For reference, this is actually a lot more common in public works type projects than you would expect. There are usually some incentives (although often not outright requirements) to "buy American."
Advantages:
Creates more American jobs
Allows for a higher multiplier effect of the dollars spent within the states
Disadvantages:
Could result in major retaliation from other countries
Could end up making projects cost more than they normally would
This isn't exactly a unique phenomenon, this one just happened to get a lot of attention. Personally, I think they should probably get rid of it to avoid any kind of retaliation. At the very least they should restrict it to something pretty negligible.
I knew someone would bring up the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. For reference, U.S. imports and exports at that period in time were dismal compared to what they are now. The Smoot-Hawley tariff was a minor contributing factor to the Depression. Anyone who tells you that it "caused" the Depression has had way too much of the globalization Kool-Aid. Sure it didn't help, but its a clear manipulation of the facts to claim that it "caused" the Great Depression. Its just not true.
We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke
It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...." Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson
