Taking candy from a baby: A consortium of Chinese and American companies goes to Washington and announces plans to build a $1.5 billion windmill farm in West Texas using $450 million in U.S. Stimulus funds, which will create 2,330 jobs - 2,000 of them in China.
The baby -- Washington -- doesn't cry or whine or spit in the consortium's face. That's what's really wrong with this story.
So accustomed to being bought and sold, Washington simply begins processing forms so it can hand over your tax dollars to create jobs in a turbine factory in the city of Shenyang, China at a subsidy of $193,133 each.
It's like these bureaucrats live in Wonderland. Or an America where the unemployment rate isn't 10.2 percent. Or where 40,000 American manufacturing facilities didn't disappear in the past decade. Or where banks didn't repossess nearly a quarter million American homes in the past three months.
We've got a message for Washington: Hell no! We're not giving tax dollars to China. What's wrong with these businesses and our government? It is the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. It's not the Chinese Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
It's bad enough that we've off-shored our factories and technology and jobs over the past 20 years. We're not off-shoring our Stimulus cash too. In fact, we're tired of serving as the schoolyard wimp of the world. We need our own industrial policy so we can stand up and compete in the world market manufacturing the likes of wind turbines. And we need it now.
China has an industrial policy. And it uses that policy to dominate. Here is how Keith Bradsher of the New York Times described China's policy to become a world leader in renewable energy, which of course, would include construction of wind turbine factories:
"Calling renewable energy a strategic industry, China is trying hard to make sure that its companies dominate globally. Just as Japan and South Korea made it hard for Detroit automakers to compete in those countries - giving their own automakers time to amass economies of scale in sheltered domestic markets - China is shielding its clean energy sector while it grows to a point where it can take on the world."
China protects its chosen industries in many ways. It provides low interest loans, some of which don't have to be repaid. It may give free land on which to construct buildings. And there are other perks that Bradsher described:
"When the Chinese government took bids this spring for 25 large contracts to supply wind turbines, every contract was won by one of seven domestic companies. All six multinationals that submitted bids were disqualified on various technical grounds, like not providing sufficiently detailed data. . . even as Chinese companies that had never built a turbine were approved. . ."
Later, Bradsher describes European disgust at the Chinese treatment:
"European wind turbine makers have stopped even bidding for some Chinese contracts after concluding that their bids would not be seriously considered, said Jorg Wuttke, the president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China."
China has a policy. It ruthlessly protects its own industries.
China was among the many countries that complained bitterly when the U.S. included "Buy American" provisions in the Stimulus Bill. In fact, Vice Commerce Minister Jiang Zengwei told a press conference in Beijing in February that China would not do such a thing, "We won't practice a 'Buy China' policy," he said. Four months later, that's exactly what China did, instituting its own, stricter "Buy China" policy as part of its economic stimulus program.
China did what China felt was necessary for its economy. And it ignored foreign criticism.
That's hardly the U.S. tactic. Wilting under criticism, Congress diminished the Buy American provisions before passing the Stimulus.
As a result, we've got a consortium -- U.S. Renewable Energy Group, Cielo Wind Power and A-Power Energy Generation Systems - so bold that it believes it can get nearly half a billion dollars in American Stimulus money for 2,000 Chinese wind turbine jobs. The consortium says it would import 240 Chinese turbines to Texas where 300 temporary construction jobs would be created and another 30 permanent jobs established.
The wind turbines could easily be made in the USA. Bradsher, of the Times, says the Chinese concede that while their turbines cost slightly less initially, they have higher repair costs. He wrote, "United Nations data from trading of carbon credits shows that the Chinese-brand turbines produce less electricity because they are more frequently out of action."
Really, is that what we want to buy with American tax dollars for a wind farm in West Texas?
If the United States put half the effort into supporting its renewable energy industry that China does, there'd be no way this consortium building windmills in Texas would be looking overseas for turbines.
