We will hear a lot of political jabbering for the rest of the year about the need to DO SOMETHING about outsourcing. In this column Bruce Bartlett points out that the impact of outsourcing is minimal and is offset by other (but hidden) gains, but that the political responses could do real damage to the US — much as protectionist measures escalated in the 1930s.

The only point on which I’d disagree with Bartlett is his statement that this is a case of Democrats pandering to insecure workers. Republicans are doing it too. The Senate recently passed a bill to deny federal contracts to any firm that’s “guilty” of outsourcing work, and did so by a vote of 70 to 26. That means that Republicans are jumping on this wayward wagon, too.