Billy Long likes cheap shoes from overseas. this probably explains that stress fracture in his foot.

Billy Long needs to explain this action.


He signed this letter (I know, he signs a lot of stuff that he doesn't comprehend)which includes this sentence:

Footwear tariffs are among the highest in the U.S. Tariff schedule despite the fact that less than 1% of the footwear sold in the U.S. is produced here, and the footwear that is produced here is largely manufactured with imported components that are duty-free or subject to low duties.

A press release from the RILA (Retail Industry Leaders Association):

The United States charged TPP countries nearly $250 million in footwear tariffs last year. These tariffs make footwear more expensive for American families, and updating the rules for footwear in the TPP would help to lower costs for a basic necessity. Modern footwear rules would also benefit American workers by recognizing the hundreds of thousands of high-value American jobs devoted to design, engineering, marketing and retail distribution for footwear.

I don't get the leap in logic here.

Reducing the footwear tariff will "benefit American workers by recognizing the hundreds of thousands of high-value American jobs devoted to design, engineering, marketing and retail distribution for footwear."

How many American jobs are tied to design and engineers of footwear? Hundreds of thousands?

How many American jobs are tied to engineering of footwear? Hundreds of thousands?

How many American jobs are tied to marketing and retail distribution for footwear? Now many this is where the hundreds of thousands of retail sales workers jobs come into play. But are these "high value jobs"?

Most places I know that sell shoes are all self service stores like Payless Shoes. (My experience as a kid was Hill Brothers Shoe Store on Lemay Ferry Road. I still remember the store's slogan: "Man alive, two for five!" How about "Brown Shoes Fit", remember that slogan?)

Where do residents of MO7 buy their shoes? Walmart? Target? Bass Pro? Plaze Shoe Store? I don't know.

But I do know there were a lot of shoe factories in MO7 Ozarks and across the USA that are no more. American Made Shoes. "Almost 99% of the 2.4 billion shoes purchased in the U.S. every year are imported, 86% of them from China." (Note to Bus Riders-- this WSJ article was free to access, not hidden behind a paywall.)

Billy and his fellow letter signers have nary a word about manufacturing footwear.

Today leader giants in the U.S. shoe retail business include Nike,, Ralph Lauren shoes, Crocs, Reebok, Red Wing Shoes and Justin Boots.

Footwear tariffs make footwear more expensive for American families? I thought the tariffs were designed to make imported goods (which are generally cheaper made and therefore cheaper) equal to American made goods.

It seems to me that Billy Long is advocating AGAINST American jobs here. How many factories in MO7 have closed (think clothing factories and shoe factories) because the factories closed and moved overseas?

Billy-- could you explain yourself on this one? Didn't those cheap shoes you wore while walking the parades give you a stress fracture in your foot that you didn't get fixed until you were on the government's health insurance?

I wonder if his cowboy boots were made in sweatshops?

The letter, which Billy signed, was spearheaded by spearheaded by Representative Aaron Schock (R-IL) and Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and signed by twenty-seven members, including: Representatives John Barrow (D-GA), July Biggert (R-IL), Diane Black (R-TN), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Paul Broun (R-GA), Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), Charles Boustany, Jr. (R-LA), Fransisco Canesco (R-TX), Stephen Cohen (D-TN),

David Dreier (R-CA), Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN), Mike Kelly (R-PA) Wally Herger (R-CA), Lynn Jenkins (R-KS), Billy Long (R-MO), Greg Meeks (D-NY), Erik Paulsen (R-MN), Jared Polis (D-CO), Charlie Rangel (D-NY), Dave Reichert (R-WA), Peter Roskam (R-IL), Kurt Schrader (D-OR), Adrian Smith (R-NE), Edolphus Towns (D-NY), Greg Walden (R-OR).

Nike's headquarters is in Beaverton, Oregon.
Do the math.

Bus Driver's note: The Hill's Vickie Needham writes this story: Footwear industry, lawmakers call for reduction of tariffs in Asia-Pacific trade deal.

In her article, Needham writes:

Blake Krueger, chairman of FDRA (Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America), hailed the letter, saying, “300,000 Americans rely on the design, marketing, distribution and sales jobs of the 21st century footwear industry."

But again, not a word about manufacturing.

A commentator on Needham's article nailed it:

They want lower tariffs because they had to start paying their foreign sweatshop workers higher pay and overtime,they also have been blocked from working their slaves around the clock,that's how they stole our jobs in the first place,and now that their greedy little slavery ring has been busted,they want to get rid of tariffs and get tax holidays on their blood-money to pay their billions in corporate managements salaries and bonuses.I hope they all go bankrupt and we go back to the small shoe company like Brown Shoe used to be here in Missouri,the greedy migration of the corporate shoe manufacturing monopoly to cheap slave foreign labor and their gargantuan corporate salaries were born of un-American traitors that don't deserve our respect nor our tax dollars.I hope you pay till it bankrupts you just before the President tears up your passport and citizenship and ships your greedy-A@@ to Indonesia to live with those you tortured for so many years..