FR Doc. 2011-10291 Filed 4-28-11; 8:45 am: Department of Defense (DOD), The Buy American Act

You gotta love this one.

A. Purpose

The Buy American Act requires that only domestic end products be
acquired for public use unless specifically authorized by statute or
regulation, provided that the cost of the domestic products is
reasonable.
The Buy American Act Certificate provides the contracting office
with the information necessary to identify which products offered are
domestic end products and which are of foreign origin. Components of
unknown origin are considered to have been supplied from outside the
United States.

Link to FR Doc. 2011-10291

I'm a bit puzzled over this one.
I can understand the economic benefit to our own country (BUY USA) but we make very little here in this country. Halliburton/KBR now have it's headquarters in the UAE. GE a huge government contractor Moved their headquarters to Monterey Mexico. We no longer manufacture anything in this country. oh sure we assemble goods here, their respective parts coming from other parts of the globe.

So is this a way to bring them back?
are we about to launch on a new isolationist movement?

Sure in a time of War you want to keep your supply chains short and local if possible.

this bill brings up a dazzling array of unanswered question due to its simplicity...
The Buy American Act Certificate... now where do you suppose this road is leading us?

Sounds like Nationalism.........Goes well with socialism, so they say

reply to post by DaddyBare


If this is an act that the government is planning to limit themselves by, then I think it is a great thing! Imagine if all of our defense spending came home? The billion dollar contracts that would go to US based companies would be huge!

The Federal automobiles purchased, the furniture purchased for Federal buildings.

This could be a great thing for the economy, and a big incentive for those major suppliers to base themselves back in the US.

I doubt it ever becomes law though. It is probably just political posturing for some brownie points somewhere.

reply to post by getreadyalready


Ya know the big reasons a lot of these big name companies moved was to avoid paying corporate taxes...
now think if good ole uncle Sam could lure these companies back... make a pretty good dent in our deficit problems, wouldn't it

reply to post by DaddyBare


There was a great interview with the CEO of Pepsi last weekend. (I forget her name, I think she is Indian?)

Anway, she stated that these companies are willing to pay "some" taxes. They just don't want to be overburdened by them. She stated it would be more profitable for the companies to stay in the US, and pay some tax on their money, than it is to harbor their money in other countries and not be able to bring it back here.

She thought it would be win-win if the government could ease the restrictions, lure the money back home, and the corporations could do business more seemlessly.

My brother has a blog where he quotes a chart how taxes and revenues have a bell curve relationship. Revenue increases when taxes increase up to a point, but then revenue begins to decrease with tax increases. When it comes to corporate tax, we are on the wrong side of that curve.

Here is his blog

reply to post by DaddyBare


Who in their right mind would buy American products? Most are of poor quality and overpriced to pay overinflated salaries as they think they have a right to such high pay because they are special.

Originally posted by DaddyBare

I'm a bit puzzled over this one.
I can understand the economic benefit to our own country (BUY USA) but we make very little here in this country. Halliburton/KBR now have it's headquarters in the UAE. GE a huge government contractor Moved their headquarters to Monterey Mexico. We no longer manufacture anything in this country. oh sure we assemble goods here, their respective parts coming from other parts of the globe.

Actually, GE has a huge plant here where I live. Its so big it has its own area code and zip code. They manufacture and assemble all sorts of things from jet engines to washers and dryers there. I have family that has worked there for 20+ years.

This notion that the USA doesnt manufacture anything worthwhile is a falsehood and shouldnt be accepted as fact. Its just not true.

Interesting.

Quite a few consumer goods are already American corporations but the labor cost is sourced so the money leaves the nation.

For example, when we buy Apple that money goes to their shareholders and overseas hardware/distributions centers.

Originally posted by DaddyBare
Sure in a time of war you want to keep your supply chains short and local if possible.

Here's an interesting point.
Technically, we are not "At War".
Unless we seriously consider the war on terrorism a legitmate "war".
Which I don't...
Then maybe they are preparing for a future escalation.
WWIII?

Originally posted by getreadyalready
reply to post by DaddyBare

If this is an act that the government is planning to limit themselves by, then I think it is a great thing! Imagine if all of our defense spending came home? The billion dollar contracts that would go to US based companies would be huge!

The Federal automobiles purchased, the furniture purchased for Federal buildings.

This could be a great thing for the economy, and a big incentive for those major suppliers to base themselves back in the US.

Government does NOT create wealth, economies or supply.
The people do.
Do you honestly believe that if the gov't bought from American companies...it would be beneficial?
You realize that the money they spend is your tax dollars right?
So in reality, they pool all our money together, and spend our money in our stores.
The same stores we got taxed on to operate.
The same products we got taxed on (income) to produce.
That money would be re-circulated, in a sense, back to the gov't.
We would never actually create wealth at all.
It would be an enormous bubble.
Just like in the 1920's etc...


Anyone else see the issue here?

reply to post by havok


They are already pooling all the money together and spending it, by the trillions, and a large portion of that is spent outside the borders.

If they mandate that it is spent inside the borders, it will create jobs and commerce inside the borders.

