Senator Mark Rubio (R, Florida) sponsored legislation, with bipartisan support, for lowering our economic dependence on China for medical supplies and pharmaceuticals. The COVID-19 pandemic has made it painfully obvious outsourcing our medical manufacturing capabilities isn’t a good idea. This article from The Hill details the push.
The 2019 annual report from the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission warned Congress that U.S. consumers, including the US military, are “heavily dependent” on China for medical supplies and states this “presents economic and national security risks.”
Our dependence on China, and other countries, for manufacturing is a result of the globalist agenda. The World Trade Organization and the Globalist Agenda have sold the future of democracy down the road to China. This Washington Examiner article declares “It’s time to declare our independence from China.“One of the reasons the US was able to defeat Axis powers was our ability to ramp up the production of supplies and hardware to conduct the war. The US kicked out Liberty Ships, weaponry and ammunition to help supply the Soviet Union and the UK to win World War II. Manufacturing plants made jeeps, planes, weapons and supplies for US soldiers and those of allied nations. It’s as if a bunch of fascists tricked our government, planning ahead to sabotage the US before World War III.
Outsourcing the manufacture of medical supplies hasn’t led to a reduction in the price of pharmaceuticals either. The burden on our nation’s economy by the healthcare industry hasn’t diminished over the last couple of decades. As the GDP has increased the cost of healthcare has kept pace. This chart from Statista shows in 2019 17.8% of our GDP was spent on healthcare. That’s fairly static; in 2005 it was 16.1%, but the GDP has been increasing. In 1980 the cost was 8.9%.
Most US manufacturing capability has been exported. Our economy is increasingly service based. Automotive manufacturing plants moved to Mexico, along with the jobs. When the attacks on the World Trade Buildings brought the anti World Trade Organization protests to a halt, our nation’s business “leaders“ started importing everything they could; purchasing at a lower cost and selling at the same price as before. Manufacturing on the global scale was no longer encumbered by EPA and OSHA regulations and could pay much lower wages. They didn’t necessarily pass the savings on to the consumers.
Back Senators and Representatives who support weening US manufacturing off China, forcing companies to adapt to modern EPA and OSHA regulations, and putting American’s back to work.