In what is an obvious political move by the Obama Administration, tires for your car just got more expensive. (full story HERE)
President Barack Obama’s tire announcement, made late Friday, came as the administration is about to lean heavily on organized labor to support the administration’s health-care-overhaul proposals. The United Steelworkers union has argued that a surge of Chinese tire imports has cost American jobs.
Over the weekend, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency said in a commentary that the U.S. sanctions were political pandering by a president trying to secure union votes in his health-care battle. “It is a huge regret that crucial China-U.S. trade relations are once again disrupted by [domestic] political disputes,” the agency said.
What is interesting about this is that what the United Steelworkers union meant to say is “tire imports has cost American union jobs.” You see, when we have less expensive tires in the United States, it allows more people to buy replacement tires when they should safely do so. They are less apt to drive until the tire become racing slicks, making the roadways (going into winter no less) safer for everyone. These less expensive tires (being inherently less expensive), add to tire sales putting mechanics at discount tire locations, Wal-mart, Sam’s Club, and Costco to work.
Less expensive tires are good for all Americans. The way to ‘even the playing field’ as the Unions would like to do, would be to lower the cost of American made tires – not make imported tires MORE expensive! However, Big Labor does not want to do that – since the greatest burden on the production of just about anything in America… is labor.
At a time when unemployment is about to top 10% (and the true unemployment being much higher) and American’s are trying to be responsible and stretch dollars as far as possible – this is a devistating blow to the working class of America. Yet another broken tax promise by President Obama.
