White House Fumbles American Innovation Summit
Ted Geller
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When the White House “Office of American Innovation” and “American Technology Council” put together a summit last week to promote an America First economic policy, they committed a fumble. They gave a German software management company a forum to pitch the White House for new business. For an Administration that has pushed back against the idea of “Globalism,” this one company was allowed to push a globalist agenda by being allowed to pitch the outsourcing government functions to a German company.
The German Company is SAP, Systeme Anwendungen und Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung, and that company competes directly with the products of American companies Oracle and Microsoft. SAP was an odd choice, because the German company Deutsche Telecom was not invited to pitch their internet services. Other Russian, Chinese and European companies were not invited to pitch President Trump for business. Why SAP?
The CEO of SAP, Bill McDermott, not only attended but was an active participant in the process. While many giants of American technology like Apple, Microsoft, Google and Oracle were invited and participated, the inclusion of McDermott as an active participant was not well received. American companies are a better fit for federal government contracts that involve national security and government wide software, and hardware, solutions.
One purpose of the summit was to solicit help in modernizing government. The president was quoted as calling for a “sweeping transformation” in technology for the whole federal government. It is funny that President Trump has not proven to be the protectionist that the media predicted – the European Union are the proven protectionist block of nations.
What happened to America first? We will not, “make America Great Again” with the same old buddy system and the huge trade imbalance that has put America in next to last. We must square our trade imbalance and start putting our American industry first, and that means looking at our trade – both imports and exports.
Economics 101 folks, means we bring in from the EU and other nations what they take from our exports. It is a balance sheet formula. We need to regain our place in this Economic monopoly board and set the stage for U.S. dominance economically. If Trump is truly concerned about our economic standing, it is time to put up or shut up.
Just look at the recent fine imposed by the EU on Google. CNN Money reported this week, “European Union regulators slapped Google with a record €2.4 billion ($2.7 billion) antitrust fine on Tuesday, the latest broadside fired at big American tech companies doing business in the region.” This is protectionism.
The EU claimed that Google was denying choice because they were using their search engine to steer people to their own shopping platform. The real reason they are hammering Google is because Google is the most successful search engine in human history – and an American company. The allegation is that Google did not allow other companies “a chance to compete” when they don’t understand the Google is a private company that does not have to actively promote competitors. Is the EU aware that there are other search engines competing with Google?
Yet this incident proves the point that the EU is just beginning to engage in protectionism in the name of “anti-trust” law. The fact is that the EU exists to protect and shelter European companies at the expense of the American business world. Is this fair trade? I think not, I think our very existence as a super power is being threatened by this EU buddy system.
And that brings us back to the American summit held last week to promote American technology where the White House allowed a German company to pitch the government for business. Reciprocity is a very important idea in trade. We treat them like they treat us. If President Trump treated SAP like the EU has treated Google this past week, he would have handed the German company a billion dollar fine for trying to compete for American business.
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