At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, President Trump noticed the lack of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) manufactured in the United States, so he signed the “Defense Production Act” to ensure our country had the capability and capacity to produce PPE such as N95 masks and latex (nitrile butadiene rubber) gloves in the United States. At this time, the coal industry in Southwest Virginia was gradually decimated by the Democrats’ crusade to change the weather, so entrepreneurs saw the opportunity to build six factories in Wythe County and create 2,500 jobs and add $1.3 billion to the local economy.
When Joe Biden took office, he did not renew the loan authority under the Defense Production Act allowing the completed factories to begin production. Instead, the latex gloves were procured overseas in none other than China. But this isn’t the first time Americans began using products “Made in China.”
In 2010, our friends closed the door to the house where their two kids were born after discovering that their home was made of Chinese drywall, which was exuding toxic gasses that were eating away at the insulation on their electrical wires and the PVC pipes in their plumbing. The cost to replace all the electrical wires and rip out the drywall was well more than they could afford and as a result, they were forced to declare bankruptcy. Shortly thereafter, we discovered pet food made in China that contained the dangerous chemical melamine killing America’s best friends. Soon after that, the same chemical was found in infant formula. So now, the producers of drywall, tainted pet food, and baby formula are in charge of a product that touches every American every single day.
We aren’t just talking about first responders, hospital workers, and surgeons. Meat packers at the supermarket, food service attendants, and everyone else who must wear latex gloves in the execution of their jobs will be affected by Joe Biden and his merry band of misfits. This also includes chip manufacturers who must work in a clean room. The workers smock up from head to toe, walk through an air curtain and work in a room with positive air pressure to reduce contamination. But no one thought of the gloves that came right out the box, marked “Made in China.”
In the Commonwealth of Virginia, the two Democrat Senators, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner wrote letters to the Biden administration, praising them for delivering billions of Chinese made latex gloves, while their constituents in Wythe County question who these elected leaders really work for. It certainly isn’t for American manufacturing and our industrial base.
Shift now to Southeast Virginia, which is home of the largest shipyard in the world. The mighty warships of the U.S. Navy fleet are made from steel. To make steel we need iron, and iron is separated from impurities in iron ore when heated at high levels. The most efficient manner to do this is through burning coal. Yes, the same coal produced in Southwest Virginia. U.S. Steel was acquired by a Japanese steel company mainly because American companies, under strict environmental guidelines, cannot keep up with foreign competition primarily in China.
So what happens when the loose guidelines for HY 80 steel (used in our nuclear submarines) meet only the minimum acceptable limits that are not the highest as U.S. Steel was known for? Well the impurities make the steel much more susceptible, especially in very cold water, such as the Arctic where Russia and China have been operating. The implications are unimaginable, as a hundred young Americans risk their lives underwater, only to bet their lives on the same people who brought us drywall that ate away at the insulation in our electrical wires, the tainted pet food and baby formula, and possibly inferior latex gloves and high yield steel. We haven’t even begun to address the 25% increase in Chinese manufactured syringes.
Chinese drones made by DJI are like hundreds of thousands of balloons floating over American homes collecting our patterns of life. Americans also didn’t care as they handed over their DNA to companies like 23andme, which stored all their data in China.
It's time to defend America from the ground up. It’s time to invest in American manufacturers and the industrial base. Our federal government’s job is to provide for the common defense and promote the general welfare. We need to stop all their regulations that punish American businesses and push manufacturing overseas. Instead of putting various labels on its citizens, such as MAGA Republicans, far-right extremist, white privilege, and in my case white adjacent, we need leaders in Congress to concentrate on the only label that matters: Made in the USA.
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