Groan…

The Democrats have gotten on the China bashing wagon… and since this is a big issue for me, I’m beginning to wonder if I’m going to need to start supporting the Iraq war (i.e. vote for McCain).

Obama told workers in Pennsylvania on Monday that China had to respect trade rules if it was to act as “positive force” for the world economy.

“If you are doing the right thing and not trying to manipulate your currencies to our disadvantage then you will have access,” Obama told UGroan… (by which I meannited Steelworkers union members and other industrial workers.

Ignoring the “China not playing by the rules” talk, which has little basis in reality, not giving China “access” to American trade will be more a net negative to the US than it will be to China. The cost of most goods manufactured in Asia (China does assembling for most Asian countries) would rise significantly, which, with inflation already over 4%, and expected to rise in the next few years, is not something that anyone wants. It wouldn’t do anything to save American jobs, because American manufacturing is simply not competitive globally. Our economy is oriented towards high added-value hi-tech and service sector jobs. If we are to be in any way price-competitive with developing economies in manufacturing we would need to drastically reduce the costs of everything in the economy.

Or, we can retrain our labor force to get service sector jobs.

Hillary though not quite as bad as Obama, is competing in the “plans to trash America’s economy.”

“We need solutions to fix our trade laws, build a strong manufacturing base and stand up to China and say that unsafe toys and unfair currency practices are unacceptable.”

Groan…