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8/1/2008
Rahmlow: Kagen exploits papermakers again
U.S. Rep. Steve Kagen (D-Appleton) continued his attacks on China and unfair trade deals this week as NewPage announced the official closure of their Kimberly paper mill.
“The pain felt throughout the Fox Valley tonight will affect all of us. As Niagara goes – and as Kimberly goes – so goes the nation,” Kagen said in a press release. Kagen’s goofy statement aside, the closure of the Kimberly plant has been a foregone conclusion for some time. Kagen is once again using the paper mill workers to aid his reelection prospects this fall by making it appear this shutdown was unexpected.
“I call upon President Bush to immediately consider imposing a tariff on all paper imported from Communist China,” the freshman lawmaker went on. Obviously, the Congressman has not done his homework as it relates to NewPage’s decision to eliminate jobs in Northeast Wisconsin.
While Chinese trade policy has made it hard for companies like NewPage to succeed, papermakers have been working overtime to protect their interests long before the doctor went to Washington.
In 2006, NewPage successfully argued to the U.S. Department of Commerce that tariffs needed to be imposed on Chinese paper goods. The Bush Administration, turning its back on two decades of Chinese trade precedent, imposed and enforced those steep tariffs. The International Trade Commission eventually reversed that decision saying papermakers were “neither materially injured nor threatened” by China.
The affects of that decision are now being felt. But these events unfolded before Kagen joined Congress in January of 2007.
“How many more jobs will we allow to be stolen overseas by China?” the novice asked. As this writer has noted before, NewPage is not sending jobs overseas. Like any company hoping to succeed in the marketplace, NewPage is consolidating its operations. The company expects the result of the consolidation will actually create more jobs and increase production; just not for Kagen’s constituents. Many of the jobs lost in Northeast Wisconsin are simply moving next door to U.S. Rep. Dave Obey’s (D-Wausau) district. Obey even announced in January of this year that NewPage had received a $30 million grant from the Bush Administration. If Kagen is worried about paper mills in Northeast Wisconsin, perhaps he should start by picking up the phone to ask the Appropriations Chairman to stop stealing jobs from his district.
The polls show Kagen’s reelection prospects slipping away just three and a half months before voters go the voting booth. The story of NewPage will likely become a fixture for Kagen’s reelection campaign. The problem is that Kagen’s version of events, outlined in his press releases, is a fabrication. NewPage is not sending jobs overseas. And imposing tariffs, in this particular instance, did not produce results.
Majority Democrats had hoped to vote this fall on a bill to penalize China for creating an unfair trade advantage through currency manipulation. Rebate checks, the mortgage rescue, and Iraq dominated most of the agenda this summer thereby dampening the prospects of such a bill being passed. Legislative inaction aside, Kagen is still trying to exploits the woes of the paper industry for his own benefit.
The congressman wants to depict himself as a working-class hero by challenging a major global trading partner. Eventually, the local press or opponent John Gard will need to challenge Kagen for continuing to misrepresent the NewPage story.
Mark Rahmlow is a former field director for Tim Michels 2004 US Senate campaign.
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