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Bowing to Union Bosses, Biden Foolishly Blocks Purchase of U.S. Steel by Japanese Company

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I am all for protecting U.S. industries with protectionist policies whenever doing so is justified and prudent. Eight times out of 10, I favor protectionism. However, Biden's decision to block Nippon Steel's purchase of U.S. Steel is senseless and baseless. Biden caved to pressure from union bosses to block the deal, even though the purchase would greatly benefit the steelworkers themselves and would enable U.S. Steel to better compete against China.

Biden's appeal to "national security" is both baseless and dubious. We're talking about Japan, a reliable ally and a longtime enemy of China and Russia, and we're talking about a Japanese steel company that would have every motivation to sell steel to the U.S., especially since it would have a huge financial stake in American steel production. Biden's argument makes no sense. This decision has nothing to do with "national security" but with bowing to labor union bosses who fear they would lose leverage if U.S. Steel were owned by a Japanese company.

Sean Higgins of the Competitive Enterprise Institute:


“The Biden administration claims that national security concerns prompted them to halt the purchase of U.S. Steel by Nippon Steel, but the only thing they are protecting is the United Steelworkers union leverage over the domestic steel industry.

“Never mind that Nippon Steel wanted to buy U.S. Steel so it could better compete with China, which has long been accused of using its production capacity to manipulate international markets. Never mind that there was no plausible scenario in which Japan wouldn’t sell its steel to the states, especially if it owned U.S. facilities. Never mind that Nippon Steel had promised to honor U.S. Steel’s collective bargaining contracts.

“The union feared it would not have leverage over the Japanese company going forward and so it lobbied the administration hard to reject the purchase. The losers are everyone else who relies on a free market in steel, such as U.S. manufacturers.” (Biden blocks Nippon Steel purchase of U.S. Steel in baseless protectionist maneuver - Competitive Enterprise Institute)


This is another sad example of union bosses working against the best interests of the workers they're supposed to be representing.

I've defended Biden on many occasions, but this was a boneheaded decision that needs to be reversed. Sadly, Donald Trump opposes the deal as well. I hope he changes his mind. Most of the time, I agree with Trump's protectionist leanings, but not this time.
 
When a foreign owner needs to make cut sit's never in the home market.

British Steel was purchased by Tata.

Guess which steelworks they are closing?
 
When a foreign owner needs to make cut sit's never in the home market.

British Steel was purchased by Tata.

Guess which steelworks they are closing?
That was a very different situation, one caused by England's unreasonable regulations and by the British steel unions. Nippon Steel already operates several steel factories in the U.S.--at a profit. Plus, the deal includes a provision that Nippon Steel will invest over $1 billion in refitting and modernizing U.S. Steel plants, which would greatly benefit the communities where those plants are located.

The only excuse Biden has offered for blocking this deal is "national security." That is a joke. Eric Boehm of Reason magazine points out that Biden has yet to identify how the deal would threaten national security, and he notes the economic benefits of the deal, benefits that will now be lost thanks to Biden:


Officially, Biden says he's blocking the deal because there is "credible evidence" that the deal "threatens to impair the national security of the United States."

The official order signed by Biden laughably fails to detail any of that supposedly credible evidence, however. That's because it's ridiculous to suggest that Nippon Steel, a publicly traded company based in a close American ally (Japan) that already operates several steelmaking facilities in the United States, is any sort of threat.

Nippon's agreement to buy U.S. Steel came with a promise to invest more than $1 billion in refurbishing and modernizing the company's existing plants. Local officials in Pennsylvania and elsewhere were enthusiastic about the deal's prospects to bring more jobs to steel towns that have experienced a long, slow decline. (https://reason.com/2025/01/03/block...y-disgraceful-end-to-bidens-political-career/)


The real reason Biden is blocking this badly needed and economically beneficial deal is that he's caving to union bosses who care more about their power than about the workers they're supposed to be representing. This deal poses no "national security" threat, and any sensible, literate person knows it.
 
