“Some friends ask about your new year’s resolutions. Good friends don’t say too much about them. Your best friends don’t mention them at all, since they know you will never keep them.” – Jay Leno
Between Dec. 26 and Jan. 2, people make an existential U-turn. The season of goodwill, visiting and gift giving morphs into a neurotic self-improvement aeon as we confront our disquieting anxieties. Which of my habits to stop? Who do I want to be? What do I wish to look like and more.
It’s a fact; many New Year’s resolutions are outlandish, unattainable and even ridiculous. Most are frivolously made after over-imbibing on the “bubbly” during celebrations. It’s uncanny that few really expect to keep them. And some people don’t even remember resolutions they made the next day?
While “great expectations” have plagued mankind for centuries, since most people are forgiving by nature, we do not normally burn anyone at the stake for not keeping the resolutions that they made on New Year’s. We even tend to forgive those that politicians always make and never plan to keep.
“By God, I will govern for everyone in America; even for those who did not vote for me.” – Joe Biden
It is daunting when our list of New Year’s resolutions is longer than our holiday shopping lists. And it’s even more frustrating not being able to keep even one resolution by late January. According to Lynn Bufka, Phd, “People have a habit of setting overwhelming goals instead of attainable goals.”
Each year, every member of Congress and the White House promises to cut our trade deficit with China, yet it continues to grow each year, faster than Pinocchio’s nose grows every time he fibs.
Is our federal government telling us what they think we want to hear? Or are these half truths just grandiose New Year’s resolutions?
“A lie told often enough becomes the truth.” – Vladimir Lenin
If we learned anything from the pandemic, it is how vulnerable our supply chain is to the impulses of Red China. Although recently America has not been acting like a superpower, it is considered a dominant player in global affairs. Isn’t it also the world’s strongest nation with the most influence?
If America is “too big to fail” and dictates policy to the world, then why did we allow Red China to maneuver our economy for four decades? Since the 1979 Accord signed by Jimmy Carter and Deng Xiaoping that legitimized Red China, we’ve become dependent on China for economic survival.
The 1979 Accord opened the door for manufactures to recover lost profits due to union demands for egregious wages and benefits. Many had closed their doors. Others were merging to survive.
Chinese cheap “labor” has fueled innovative product creation at the expense of U.S. engineering and development, utilizing U.S. resources. Since China has no respect for international intellectual property rights, they clone everything they make for us and compete against us in our own nation.
“Communists must always put the interests of Communists first in order to survive.” – Mao Zedong
A Federal Reserve report shows the U. S. is running a record trade deficit with China. Companies that used to make products in the U.S., from Levi’s to Master Locks, shut down their factories and moved to China. The report noted we buy more clothing and shoes from China than the U.S.
A former Perry Ellis plant is now home to a Walmart plant that puts parts into TVs made in China.
It’s time Joe Biden quits blaming our supply chain problems and high inflation on the pandemic! We are not only “overly dependent” on imports from countries that don’t share our political beliefs and policies, countries like Red China are competing with us using technology that they stole from us.
“When it comes time to hang the capitalists, we will use the rope they sold us.” – Vladimir Lenin
It’s scary the U.S. has placed its economic fate in Red China at the expense of democratic nations likes Mexico and India? Although Ford has a plant in Mexico, India’s Sun Pharmaceuticals is the largest generic drug supplier in the world. And India has the ability to do anything that China does.
Economist Matt Slaughteg reminds us: for years we had production contracts with Mexico, India, and Eastern Europe. But when China opened their free markets, American companies flocked to China because they had no unions, no labor laws, low taxes and fewer government regulations.
We are all aware of our dependence on rogue nations for energy and what they’ve done to us for years. Not only are we forced to turn to inferior, costly technology for energy, this threatens our national security. And it is a socioeconomic nightmare for every U.S. citizen and business as well.
“Our supply chain is strained because we depend on so many critical imports.” – Jerome Powell
Psychologists agree, when people set overwhelming goals on New Year’s, they seldom keep them. This is what Congress and the president vow to do every year with our trade deficit. This year we have an opportunity to hold their feet to the fire and make them do it with midterms coming soon.
U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Chris Coons (D-DE) introduced a bill for government to invest $1 billion to mitigate future supply chain issues. It will identify manufacturing and distribution issues and will strengthen our supply chains, and reduce our reliance on imports, especially from China.
The National Manufacturing Guard Act (NMGA) will help the Department of Commerce prepare us for future import crises. Most importantly, this bill will help the DOC identify supply chain problems and manufacturing issues. It also allows the DOC to partner with private industry and promotes the establishment of apprenticeship programs that will help increase US manufacturing and production.
“The pandemic showed us how vulnerable our supply chains are; its time to fix them.” – Marco Rubio
Ronald Reagan once said, “Capitalism is the most powerful weapon against Communism.” Both India and Mexico are democratic nations with cheap labor. It is time we increase outsourcing labor to them and quit empowering Communist China with our intellectual technology and U.S. dollars. With midterms coming, we have it in our power to make Congress pass The NMGA and enforce it.
Congress is great at making grandiose promises during elections. Like people on New Year’s, once the thrill of the chase is over, they forget the resolutions and promises they made campaigning. A resolution to cut our dependence on imports from undemocratic nations is one they have to keep.
The National Manufacturing Guard Act is a baby step in the right direction and it is long overdue.
Tell your congressmen if they cannot keep this New Years resolution, then you cannot keep them.
“We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called ‘Opportunity’ and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.” – Edith Lovejoy Pierce
By William Haupt III | The Center Square contributor
