free trade has been controversial during the entire history of our Republic. At the time it was the Republicans who were the protectionists and the Democrats, the free traders.
The same problem has always existed with full scale trade wars always a possibility.
Republicans at that time were adamant protectionists and were violently opposed to free trade. They made a total flip flop on free trade after the Second Word War when the industrial capacity of all of the major industrial nations except America was completely emaciated. America still had production and there was huge money to be made from being the only nation that could deliver goods to the world. Meanwhile Germany, France, England, and Italy, our largest competitors could hardly manufacture for their own needs and could not compete in the American market. So the American corporations then wanted to become free traders.
The Export-Import Bank lends money at good interest rates to foreign businesses to buy goods manufactured in the United States. It creates hundreds of thousands of American jobs each year, and costs the American taxpayer nothing; the bank actually makes money, None the less, it has been the policy of the extremist conservative Republicans like the Tea Party to oppose the bank’s charter renewal.
Stephen "Steve" Moore is an American writer and television commentator on economic issues. He co-founded and served as president of the Club for Growth from 1999 to 2004. Moore is a former member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board. He worked at the Heritage Foundation during the period from 1983 to 1987 and again since 2014. Moore advised Herman Cain's 2012 presidential campaign and Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