The logical thing to do is to nationalise all industries you want to keep in the US / bring back. Everything else will either not work of come at tremendous extra cost.
 
The real reason Biden is blocking this badly needed and economically beneficial deal is that he's caving to union bosses who care more about their power than about the workers they're supposed to be representing. This deal poses no "national security" threat, and any sensible, literate person knows it.
So Biden is protecting American workers' jobs and American industries from foreign non-American investors, which is entirely MAGA's "America First" policy, but that's now somehow really bad??
 
So Biden is protecting American workers' jobs and American industries from foreign non-American investors, which is entirely MAGA's "America First" policy, but that's now somehow really bad??

Had Biden not blocked the deal then he'd have been criticised for allowing the US steel industry, which enabled the US singlehandedly to win WWII, to fall into the hands of one of the countries which lost - an unacceptable slap in the face for the brave veterans who fought for democracy 80 years ago.
 
the semi conductor shortages during covid and the recovery have shown that even friendly foreign nations controlling your supply of critical resources can be pretty dangerous to national security, and they invested billions after it to bring some of that manufacturing here. what makes steel different?
 
Only two more weeks of listening to the pretzel logic mind twisting bunk declaring "BIDEN IS BAD!!!". Just wait until your guy steps in. It's going to be a ◊◊◊◊ storm and you're going to have to eat it along with us sane people.
 
There's also the likelyhood that the US Steel executives are playing the game of trying to squeeze profits into their own pockets as was done with Sears and Red Lobster. The Union has its own faults but the executives complaining about needing to upgrade rings hollow when they made zero plans for it. The Nippon buyout would likely just be the first cashout.
 
1) Your weak daddy promised the same thing

2) Why does Biden care about pressure from the union?

3) I guess "made in America" is just another thing you people say but don't mean. Like "God bless America" or the Pledge of Allegiance
 
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Only two more weeks of listening to the pretzel logic mind twisting bunk declaring "BIDEN IS BAD!!!". Just wait until your guy steps in. It's going to be a ◊◊◊◊ storm and you're going to have to eat it along with us sane people.
No, it will be "daddy is doing the bestest job, but those eman old soailist democrats ruined it for him"
 
The republicans have gone early-nineteen-hundreds Socialist now?
Weird, but fitting for the hypocritical witless treasonous morons
 
So Biden is protecting American workers' jobs and American industries from foreign non-American investors, which is entirely MAGA's "America First" policy, but that's now somehow really bad??


Well obviously, because Biden is doing it! Duh!
 
I am all for protecting U.S. industries with protectionist policies whenever doing so is justified and prudent. Eight times out of 10, I favor protectionism. However, Biden's decision to block Nippon Steel's purchase of U.S. Steel is senseless and baseless. Biden caved to pressure from union bosses to block the deal, even though the purchase would greatly benefit the steelworkers themselves and would enable U.S. Steel to better compete against China.
I don't favor protectionism at all. I do think we need need to be careful about letting foreigners get control of local companies. In this case however I agree with you. The only way U.S. Steel would need to be retained for 'national security' is if full scale war broke out between the US and an enemy such as China or Russia. That's not very likely.

In 2023 U.S. Steel only produced 18% of the steel made in the US. There is no reason to believe that Nippon Steel wouldn't produce similar amounts. However it has been suggested that they might eventually close down some mills in favor of producing more steel from scrap, which from a national security angle could be a good thing (and good for the planet too!).

I believe you are right that Biden is doing this for the unions, but not because he 'caved to pressure'. He has always been unabashedly pro-union. I have mixed feelings on this. I don't agree with 'union bashing', but to a large extent some unions have brought it on themselves.

I don't think it should all be laid at Biden's feet either.

Biden killed US Steel deal even though some US officials rejected national security concerns
Even though the US Steel takeover offer was from a company based in Japan – a major US ally – like all foreign acquisitions, it faced an intense review from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a powerful but secretive interagency panel.

However, CFIUS failed to reach a decision about whether the deal posed a national security risk, leaving the decision to the president.

