Thom Hartmann On Olbermann Talking About GOP Effort to Kill Unions

While I’m not sure I agree with the entire scope of Hamilton’s report to Congress, it does remind us that the Founders were concerned about defending the country, and they were fully prepared to use economic policies to do so. One of the key questions of the day was how to prevent the country from being divided up by foreign powers. (I’m pretty sure they would be perplexed and horrified by members of the Senate voting for policies that may well benefit foreign multinational companies over domestic ones.) The world has changed significantly since 1791, so an expansionist policy based on increasing population through immigration is right out, as far as I’m concerned. Also, the Democratic-Republicans were probably right in suggesting that direct subsidies to companies would lead to corruption. However, the same objective can probably be reached by underwriting research, as we currently do through both government programs and aid to colleges and universities.

Nevertheless, he’s correct on the basic point that international trade policy determines whether we have a robust manufacturing capacity. Agreeing to completely open trade without any controls was intended (in my opinion) originally as a way to weaken unions, and wages generally, and that continues to be the effect. Unless we move on to this battleground, we will simply be fighting more battles on their grounds, on the grounds where we are putting a stake in the ground just to keep the existing labor movement from being wiped off the map.

BTW, a hat tip goes to David Shuster for asking intelligent, non-hostile and thoughtful questions in this segment.

Here’s the link to the video on YouTube.

See also GOP Senators Smoking Gun by Americans for a Republican Irrelevancy.

Thom Hartmann's main web page