This Plains Cotton Growers press release offers up some encouraging statistics for those who wish to see the U.S. compete on the world textile stage:

U.S. textile shipments totaled $53 billion in 2011. The U.S. textile industry is the third largest exporter of textile products in the world.  Exports in 2010 grew 13.4 percent to more than $17 billion in 2011. Total textile and apparel exports were a record $22.4 billion.” “The U.S. textile industry exported to more than 170 countries, with 22 countries buying more than $100 million a year.

Good thing [for U.S. textile workers] our foreign customers’ political leaders aren’t the Harry Reid types and calling for a burning of the products they determined were best produced in America (*Reid says pile up the U.S. Olympic uniforms sewn in China and burn em).

*Dear Mr. Reid, please get your head out of your a** and think. 

*Same goes for you Speaker Boehner.  You said the Olympic Committee “should know better”. You should know better sir – pretending to be a free trade advocate then turning around and hypocritically playing to a misinformed electorate.

If the U.S. textile industry continues to make gains in productivity, who knows, perhaps our next Olympic team’s outfits will be sewn (I distinguish ‘sewn’ since no doubt the inputs come from many parts of the world – U.S. included) in America.  Wouldn’t that be great?  Sure, but only if it makes great business sense.