Schumer kills the Schumer Bill:

For over a year I’ve been giving Senator Schumer hell over his harebrained idea to place a 27.5% tariff on goods coming from China. It always puzzled me that in this day and age a Senator, especially one from the business capital of the world, would actually think tariffs are a good idea for an economy.

I believe there was actually a point during this crazy plan where Schumer realized that his idea was ridiculous. I recall during one of Ben Bernanke’s testimonies where Schumer asked about his bill with Schumer telling Bernanke that he knew it wasn’t a good idea but didn’t know what else to do. I wondered at the time if I was the only one worried that our Senator “didn’t know what to do”.

It’s become obvious for months now that Schumer has wised up and never had any intention to implement his bill and was instead trying to use it as saber rattling to hopefully get China to act. China new better and even Schumer’s visit to the country had him coming back with nothing but more proof that he’s out of his league when it comes to dealing with the country’s economic policy. Schumer threatening China with tariffs would be like me threatening to throw my HDTV out the window if my wife didn’t stop watching Desperate House Wives. She knows I would never do it because I would only be hurting myself more.

Fortunately for Schumer a man who knows a thing or two about sound economic policy, Hank Paulson, opened a door for Schumer to save face with his own trip to China. Paulson’s trip to China was a tremendous success as China finally had someone they can talk shop with that understood all aspects of trade and the theory of “Comparative Advantage”.

Give Schumer credit though for being wise enough to seize the opportunity to pull his bill. He still couldn’t do it without making somewhat of an ass out of himself, by stating during the press conference that his bill was a “blunt instrument” that got China to this point. I’m sure people unfamiliar with how things work might believe him but everyone who knows better laughed at that statement and thought it fitting that he is from the party represented by a donkey.