Yesterday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid both ripped into the US Olympic Committee for outsourcing production of US uniforms to China. “I am so upset. I think the Olympic committee should be ashamed of themselves. I think they should be embarrassed. I think they should take all the uniforms, put them in a big pile and burn them and start all over again,” said Reid. “If they have to wear nothing but a singlet that says USA on it, painted by hand, then that’s what they should wear.”
And then there was Pelosi, her botox waxing and waning in her forehead with anger.
Pelosi told reporters at her weekly news conference that she’s proud of the nation’s Olympic athletes, but “they should be wearing uniforms that are made in America.”
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) agreed with Pelosi and Reid. “You’d think they’d know better,” he said.
Boehner is falling into the trap. The problem isn’t whether we spend Chinese money to buy American uniforms or spend American money on Chinese uniforms. The question is what the political play is for Reid and Pelosi, who are clearly on-message.
And here’s their message: outsourcing American Olympic uniforms is unpatriotic. And guess what? Back in 2002, when Mitt Romney was the head of the Salt Lake City, US uniforms were produced … wait for it … in Canada. According to DSN Retailing:
Even before the recently concluded Winter Olympics, Roots, a Canadian manufacturer and retailer of athletic wear, expected big things from its outfitting of athletes representing Canada, the United States and Britain. But the company initially didn’t realize just how big things could get.
From the time of the opening ceremonies, Roots’ apparel line–particularly its Team U.S.A. beret–became a phenomenon, and the company and its various partners were sent scrambling to meet demand that wasexponentially greater than expected.
The roots of Roots’ success at this year’s Salt Lake City games were laid four years ago during the winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. …
This Pelosi and Reid attack is highly planned. It’s not out of nowhere. And conservatives should not fall for it. Spending US taxpayer dollar subsidizing businesses that can’t compete is the entire raison d’etre of the Obama administration. Extending that logic to the Olympics means more bucks redistributed from taxpayers to businesses that charge more for less.
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