Multiple prominent CFIUS members believed that any national security risk could be mitigated and that there were insufficient grounds to block the deal, including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the US official said.

The presence of those officials in the camp against blocking the deal is notable because Yellen chairs CFIUS and Austin would have insight into whether the US defense industrial base would be threatened by this proposed foreign takeover.

However, other CFIUS members were opposed on national security grounds, including US Trade Representative Katherine Tai, two sources familiar with the CFIUS process told CNN. Officials at the US Energy Department and Commerce Department also had concerns about the deal, one of the sources said.
Once the ball was passed to Biden you knew he would side with the unions. But he clearly wasn't the only one who opposed or had misgivings about the takeover. If there was a consensus he wouldn't have had to make that decision.

I've defended Biden on many occasions, but this was a boneheaded decision that needs to be reversed. Sadly, Donald Trump opposes the deal as well. I hope he changes his mind. Most of the time, I agree with Trump's protectionist leanings, but not this time.
Sadly Trump is unlikey to change his mind on this one, unless... somone close to him could convince him otherwaise. Someone wth a lot of influence and intelligent enough to understand why blocking this sale is a bad idea. Someone who isn't afraid to tell Trump what he should do. I'm talking Elon Musk. Seriously, you should send a message to Musk asking him to intervene. I'm not joking - this is how stuff gets done in government these days.
 
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Ooo, I'm taking out shares in the popcorn industry! :D

Musk is going to tell Donny it's now fine to have a major American steel company taken over by a foreign owner, putting AMERICAN!! JOBS AT RISK!!1!! Because Muskrat, a foreigner himself, says it's a good idea. So I wonder what Bannon and the rest of the MAGA fascist right might have to say about this. Or the 3-percenters. Or all the other Jan-6 patriots. Anyone going to ask them? Or will they all fold like a wet tissue. Oh to be a fly (among the many flies) on the Trump White House wall when he flubs his response...

:dl:
 
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I think you are all missing the fact that in MAGA eyes, everything Biden does is bad. Also, if the thing Biden did turns out to be good, it was actually Trump that did it.

For example, the economy. It was bad, until Trump was elected. Now it is thriving, but it's because of Trump.
Facts play no part in MAGA opinions or reasoning.
 
I think you are all missing the fact that in MAGA eyes, everything Biden does is bad. Also, if the thing Biden did turns out to be good, it was actually Trump that did it.
I'm not missing that fact at all. Nor am I missing the fact that 90% of those who voted for Trump did so simply because he's a 'Republican'.

But this discussion is about one decision Biden made, not what MAGA think. mikegriffith1 says "I've defended Biden on many occasions" - indicating that he doesn't automatically assume everything Biden does is bad. We should be be able to discuss this one issue rationally without turning the thread into yet another "Trump bad, MAGA bad" echo chamber.

But since you brought it up:-

Biden glorifies American-made steel while Gary rots in ruins
President Biden is in his MAGA era.

The Make America Great Again movement seeks, in part, to restore America to a mythical timeline in which blue-collar jobs punch tickets to an upper middle class club set apart from judgment by elites peddling woke degrees.

Older Americans remember a time when a man... could provide for his family, plus afford a boat and a second home on the lake, with income from a factory job. This uniquely American version of success would have lasted forever but for job-stealing immigrants and cheating foreign nations, or so says MAGA...

U.S. Steel built Gary on Lake Michigan to accommodate its massive manufacturing operations. Gary grew so quickly in the early 1900s that it became known as the Magic City. The population reached nearly 180,000 people by 1960, a period that serves as a black-and-white dreamscape in MAGA lore.

U.S. Steel has laid off about 30,000 employees in Gary alone since the 1970s. Since Gary was dependent on not only a single industry, but also a single company within that industry, the city's population plummeted to about 68,000.

