Senate votes 79-19 to move bill punishing China on currency

[babylonsister]

Senate votes 79-19 to move bill punishing China on currency
By Josiah Ryan - 10/03/11 06:26 PM ET


The Senate voted Monday to advance legislation pressuring the Chinese government to stop undervaluing its currency, a practice most economists agree is giving the country an unfair trade advantage and is costing the U.S. jobs.

The Senate voted 79-19 to end debate on a motion to proceed to the bill, the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act of 2011. While the vote does not mean the bill has passed, the strong show of support suggests it could well be approved in the upper chamber by the week’s end. Passage through the House is less clear, and GOP leaders have given no indication they will move forward with it.

Senate Democratic leadership, responsible for bringing the legislation to the Senate floor, heralded it as a way to create jobs and right a long-standing trade imbalance with China.

“China is by far the biggest exploiter of predatory currency practices,” said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Monday. “{T}hese currency policies artificially raise the price of U.S. exports and suppress the price of imports into the United States, undermining the economic health of American manufacturers and their ability to compete at home and around the globe.”

more...

http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/185223-china-currency-bill-clears-hurdle

[msanthrope]

1. This is a good bill, both in substance, and to beat the GOP over the head with. nt

[Change Happens]

2. Wonder how the Teabag caucus will vote on this?

[Drahthaardogs]

3. About time...

Now, will the House follow? How about the rest of the world? If so, the worm may finally turn.

[GeorgeGist]

4. China Currency Bill: Not Just A Political Stunt

By Matthew Yglesias on Sep 28, 2011 at 2:27 pm

Last year, right before the election, Nancy Pelosi brought a bill to the floor that would have cracked down on China’s currency practices. It stood no chance of becoming law, but it passed overwhelmingly with 348 yes votes. So back when the House GOP leadership sent Ben Bernanke a letter complaining about debasing the dollar, I was all ready to do a hypocrisy hit on them, but it turns out that John Boehner, Eric Cantor, and Kevin McCarthy were all in the small minority that voted no. Hit abandoned, but it makes me worry that their hard money views are sincere and that conservatives will hold onto them even if their electoral incentives change.

At any rate, that bill didn’t go anywhere in the Senate last year, but Harry Reid is now eager to bring it to the floor for a vote in the Senate. This is being covered by congressional reporters largely as so much gamesmanship, but the legislation is a moderately good idea on the merits. Threatening the Chinese government with trade penalties if they don’t alter the dollar-yuan exchange rate is a mighty clumsy alternative to doing monetary stimulus, but it’s something Congress has authority over and it’s something there’s some GOP support for. Meanwhile, since voters are strongly nationalistic and strongly confused, they think a “strong dollar” is good but that “Chinese currency manipulation” is bad, even though the point of Chinese currency manipulation is to make the dollar strong. I say thumbs up.

The Obama administration, meanwhile, is opposing this bill, which I understand as a matter of general executive authority concerns, but is also not using their executive authority in a way that’s making adequate progress on the issue.
http://thinkprogress.org/tag/china

[PETRUS]

5. Do our elected representatives not know?

That the US Treasury has its own tools for currency manipulation? And that they are largely used to prop up a "strong dollar," which benefits only the financial sector and US tourists traveling abroad and totally destroys US manufacturing? Huh? Do they?