Charles Schumer Sells Out American Workers For Cheap Umbrellas

Last night, I made a silly spoof of the new television remake of the 1980s science fiction television series V. In the spoof, I imagined the Earth being invaded by a race of evil extraterrestrial umbrellas.

That was a ridiculous piece of fiction. However, this morning I am learning that a similar, ridiculous but not fictitious, piece of legislation has been introduced to the United States Senate. Charles Schumer has written and sponsored S. 2617, a bill that will allow American companies to import “certain stick umbrellas” without paying the import duties that are now required by law.

It turns out that the alien umbrella invasion is real.

Why do Americans need S. 2617? A small number of executives and investors in corporations that make money by importing umbrellas would profit from this bill, but American workers certainly would not. Umbrellas are currently made in the USA, but S. 2617 would undermine American umbrella manufacturers, and the jobs they create, by giving an advantage to umbrellas that are made at cut-rate prices in countries where autocratic governments, sweatshop conditions and lax environmental standards allow for factories to be operated on the cheap.

Umbrellas don’t make or break the American economy, but the fact is that Schumer’s legislation doesn’t stand alone. There are hundreds of bills being proposed in Congress to provide similar import loopholes for corporations that have “special” relationships with legislators. Bills like S. 2617 encourage the worst kind of business practices as they promote environmental damage and abusive labor. They undermine democracy and make jobs here in the United States all the more hard to find. For Senator Schumer to introduce a bill like this in the middle of an economic crisis is despicable.