U.S. Rep. Mark Green (R-TN-07) said Monday he has sent a letter to Congressional leadership urging them to include incentives for American companies to move back from China.
Specifically, Green said in the letter that members of Congress should do this through any upcoming legislation they might consider while fighting COVID-19.
“Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, many American companies had moved their operations to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), lured by incentives like lower costs and an abundance of cheap labor. However, over the past three years, the Trump Administration and U.S. Congress have gone to great lengths to make the United States the best place in the world to do business. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act slashed taxes, the President’s energy agenda has led to cheaper utilities, and right-to-work laws have made many states more attractive,” Green said in the letter.
“One of the big disincentives to American companies moving back to our soil is the cost. For many, it is too expensive and too risky to undertake an international move at a time of global economic uncertainty. However, as millions of Americans file for unemployment each week, and as we’ve been forced to make our own homemade masks out of scarves and bandanas, we need to bring our companies home.”
In his letter, Green said the country should temporarily allow American companies that move back from China to expense 100 percent of moving costs.
“And, while I’m personally no fan of tariffs, we should pay for it with the existing tariffs President Trump levied on China, as long as they remain,” Green wrote.
“The American people have suffered enough — and the American taxpayer has paid enough — for a virus they had no part in causing. It’s time to let China pay for it.”
As The Tennessee Star reported last week, Green joined other Republicans in sending a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo asking how his department will hold China accountable for its coronavirus misinformation campaign against America.
Since the discovery of the virus in December 2019, China’s communist regime has taken extraordinary efforts to hide its origination and early spread, Green said. Green’s letter outlined China’s propaganda efforts over the course of months. These include alleged coordination between Chinese health officials and the Chinese government to conceal the spread of COVID-19 and government-led propaganda campaigns to blame the United States. They also include reported efforts by Chinese officials to silence doctors and expel American journalists from the country, Green said.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Great idea that could have been done 20 years ago and overnight I’m not holding my breath. Corruption of our government is too systemic. It would take executive power to make this happen and I wouldn’t doubt the executive already has this power in the form of some old law or something that Trump could probably enact or declare in some way but I don’t know about it. Something to do with national security or economic crisis?
I would suggest that both the carrot (incentives) and the stick (punishments) should be boldly employed to “encourage” supposedly American companies to bring their operations back home.
Congress is the body that SENT the companies to China in the first place! Congress passed environmental and other laws that made it IMPOSSIBLE for manufacturers to operate within the US border. Government creates problems then solves them, but the solution is always worse than if government never got involved
Yes, we had successive globalist administrations, Bush-Clinton and Clinton-Bush-Obama who promoted policies which sold out the American economy for their “New World Order” to quote George H. W. Bush and then Bill Clinton in a SOTU speech proclaiming, “globalism is the central reality of our time”.
Representative Green sure seems to be hitting on all eight cylinders with this one. Shipping our factories, and the associated technologies, to China has been one of the gravest mistakes any American has ever made. Allowing it to happen, or perhaps better, forcing it to happen, by having high business taxes, and ridiculous EPA regulations, government at all levels is as much to blame as corporate management!
The day will come when our exported technologies and manufacturing capabilities in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party will be used to kill young Americans, IF, we don’t act swiftly. We can “defang” the CCP by repatriating our factories, by preventing our financial institutes from investing in Chinese companies. AND by stopping the CCP from buying influence within our higher education system!