China has been manipulating their currency to undercut U.S. products. They allow slave wages for workers, which is why many U.S. manufacturers have moved their manufacturing jobs there. They have lax environmental regulations that allow the dumping of toxic materials into landfills, rivers, and into the air.
So what do we do to create a level playing field? We could continue the decline of our standards and become a third-world nation. Or we can aspire to American exceptionalism and set standards for excellence rather than a race to the bottom.
The House of Representatives recently passed a bill that will impose tariffs on goods from China (HR2378). Here is a summary:
Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act – Amends the Tariff Act of 1930 to require the administering authority to: (1) determine, based on certain requirements, whether the exchange rate of the currency of an exporting country is fundamentally and actionably undervalued or overvalued (misaligned) against the U.S. dollar for an 18-month period; and (2) take certain actions under a countervailing duty or antidumping duty proceeding to offset such misalignment in cases of an affirmative determination.
Subjects the misalignment to the U.S. dollar of the currency of nonmarket economy countries also to the countervailing and antidumping duty provisions of the Act.
Naturally, this bill will die in the Senate. If, by some miracle, it becomes law, the result will be the return of many manufacturing jobs to the U.S. Sure, we might pay a little more for electronics, appliances… well, pretty much everything, since nearly everything is made in China any more, but our country will be better off.
The problem we have is that right-wingers have no desire to make our country better. They only do what they are told.
DRUDGE RETORT 
