by Patrick J. Buchanan – April 21, 1998

Why is a Republican Party that once declared the protection of U.S. economic independence and the American standard of living the essence of its creed doing this? Why is the party of the full dinner pail colluding in a betrayal of American engineers and scientists who have already been punished by deep defense cuts, corporate downsizings and the wholesale export of U.S. manufacturing?…

Wenever one points to the exploding U.S. merchandise trade deficit — running at a record annual rate of $222 billion in ‘98 — and vanishing U.S. manufacturing jobs, the impatient retort comes back: