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Here’s a letter to the Wall Street Journal:
Pres. Trump’s push to have Uncle Sam “buy American” is a slap in the face of the many people who voted for him because of his alleged business acumen (“In ‘Buy American’ Push, Trump Is Starting in a Hole [2],” April 21).
Good business executives ensure that their firms do not incur costs that are unnecessarily high. Well-run businesses do not produce for themselves inputs that they can acquire from others at lower costs. Profitable firms spend shareholders’ money only to create value and never to create jobs for the sake of creating jobs.
And yet Trump is actively trying to force American taxpayers to spend more than is necessary on the provision of government services. This supposedly brilliant businessman fancies that he’ll somehow make us richer by draining more money from our pockets. Such an incompetent chief executive deserves to be fired.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
and
Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030