by Rick Lowe

Professor Boudreaux “nails” politicos at his web site Cafe Hayek http://cafehayek.com/ on an almost daily basis with wit and wisdom.

The following letters to US President Obama (D) and Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney (R) expose both of them for their impudence.

First is the letter to Mr. Romney, followed by his letter to Mr. Obama.

Open Letter to Mitt Romney

16 September 2012

Mr. Mitt Romney
Campaign Trail, USA

Dear Mr. Romney:

In a pre-recorded radio broadcast yesterday you asserted that “In 2008, candidate Obama promised to take China to the mat. But since then he’s let China run all over us…. [T]o keep more jobs in America, we [you and V-P Paul Ryan] will label China a currency manipulator.”

One can (almost) forgive a campaigning politician for selective use of facts and poor use of reason. A campaign, after all, is not a seminar for discovering truth. It’s a verbal wrestling match to get votes by whatever means, regardless of how tawdry or devious.

Less forgivable is a campaign promise to break a campaign promise. Your wish to “label China a currency manipulator” means that you seek a pretext to impose (as your website says*) “countervailing duties” on imports from China – which is to say, you seek a pretext for raising taxes on Americans who buy goods and services from China. Yet in other episodes of your campaign you promise (as you did here** last month) “I will not raise taxes on the American people. I will not raise taxes on middle-income Americans.”

If you keep your promise to impose countervailing duties on imports from China you will thereby break your promise not to raise taxes on the American people. (Americans who buy imports from China are, after all, American people.) But if you keep your promise to not raise taxes on the American people, you must – as I hope you will – break your promise to punitively tax those many Americans who buy imports from China.

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030

* http://www.mittromney.com/issues/trade

** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3_cK2lQUwg
(just after the 1:30 mark)

Open Letter to Barack Obama

17 September 2012

Pres. Barack Obama
Campaign Trail, USA

Dear Mr. Obama:

Speaking today in Ohio, you bragged that your administration brought unfair-trade complaints against China “at nearly twice the rate” at which George W. Bush’s administration brought such complaints. In other words, your administration…

… is nearly twice as active as was that of your predecessor at raising Americans’ cost of living by badgering suppliers to hike the prices charged on products such as consumer electronics, furniture, and footwear;

… has doubled-down on the Bush administration’s efforts to raise production costs for the many American producers who buy inputs such as zinc and oil-field-drilling equipment from Chinese manufacturers;

… is two times as likely to pander to the economically ignorant in order to grant special privileges to the politically powerful, all in efforts to prevent Americans from spending their money as they see fit.

And you’re proud of this record?

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030