That is the story of U.S. Steel — a legacy so supposedly precious and important to national security that Biden can't countenance the company's hollowed shell falling under Japanese ownership.
Many people accused Biden of being 'too old' for the job of president. But not for the right reason, which is that he is stuck in the past. I too pine for the 'good old days' of the 1960's, but we can't go back. The World is a different place now, with challanges that weren't even thought of back then. We need to move forward with new solutions and policies that fit the reality of the 21st century.
 
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With U.S. Steel deal axed, economic experts question future of Mon Valley steelmaking
“I don’t think there is any way of knowing right now what the future holds for legacy steel production in the Mon Valley,” said Chris Briem, a regional economist with the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Social and Urban Research. “The steel plants in the Mon Valley are among the oldest such facilities in the nation, and their future is dependent on new investment to keep them operating. What firms are willing to make that investment is a large unknown.”...

Paul Sracic, a professor of humanities and social sciences at Youngstown State University, about 60 miles north of Pittsburgh, has done extensive research on the proposed deal... The Nippon deal would have offered what Sracic said could be the best hope to preserve jobs at U.S. Steel’s plants in Braddock, Clairton and West Mifflin, along with the company’s headquarters in Pittsburgh’s Golden Triangle.

“These (Mon Valley plants) are the ones that won’t remain open,” Sracic said.

Nippon pledged to invest about $2.7 billion in U.S. Steel. Without that infusion of cash, U.S. Steel CEO David Burritt told the Wall Street Journal steel mills likely will be closed and production could be moved to Arkansas...

Opponents of the deal sowed seeds of fear that Nippon Steel would close its U.S. Steel mills.

It doesn’t make any sense to commit billions of dollars just to shut them down. They’re not going to ship them to Japan,” Sracic said.

And there is the matter of politics that played a role in the decision, Sracic said. Biden had pledged to block the deal, and so did Vice President Kamala Harris and then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

“First of all, it was the name — U.S. Steel — the backbone of American industry,” Sracic said.

Trump’s opposition, Sracic pointed out, is in contrast to his stated claim that he wants foreign investment in the United States.

This is just foolish,” Sracic said.
 
When Trump becomes president, he can try to revive the deal with Nippon, I suppose. Even though he opposed it on the campaign trail so the steel workers there would vote for him to keep their industry in the USA. Well, the jobs are staying in the USA now...and their industry is going down the gurgler and their "Proudly American!" jobs will probably just disappear. Trump better get a move on in case the Japs have another buyer...like China.
 
The Hudson Institute has published a detailed, insightful article on the benefits that the Nippon deal would bring to U.S. Steel and to the communities where U.S. Steel plants are located, based on Nippon Steel's solid track record, including what happened when Nippon bought the American steel company Standard Steel. Here is brief excerpt:

Standard Steel had struggled to make a profit for decades when Nippon Steel purchased it in 2011. However, with $220 million of investment and engineering from Nippon Steel, it was able to boost productivity and make a profit in just two years. It has remained profitable since 2013 and achieved a record-high profit in 2022.

Nippon Steel is also an engaged member of its communities. In Follansbee, Wheeling-Nippon contributes to annual college scholarships for locals, country fairs, disaster relief, and community infrastructure. Wheeling-Nippon has also received credit for kick-starting foreign investment in the area from countries such as Canada and Italy.

Based on Nippon Steel’s 40-year track record and promises, its acquisition of US Steel would likely yield similar benefits for productivity, product competitiveness, and local communities. As mentioned, Nippon Steel has promised a $2.7 billion investment on top of its $14.9 billion purchase of US Steel. This includes—at the behest of local USW leaders—at least $1 billion to replace or upgrade the existing hot strip mill in Mon Valley Works and $300 million to revamp Blast Furnace 14 at Gary Works. (The Real Deal for US Steel: A Comprehensive Analysis of the Nippon Steel–US Steel Purchase)


But Biden has flushed all this down the toilet with his senseless kowtowing to union bosses who care more about keeping power than about representing workers.
 
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Unless the US gets out of its "next quarterly profits are all that matter" mindset, industries that require massive investment like Steel will never prosper again.
Unless you have a working relationship with your workforce, and high worker retention, you will up in a Boeing situation.
 