I know they don't "create" any wealth, but since they are spending it anyway, why not spend it right here were we can get some of it back?

Originally posted by getreadyalready
reply to post by havok

 

They are already pooling all the money together and spending it, by the trillions, and a large portion of that is spent outside the borders.

If they mandate that it is spent inside the borders, it will create jobs and commerce inside the borders.

I know they don't "create" any wealth, but since they are spending it anyway, why not spend it right here were we can get some of it back?

They should be using it in the US, correct.
On roads, infrastructure, electric grids, etc.
Maintenance that is going downhill fast.

I see your point.
But I don't think they should have so much to spend, to begin with.
We all know that.

I have an issue with knowing that I'm the one paying for this..
Not our gov't.

Because its not their money to begin with.

Plus, its a little late...almost all of our industry is tore down.
So how are we supposed to produce wartime goods with no factories?


Nevermind.
Its not even worth thinking about.
There are forces out there that want America to fail.
And I have a strange feeling its working.

now think about this they get a tax break, then there is the push for no union, that means a) slave labor. b) the middle and poor are still stuck with the tax burden. c) more across border labor. = one big mess but ya it is made in the in USA with china, Mex, Taiwan parts,and just with cheep over worked underpaid desperate for work, work force. So yes bring back the Made in the USA. ya it is a mess but what to do????

reply to post by havok


I think you are correct about outside forces influencing our government to operate so poorly, and also about it possibly being too late to make any difference.

I think a major fall is inevitable, but I am optimistic that afterwards the hard-working, innovative Americans will emerge to rebuild the economy and the government with our original values at the forefront!

I totally agree that what we pay in taxes s exorbitant! Most people don't even realize what the real number is! When you add up Federal Income Tax, SS, Medicare, Property tax, State taxes, sales taxes, taxes on utilities, cable, cell phones, fuel, and then extra fees on things like cigarettes and alcohol. The true amount of tax paid by any individual is surely in excess of 50%, but we don't get all the benefits that countries like France get for their high taxes. They might pay 55% income tax, but they get free healthcare, free higher education, and real benefits for their money. Ours just gets pissed away.

the more jobs here means more people working that means more people paying tax revenue to the fed and the less people that will be on entitlements.

more people working means less that are on entitlements thats nationalism? okayyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

if your paying taxes and not getting paid by taxes thats a win win.

yeah not a bad idea but nationalism as it was called is disingenous.

its called taking care of our own and you taking care of yourself.

The thinking behind any company is to make themselves "Tax Efficient".

Anything they do is to reduce their tax bills.

Funding here, funding there, all for ehm investment in jobs. yeah right, its cuz taxpayers pay a large chunk of the bill then they move on.

Charities, all tax breaks. Buy Local products, all tax efficient.

reply to post by DaddyBare

provided that the cost of the domestic products is
reasonable.

I'm not seeing any definition of "reasonable" in the link. There's the loophole that makes this bill nothing but fluff. Without it clearly specifying "provided that the cost of the domestic products is within 15% (for example) of the lowest non-domestic bid" this is all meaningless and really only opens the door to creating an excuse for US manufacturing firms to cut worker salaries down to a level where they can be "reasonable" with regards to end product pricing in comparison to Asian countries that have miniscule production worker costs.

Furthermore, I'm not convinced this is even legal without first breaking free from both NAFTA and the WTO.
www.canadainternational.gc.ca...

Under NAFTA, the U.S. requires that Canadian goods and suppliers be exempt from these requirements if procurement is being done directly by a listed U.S. federal department or agency and if the value of procurement exceeds NAFTA thresholds (currently US$25,000 for goods, US$70,079 for general services and US$9,110,318 for construction services).

www.wto.org...

1. With respect to all laws, regulations, procedures and practices regarding government procurement covered by this Agreement, each Party shall provide immediately and unconditionally to the products, services and suppliers of other Parties offering products or services of the Parties, treatment no less favourable than:

(a) that accorded to domestic products, services and suppliers; and

(b) that accorded to products, services and suppliers of any other Party.

and

1. A Party shall not apply rules of origin to products or services imported or supplied for purposes of government procurement covered by this Agreement from other Parties, which are different from the rules of origin applied in the normal course of trade and at the time of the transaction in question to imports or supplies of the same products or services from the same Parties.

I just scanned through the WTO website and have now thrown up in my mouth a bit. First time I've ever actively read much of their garbage. I strongly suggest anyone interested in just how "right in front of our nose" globalism and the destruction of beneficial sovreignity to do some digging on their website.
A horrible place to start

Suddenly I feel a strong urge to retract some of the negative things I've said about the Direct Action Network & their involvement in the Battle of Seattle.

reply to post by DaddyBare

Ya know the big reasons a lot of these big name companies moved was to avoid paying corporate taxes...

I also thought the deciding factors included cheap labor and relaxed environmental regulations.......

Originally posted by moogins
reply to post by DaddyBare

 

Who in their right mind would buy American products? Most are of poor quality and overpriced to pay overinflated salaries as they think they have a right to such high pay because they are special.

Let me show you that Chinese made, mercury filled, lead tainted, (non-taxed) GE light-bulb.