The claim that the “Buy American” provision now within the Obama "stimulus" bill is unnecessarily protectionist is absurd, in spite of the protests of the Washington Post and much of the present day leadership of the Republican Party. We agree here with Democrat Senator Byron Dorgan, when he responds to the Post editorial as follows: “We're a country with a 700 billion dollar trade deficit. It's absurd for somebody to suggest we're protectionist. They must not have understood that we've got about a 2 billion dollar a day deficit in trade."