Friday, March 12, 2010

Obama creates another do-nothing expert panel

Whenever the president wants to pretend he's doing something, he fires off an executive order that creates a panel of experts to examine a particular issue. His latest is on exports.
The National Export Initiative (NEI) shall be an Administration initiative to improve conditions that directly affect the private sector's ability to export. The NEI will help meet my Administration's goal of doubling exports over the next 5 years by working to remove trade barriers abroad, by helping firms -- especially small businesses -- overcome the hurdles to entering new export markets, by assisting with financing, and in general by pursuing a Government-wide approach to export advocacy abroad, among other steps.
It sounds like this could go either way. The experts could shed crocodile tears about sweatshop workers abroad and demand new trade barriers, or they could honestly check for ways to make trade freer. As long as the government is going to be "assisting with financing," it sounds like a whole new round of subsidies could be in the mix. Thus far the president has set up panels to think about everything from the national debt to historically black colleges and universities, with little action taken on any of these issues.

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