China has a plan. In its strategy, it doesn't consider America first or the remainder of the world first. And that's what the USA must do. We need an industrial policy that makes no apologies for putting America and American workers first. And when that's the calculus, no American official would ever countenance a request to give $450 million in American taxpayers' dollars to a turbine factory in China. And no American consortium would consider making such a stupid request.
In the meantime: Hell no! They don't get our dough!
Henry Blodget: Obama's Weird Double Standard
Why do taxpayers have to pay the costs of our banking catastrophe, while we're spared most of the pain in Detroit? Since the administration won't tell us what they are thinking, let's speculate.
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BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) is the present and future.
America is a wonderful country for importers and sellers.
300+ million suckers to pay for overpriced products.
hahahahaha
Thank you Congress!
BTW, thanks for the info. I guess I can now contact all my "represent
nuf said.
In my opinion, deals like this are a back-door way to pay them back without being forthcomin
It's not the Chinese that we should be angry with, it's our own government
Here in Austin, Texas all the solar installati
Oh, here's another nice little tid-bit they told us there might be additional solar rebate monies if the city got some "stimulus monies". Apparently
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“NEWS FLASH - stimulus / jobs bill a success. IN CHINA!!
On ABC NEWS at 6:50, the stimulus has created jobs, but obviously, not here! According to Diane Sawyer, 20% of the jobs are state-side
Cielo Wind Power is installing a wind farm in Texas, hardware (i.e.turbi
Stimulus? Jobs bill? I can think of a few people in Washington that will be looking for a new job.”
What to they do in Germany, Australia, Italy, Canada, France, Switzerlan
Why do we deny ourselves this good life and instead opt for a race to the botom ?????
We can vote for anything we want, plus there is the choice of an uprising. Why should we be content with the crumbs that fall off the table ? We want the best of everything
We are counting on you, Leo. You are a real man.
Exactly.
Instead of a race to the bottom it should be the other way around. The structures in many European countries are in fact not that different from the USA. Except this one bottom line: A government to benefit the needs of the PEOPLE FIRST and NOT the corporatio
The American people are not treated with love and respect, and policies and laws are not made for their benefit, instead for the benefits of corporatio
We will send American money to China.
Obama bailed out GM. Then punched up the GDP numbers by subsidizin
First thing GM did with the American money that Obama gave them?
They're building a plant in China.
But, I'm very much with you - let's restore American competitiv
Instead, however, Obama is following the policies that Bush and Paulson establishe
The clearest way to prevent the race to the bottom seems to me to be to remove the unfair advantage gained through manipulate
In other words, countries with high standards and fair competitio
http://cor
or else goodbye to US manufactur
Then there is the make it here or it will not be sold here policies of all of Asia and Brazil.
Then there is China's 22.5% tarrif on our goods... we charge them just 2.5%.
Then there are countries like China which require that companies doing business there give them a 50% interest to the communist government
Then there are the southern states here that built the foreign plants here for foreign companies (32 billion).. who get zero percent loans in their home country and we then complain about having to rescue GM! Duh...
Enironment
The problem with having 700 foreign bases in 165 countries is that our Congress has forgotten who they represent and that goes doubly for the repugs
Regards
Lets hear more from you on the vital issue of manufactur
I wish we had a party that we could vote for if we want to save U.S. manufactur
Obama has not said A WORD about industrial policy yet. Maybe he does not know such a thing even exists !
The only hope for U.S. manufactur
Cheers
Our system has needed to be rejiggered to match foreign protection
We need an industrial policy and a trade policy that scraps the MFN idea (works against open markets) and uses a form of mirror image.
Letting the Chinese have any USG money except in return for tech (they don't nave it now) and on favorable terms is outright dumb. DOE putting money into an electric car operation that will produce in Finland is equally stupid.
The U.S. needs to get away from false ideas about free markets and start taking care of ourselves like others do.
The response to the trade imbalance has been that Americans need to get more competitiv
This is true for manufactur
Let's also make sure that the US Government does not give stimulus work to companies like IBM who betray their own American workers for the sake of short-term profits.
We cannot stop China from doing what it is doing. We can make it unprofitab