It looks like liberal pundits at ABC News are getting creative to try and smear the 2012 GOP presidential candidates:
"Republican presidential candidates are pitching plans to revive the economy, selling a message of jobs and growth. But when it comes to what they are buying, ABC News found that four of the candidates are selling merchandise made overseas."ABC News investigated all eight Republican candidates as well as the president's re-election campaign and discovered that campaign T-shirts for Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul and Herman Cain were all made outside the United States."
When asked about it, Cain and Gingrich claimed ignorance (probably not the best answer). Rick Santorum said it's too hard to find a shirt made in the United States these days. But Ron Paul was unapologetic, knowing full well that buying foreign-made products doesn't harm the economy:
"I wasn't aware of it ... but I wouldn't change it," said Paul. "I would argue the case that the market should determine it."
With the unemployment rate near 10%, it is easy look at the millions of jobless Americans and think that "buying American" and slowing the outsourcing of jobs will help. But as John Stossel explains (below), outsourcing is good for American business, drastically lowers consumer prices, and does not actually "steal" any jobs from Americans. Yes, a "Made in the USA" tag might look more patriotic, but such products are almost always more expensive. Indeed, less-funded, grassroots campaigns are put at a disadvantage if pundits insist that they "buy American."
Here's an idea: how about lower corporate tax rates and allow American businesses to keep more of their earnings, like the GOP candidates propose, to spur domestic job creation? Perhaps the pundits at ABC could learn a little bit about economics from the likes of Ron Paul...