Clothing hypocrites

Sens. Charles Shumer and Harry Reid have played the xenophobia card by criticizing the U.S. Olympic uniforms for being made in China, although they were designed by Ralph Lauren in the U.S.

Reid, of course, called for the uniforms to be burned. They seem to think they are in charge of Olympic uniforms even though Congress doesn’t fund the U.S. Olympic team.

Shumer and especially Reid are either ignorant or hypocritical. The odds are that every shirt owned by a senator or representative was made in China. To that you can probably toss in a lot of the suits.

Even the new tech shirts sold at REI are made in China.

There just aren’t any cotton mills in New England or Georgia anymore.

The fact is this isn’t the first Olympics where the U.S. team has been wearing uniforms made in China. This has been going on for several cycles. The uniforms worn at the Winter Olympics in Utah were designed in Canada and made in China. That’s a foreign two-fer.

Reid, who has used his Senate position to enrich himself, should stop picking on the U.S. Olympians, who all are required to purchase their own uniforms and wear them whenever they are representing the Olympic team.

As noted by Wall Street Journal columnist John Bussey, “researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco calculate that in 2010 goods labeled ‘Made in China’ accounted for 2.7 percent of the U.S. expenditures on goods and services.”

Bussey further refined that by subtracting the value of transporting, selling and marketing these Chinese imports and the percentage drops to 1.2 percent. But the figure becomes 1.9 percent when adding in the value of Chinese-made components for products made in America.

But, seriously, how come the outfits look like yachting duds and what’s with the berets? It makes them look like Frenchified sailors. Frankly, they look like a throwback to the 1920s. Look for bell bottoms to come back with the next U.S. Olympic team. But don’t think the custom-made uniforms won’t be produced in China or India at the next Olympiad, whether winter or summer.