26 November 2010
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
United States Senate
Capitol Hill
Dear Sen. Brown:
In today’s Washington Post you declare that “Demanding that trade agreements work for American exporters isn’t protectionism; it’s common sense.”
In other words, whenever other governments dole out favors to foreign corporations at the expense of foreign consumers, you want Uncle Sam to dole out favors to American corporations at the expense of American consumers.
This isn’t common sense, sir. It’s garbage-heap economics that serves as a convenient excuse for politicians to pick the pockets of hundreds of millions of Americans for the benefit of politically influential businesses.
My offer still stands to debate you on free trade and protectionism. If you’re so confident that the U.S. economy is improved by tariffs and other impediments to competition, you should be eager to enlighten an audience by debating someone so obviously lacking in “common sense” as me.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
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