CHARLESTON - The West Virginia House of Delegates sent a message to President Obama and Congress Wednesday to make sure federal stimulus money is spent on American goods and services and made a commitment to do the same with the state's share of the stimulus money.
Two local delegates, Mitch Carmichael, R-Jackson, and Tom Azinger, R-Wood, are drawing fire for voting against it.
West Virginia Democratic Party Chair Nick Casey was quick to call out the nay voters.
"I'm shocked that the 11 Republican legislators could vote against supporting American jobs. They need to check their ideology at the door and start representing their constituents, some of whom have lost their jobs recently," Casey said.
HR 18, which passed 84-11 Wednesday, expresses to the federal government that economic-stimulus money should be spent on American-made goods whenever possible and makes a commitment to "buy materials, goods and services for projects from companies that are produced within the United States, thus employing the very workers that pay taxes for the economic recovery plan spending in the first place."
Azinger was originally one of the resolution's sponsors and his name does appear as such on the version passed Wednesday. However, he said the more he thought about the issue, the more concerned he became about making West Virginias $5.6 billion export market vulnerable.
He said there is a lesson to be found in the protectionism during the Hoover administration that helped turn a recession into the Great Depression.
"I agree we should buy American, but you need to just do it and not make a big deal of it. Obviously, they are going to buy American when they can and the majority of infrastructure-project material would be made in America anyway. But making all these resolutions is really, really dangerous. Anytime you have a hint of protectionism, others retaliate. Politically, the easy thing to do is vote for it, especially since there were only 11 against it, but I couldn't. It wasn't the right thing to do," he said.
Carmichael, however, has been against it all along. He said the vast majority of infrastructure money would be used for American products anyway and that an official government stance of "buy American" does little but send a message to export markets "don't buy American."
"Here we are on the very day that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is imploring the U.S. Congress not to go down this path of protectionism we are sending this protectionist message from Charleston," he said. "I said on the floor 'would you want every other nation and every other state to pass a resolution to say they will only buy from their local markets?' Economic patriotism is an easy thing to embrace politically, but I know what I said on the floor and how I voted was the right thing to do. I'll always be willing to pay more for American products, that's a personal decision on my part, but to require it only leads to a downward spiral in the American economy."
Few people in the Capitol Rotunda agreed with Carmichael and Azinger Wednesday, certainly not the steelworkers who traveled from Ravenswood and Weirton to voice support for the resolution.
Ike Gittlen of the United Steel Workers, spoke to union members before the caravan left Ravenswood Wednesday, and specifically mentioned Carmichael's stance.
"How could anybody possibly be against this?" he told the steelworkers. "It's such a no-brainer."
Gittlen told the steelworkers, many of whom are Carmichael's constituents, they should make their feelings on the issue clear to the delegate during their visit. That, they did.
"It got pretty ugly in here," Carmichael said. "But they are basically good people worried about their jobs. But, here is a case where West Virginia does almost $6 billion in export business and these folks work at a plant where where the majority of product is exported. All I could do is talk about the implications of shutting down our border."
One of the bill's sponsors, Delegate John Ellem, R-Wood, said voting for it was the right thing to do.
"I thought it was appropriate. It's just a resolution and doesn't carry the weight of a law and it reflects what is in the stimulus requirements anyway. It's important to remember to buy American whenever practical or feasible. We don't need anything more going to China, that's for sure," he said.
