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Don't Endanger American Drone Technology with Bad Industrial Policy
[Townhall] The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is expected to come up before the end of the year and traditionally has become a magnet for unrelated pieces of legislation to be buried in it. It usually passes right at the end of the year and the politicians in Washington can’t help themselves but try to hitch a ride for their pet project into the NDAA. In other words, it should be of great concern that members who can’t pass legislation under the regular order of business will attempt to tack on unpopular bills to this must pass piece of legislation that contains necessary authorizations for the military. Congress should refrain from making this year’s NDAA a Christmas tree for cronyism and bad policy. Over the past 60 years, the federal government has repeatedly intervened to save the American auto-making business. In the 1970s and 80s, federal lawmakers set import quotas to keep Japanese cars from cornering the market. In the 1990s, the Clinton administration stepped in to end a strike that supposedly could have put GM out of business. In the 2000s, Washington guided Detroit through a confusing series of legal maneuvers including bankruptcies, reorganizations, and divestments. Decades of industrial policy may have saved American automakers in a certain sense. But the consequence is a sclerotic industry in which workers for GM, Ford and Chrysler have gone on strike all at once. In the meantime, Japanese carmakers have opened plants in the United States and set about competing with American automakers by building cars that are more fun to drive and last longer than those manufactured by legacy automakers. This history of American automakers offers a cautionary tale for a new generation of technologies. Case in point is drone policy. A bipartisan assembly of lawmakers are proposing the American Security Drone Act, aimed at protecting the American-made drone industry. To do so, the bill seeks to restrict the countries where drones for the American market can be assembled. Posted by: Besoeker 2023-11-24 |
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