End to Protectionism via Social Engineering Act (Amendment at Vote)

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I'll just repeat what I wrote earlier;

The original bill was passed around the time of the free trade mania (how many are left here that even remember that... ah, how time flies...) and has its roots in certain negotiations that may have taken place after things got especially tiresome and bad-tempered. Basically the act was designed to protect certain vulnerable parts of the manufacturing sector from the sudden imposition of one-sided free trade "agreements" and also to attempt to stimulate a small market for Atlasian-made clothing.
I don't think that it would have been all that successful, but it might have been a good thing for small scale manufacturing in some areas and for certain types of (again, mostly small-scale... and certainly not cheap...) retailers. And something is better than nothing. In retrospect, I don't like the way much of it is written and wouldn't object to a certain tightening up of things... yet I'd have to question whether that would be an especially sensible use of the Senate's limited time.
As for simply repealing it, I don't really understand what the point of that would be either. It's not as though consumers would actually gain anything from it, it's doubtful that it's a significant drain on government coffers (especially as it means less people drawing the dole) and it isn't as though it really amounts to much in terms of protectionism (certainly less than the demented idea of replacing the whole thing with a crude tariff... during a world recession!). It takes only a modest amount of hyperbole to claim that all that is left is dogma. And should we really be basing policy on dogmatism?

Especially considering that scrapping this would certainly result in further job loss, at a time in which unemployment is going through the roof anyways.

Had to get that last dig in, sorry. "If you're going to hustle, at least do it right". Or words very like those.

[Meeker]

We're voting on final passage.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Aye

[Lief 🗽]

Nay

[Filuwaúrdjan]

nay

[minionofmidas]

Nay

[HappyWarrior]

Nay

[Meeker]

Vote Count

Aye: 1 (PiT)
Nay: 4 (Lief, Al, Lewis, HappyWarrior)
Abstain (Yet to vote): 5 (Bacon King, AndrewCT, Torie, DWTL, SPC)

[Torie]

Aye of course.  Maintaining jobs through protectionism is fool's gold.

[AndrewTX]

nay

[Meeker]

Vote Count

Aye: 2 (PiT, Torie)
Nay: 5 (Lief, Al, Lewis, HappyWarrior, AndrewCT)
Abstain (Yet to vote): 3 (Bacon King, DWTL, SPC)

[SPC]

Aye

[Bacon King]

nay

[Meeker]

Vote Count

Aye: 3 (PiT, Torie, SPC)
Nay: 6 (Lief, Al, Lewis, HappyWarrior, AndrewCT, Bacon King)
Abstain (Yet to vote): 1 (DWTL)

The bill has enough votes to fail. Senators have twenty-four hours to be labeled as flip-floppers.

[DownWithTheLeft]

Aye ftr