July 09, 2020 01:03 PM UTC

Believe It Or Not, Stuff Happened Before Trump was President

• 3 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

As The New York Times reports, Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden is pushing a new slogan intended to encourage voters to “Buy American”:

Joseph R. Biden Jr. will lay out a populist economic vision to revive and reinvest in American manufacturing on Thursday, calling for major new spending and stricter new rules to “Buy American” as part of an effort to more aggressively challenge President Trump on two of his signature issues: the economy and nationalism.

In a speech in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, Mr. Biden is expected to slash at Mr. Trump management of the economy while framing his own economic agenda around the campaign’s new tagline of “Build Back Better.”

Mr. Biden is expected to say his plans would leverage trade, tax and investment policy to spur domestic innovation, reduce the reliance on foreign manufacturing and create five million additional American manufacturing and innovation jobs, according to a preview outlined by senior campaign officials.

This news has aggravated some Republicans who were of the belief that President Trump was the first person ever to think of promoting American-made products. Here’s a “hot take” from Kristi Burton Brown, “Personhood” genius, Vice-Chair of the Colorado Republican Party and now “lead policy adviser” for Republican Congressional candidate Lauren “Yosemite Samantha” Boebert:

Shockingly, @JoeBiden’s idea is in fact NOT Joe Biden’s idea. @realDonaldTrump has already been telling us to #BuyAmerican. So, if you want to elect someone who puts America first, we already know who that is! #MAGA2020 #copolitics pic.twitter.com/7ffD2FDkjK

— KBBColorado (@ColoradoKbb) July 9, 2020

Donald Trump invented “Buy American” in the same way that Ivanka Trump was personally responsible for creating 10% of all American jobs.

The “Buy American Act,” which required the U.S. government to prioritize purchasing U.S.-made products, was approved by Congress in 1933. More recently, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 — a stimulus package passed by Congress in response to the Great Recession — included a separate “Buy American” provision. Congressional Republicans even tried to get then-President Obama to roll back the “Buy American” section because of concerns that it was slowing down the progress of recovery programs.

Former President Ronald Reagan was criticized for his protectionist trade policies in the 1980s, as was his successor, George H.W. Bush. Former President George W. Bush encouraged the “Buy American” idea in his 2006 State of the Union speech. Former President Bill Clinton wrote an entire chapter about the importance of buying American goods in a book published in 2011.

We’d mention Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford, but you get the idea.