Not that it will surprise anyone, but once again, President Bush is pushing to keep his “free trade” agreements in place even though support is cooling, even among Conservative Republicans. Now that we have experienced a terrible loss of our manufacturing capability, and approximately 40% of our food is imported, Congressional members on both sides of the isle are beginning to wake-up and see that “free trade” as defined by the Bush administration is destroying our economy rather than helping it. Does it benefit mega-corporations and the wealthy? You can bet your house on it, but the effects on national security and the impact on our economy for “the average American” has been no less than a complete disaster!
Bush crusades for free trade as support cools
* President campaigns for free trade pacts, saying more exports mean better jobs
* Lawmakers to consider pacts with Peru, Panama, Colombia, South Korea
* Peru, Panama considered shoo-ins; other two seen as precarious
* Critics: 5 years of record trade deficits cost 3 million manufacturing jobs (Emphasis added)WASHINGTON (AP) — – Alarmed by slipping support for free trade even among Republicans, President Bush is arguing that protectionism will cut Americans out of chances for more — and better — jobs.
Bush has launched a blitz on behalf of pending free trade pacts with four nations. He continued the push Saturday in his weekly radio address.“More exports support better and higher-paying jobs,” the president said. “And to keep our economy expanding, we need to keep expanding trade.”
His radio address followed a speech on trade he delivered Friday in Miami, Florida. Bush also granted interviews this week to business-oriented news organizations.
Since Democrats took control of Congress in January, it has not approved any free trade agreements that the administration has negotiated, and it has allowed Bush’s authority to negotiate future deals under expedited procedures to expire. MORE
I’m hoping that with Republicans now becoming aware of the danger of these one-sided free trade agreements, the President will be rebuffed again as Congress is waking-up as to how the many Bush policies have virtually forced us to mortgage our nation to the highest bidder(s)!
Republicans Grow Skeptical On Free Trade
The Wall Street Journal Online
By JOHN HARWOOD
October 4, 2007; Page A1WASHINGTON — By a nearly two-to-one margin, Republican voters believe free trade is bad for the U.S. economy, a shift in opinion that mirrors Democratic views and suggests trade deals could face high hurdles under a new president.
The sign of broadening resistance to globalization came in a new Wall Street Journal-NBC News Poll5 that showed a fraying of Republican Party orthodoxy on the economy. While 60% of respondents said they want the next president and Congress to continue cutting taxes, 32% said it’s time for some tax increases on the wealthiest Americans to reduce the budget deficit and pay for health care.Six in 10 Republicans in the poll agreed with a statement that free trade has been bad for the U.S. and said they would agree with a Republican candidate who favored tougher regulations to limit foreign imports. That represents a challenge for Republican candidates who generally echo Mr. Bush’s calls for continued trade expansion, and reflects a substantial shift in sentiment from eight years ago.
“It’s a lot harder to sell the free-trade message to Republicans,” said Republican pollster Neil Newhouse, who conducts the Journal/NBC poll with Democratic counterpart Peter Hart. The poll comes ahead of the Oct. 9 Republican presidential debate in Michigan sponsored by the Journal and the CNBC and MSNBC television networks. MORE
When I state it effects national security, I’m speaking of two separate consequences of outsourcing and food importation; if you haven’t heard about all of the recalls, especially those as they pertain to our food supply, you haven’t been reading or watching the nightly news. The United States has had one of the safest food supplies in the world for as long as I can remember, and federal and state agencies that are charged with assuring our food and other products are safe are geared to supervise and maintain stringent regulations on the nations food manufacturers through a wide array of agencies, each specializing in a particular segment of the food chain. When we import food, it isn’t tested as often or stringently as it is here, and our control of the companies that manufacture, grow, and process these imported food stuffs are beyond the purview of the very agencies that were formed to protect the American population from tainted products.
When you take into consideration that the United States is capable of providing Americans with everything but the imported delicacies some of us crave, we have to ask ourselves why the American farmer and local food processors are going out of business because for a few dollars less, we can import food that is less expensive, raises the corporate bottom-line by leaps and bounds - but allows foreign vendors to supply substandard and often dangerous products that wind-up on our shelves and consumed by mainstream America. We’ve all heard about the deaths of our pets, fish and other products from China that have harmful additives - yet even though they have harmed our people, and literally killed some people in Central America with tainted pharmaceutical products - we have to ask ourselves why corporate America still insists on importing the majority of our goods from China. Actually, it’s a question we already know the answer to; profit, not for the average American, but for the wealthy and corporate America.
As it pertains to National Security, most of those arguments can be found in the section of this Blog that discusses and discloses the role Wal-Mart played in leading (or forcing other corporations to also outsource in order to compete) in the destruction of our economy - and exactly why is has turned-out to be a matter of grave concern to our national security. China would not be in a position to have upgraded and expanded their military and become the economic powerhouse they have without the aid of Wal-Mart - and none of it was ever necessary! The model that Sam Walton built Wal-Mart upon was effective, the company was still growing, and Sam Walton was fiercely patriotic! When you used to walk into a Wal-Mart, “Buy American” was his thrust and vision - and back then, Wal-Mart was a boon to our economy. Unfortunately, when a man with the vision of Sam Walton passes away, so did his vision - and instead of his family honoring the ideal that made them billionaires - they abandoned the public and like most of America’s mega-corporations - profit and greed overtook any thought of how outsourcing was destroying the Middle-class, and no one cared that their greed was forcing millions of Americans into poverty.
And yes, the wealthy are becoming richer than ever, and for the rest of us, it seems to be a downward spiral, and if it isn’t changed, we will be living to serve those with power and money, essentially serfdom - while we also shoulder most of the burden of keeping this country running. Our children and grandchildren may be the one’s to eventually pay off this debt - and if we don’t stop the trend, and now, our economic future is bleak if not hopeless.
Income inequality worst since 1920s, according to IRS data
10/12/2007 @ 9:08 am
Filed by Nick JulianoHalf of US senators are millionaires
The superrich are gobbling up an ever larger piece of the economic pie, and the poor are seeing their share of earnings shrink: new IRS data shows the top 1 percent of Americans are claiming a larger share of national income than at any time since before the Great Depression.
The top percentile of wealthy Americans earned 21.2 percent of all income in 2005, up from 19 percent in 2004, according to new Internal Revenue Service data published in the Wall Street Journal Friday.
Americans in the bottom 50 percent of wage earners saw their share of income shrink to 12.8 percent in 2005, down from 13.4 percent.
The Journal notes that many Americans fear the economy is entering a recession, and the IRS data show income for the median earner fell 2 percent between 2000 and 2005 to $30,881. Earnings for the top 1 percent grew to $364,657 — a 3 percent uptick. MORE
Is the worm beginning to turn? Are corporations finally beginning to see their folly? Wages have actually dropped, and in simple terms, with food and other goods experiencing soaring costs for transportation, and gas at all time highs, Americans are having a hard time buying goods that make said corporations wealthy. Their greed is now beginning to affect their own bottom-lines; there will be no “profits” if the Middle-class and poor are unable to purchase anything but the bare essentials - and trickle-down economics has turned out to be a virtual flash-flood of misery to those who can afford it the least. It was time for a change six years ago; now it’s change or go broke - and from my perspective, only one answer makes sense.
William Cormier