The Hudson Institute has published a detailed, insightful article on the benefits that the Nippon deal would bring to U.S. Steel and to the communities where U.S. Steel plants are located, based on Nippon Steel's solid track record, including what happened when Nippon bought the American steel company Standard Steel. Here is brief excerpt:

Standard Steel had struggled to make a profit for decades when Nippon Steel purchased it in 2011. However, with $220 million of investment and engineering from Nippon Steel, it was able to boost productivity and make a profit in just two years. It has remained profitable since 2013 and achieved a record-high profit in 2022.

Nippon Steel is also an engaged member of its communities. In Follansbee, Wheeling-Nippon contributes to annual college scholarships for locals, country fairs, disaster relief, and community infrastructure. Wheeling-Nippon has also received credit for kick-starting foreign investment in the area from countries such as Canada and Italy.

Based on Nippon Steel’s 40-year track record and promises, its acquisition of US Steel would likely yield similar benefits for productivity, product competitiveness, and local communities. As mentioned, Nippon Steel has promised a $2.7 billion investment on top of its $14.9 billion purchase of US Steel. This includes—at the behest of local USW leaders—at least $1 billion to replace or upgrade the existing hot strip mill in Mon Valley Works and $300 million to revamp Blast Furnace 14 at Gary Works. (The Real Deal for US Steel: A Comprehensive Analysis of the Nippon Steel–US Steel Purchase)


But Biden has flushed all this down the toilet with his senseless kowtowing to union bosses who care more about keeping power than about representing workers.
But it's MAGA policy - America First, build American, for America. So did you happen to spot the part where Nippon Steel is Japanese? So American steel workers would be employed by and paid by and managed by a foreign company? This is exactly what Trump was campaigning AGAINST for the election that he won. So all your numbers and promises are all socialist liberal lies!
 
Unless the US gets out of its "next quarterly profits are all that matter" mindset, industries that require massive investment like Steel will never prosper again.

Look at the British car industry from the 40s onwards for a good example.
 
But this discussion is about one decision Biden made, not what MAGA think. mikegriffith1 says "I've defended Biden on many occasions" - indicating that he doesn't automatically assume everything Biden does is bad.
You take a lot on faith. Have you looked at Mikey's body of work?
 
8 out of 10 times protectionist policies are a huge mistake. This has been demonstrated in country after country that implement them. Who are you Smoot or Hawley? It's bizarre seeing a Trump supporter trashing Biden for a decision that easily could come straight from Trump's campaign rhetoric.
 
Targeted Protectionism with the goal of making your industries competitive have been hugely successful throughout history - it's what the US did to become an economic superpower, it's what Japan and South Korea did, it's what China did, it's what England did. Protectionism is, logically, necessary when you start from a position of weakness compared to the established players.

Africa, denied through IMF/World Bank imposed rules to impose protectionist measures, has failed to grow as a result of that.

The only time protectionism is counterproductive is when there is no structural reason why your companies should not be as competitive as those in other countries.
 
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Unless the US gets out of its "next quarterly profits are all that matter" mindset, industries that require massive investment like Steel will never prosper again.
Unless you have a working relationship with your workforce, and high worker retention, you will up in a Boeing situation.
Huh? Did you even read the article excerpt, much less the article itself? We're talking about long-term benefits, both to the workers and to the communities where the steel plants are located. This is about much more than "next quarterly profits." Did you read what Nippon Steel did for Standard Steel and for its surrounding communities? But just never mind all that, right?

I get it: Because Biden blocked the deal and because union bosses oppose the deal, you will blindly defend their actions and ignore any evidence that shows the deal would be good for U.S. Steel as a company, good for U.S. Steel's workers, and good for the communities where U.S. Steel's plants are located.

"Woke" = "Brainwashed"
 
Nobody is blindly defending Biden or the unions. But we are chuckling a lot at the irony of MAGA getting all hot and bothered because one of the principle Trump election policies was enacted for real with predictable consequences for them. Leopards and faces.
 
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