Richard W. Rahn who is usually a level-headed man could not
help but be an authentic American on this issue. He joined the chorus of people
– which is most Americans – who tend to blame others (that would be foreign
countries) for the failures of America 's
democracy.
For example, the Americans have a national drug problem, and
have a long running war on drugs that is going nowhere. So what do they do?
They tell the nations from where the drugs come that American drug enforcement
agents cannot do what is necessary to stamp out the problem because the laws of
democracy forbid them from acting in a certain way. Therefore, they want the
other countries to help reduce the supply of drugs because they cannot reduce the
demand for them in America .
Another similar problem the Americans have is what's known as the rendition
scandal.
What Richard Rahn is saying now (hinting actually) is that Iran and the world must be punished with the
rejection by Congress of the Iran
nuclear deal because America 's
laws on trade and commerce have put America 's
companies at a disadvantage when it comes to doing business with Iran . Not only
that, but while this situation is enforced on the Americans, it turns out that
companies from other countries are free to do as much business as they want
with Iran .
You think I'm making this up, don't you? Well, I'm not; and
you can verify it for yourself because Rahn put down his thoughts in black and
white. He wrote an article under the title: “The Iran deal means game over for U.S
business” and the subtitle: “Other nations can cash in, but not American
companies.” It was published on August 17, 2015 in The Washington Times.
He begins the article with a clearly stated opinion: “If you
need a reason to oppose the Iran
nuclear deal, the administration has provided it.” He then explains what that
is by asking a question: “Why would the U.S. government put American
businesses at a disadvantage.” After expanding on that thought, he makes a
suggestion: “at a minimum, U.S.
businesses should be placed on a level playing field with their foreign
competitors when it comes to access to the Iranian market.”
Now a puzzling question: Why would someone like Richard Rahn
who is Chairman of the Institute for Global Growth, contemplate even for a
minute, punishing the world … and in so doing, deprive it of the growth it
badly needs just because America
cannot get its house in order? Well, the rest of the article provides the
answer to that question. It is that he has grown frustrated at his own country,
and the system under which it is governed.
He tells of exceptions to the prohibition of doing business
with Iran
under the now established rules. They include commercial aircraft, for example,
but not consumer goods such as household appliances. These are laws that only
Congress can change. In addition, there is the fact that American businesses
wishing to export to Iran
could not use U.S.
banks to facilitate the transaction; another restriction that only Congress can
remove.
So you ask: What's the problem? And the answer is that the
Congress seems dead set against the nuclear deal with Iran . Thus,
even if the deal goes into effect because the Congress could not override the
President's veto, that Congress will not make it easy for Americans to compete
against foreigners, by changing the pertinent laws.
This is what motivates Rahn to now shift his position.
Instead of advocating the rejection of the nuclear deal, he spins the issue to
advocate its passage by the Congress. Here is what he says: “U.S. security is not enhanced by putting U.S. business at a disadvantage for goods and
services that the Iranians can obtain elsewhere … the sanctions were dead by
the time the agreement was announced because [others] have been negotiating
deals with Iran – leaving
the United States
as an impotent bystander.”