Breaking: Congress Still Clueless

Wow. Let me repeat for the second time in a week: Oh. My. God.
The "Buy American" provisions of last January's non-stimulating stimulus bill were roundly criticized both at home and abroad as needlessly destructive and for it numerous specific distortionary effects and unintended consequences. Our two biggest trading partners, Canada and Mexico, have slapped back at us over these dumb provisions. China is now paying us back with new trade barriers after we didn't heed their warnnigs to ratchet back the protectionist urge. That protectionism is economically counter-productive is one of the most agreed-upon tenets of modern economics. It was part and parcel of the stimulus bill that is clearly a failure, and yet...and yet... it looks like the lower chamber of the Great Sausage Factory wants to double down on this idiocy.