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With inflation raging, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman’s answer is not to find a way to increase supply of vital goods and services, but instead to threaten criminal prosecution on American businesses for supplying key commodities to market. There is nothing “patriotic” about threatening federal charges against companies who are working to increase output during a time of severe geopolitical instability. Our allies in Europe and Asia are pleading with the United States to send them more energy; hostile political rhetoric like Fetterman’s only serve to chill investment when it is sorely needed.
Readers should also be aware of the consequences of Fetterman’s plans to impose protectionist trade rules. We have already seen in recent years what heavy tariffs do to working families’ budgets and our relationships with key allies. They raise the prices on key inputs, costing US manufacturing jobs and straining relationships with liberal democracies like Canada and Brazil. Instead of further isolationism, we should be deepening our trade relationships with the free nations of the world. To cite just one example, we have a baby formula shortage in this country that was exacerbated by the sort of wrong-headed approach on trade Fetterman is advocating.
The United States, along with many free market democracies, is realigning its supply chain in the wake of the pandemic. The U.S. is on track to reshore more jobs this year than at any point in the last decade and a half – which means American business is making good on its promise with the 2017 tax reform bill that encouraged repatriation. One thing we can be sure of: talking down American business like Fetterman did in his recent op-ed will not help advance that promising outcome.
Kevin Sunday
Director, Government Affairs
Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry