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Look Who's Arriving on the NAFTA Train
Townhall.com ^ | July 15, 2014 | Phyllis Schlafly

Posted on 07/15/2014 9:24:50 AM PDT by Kaslin

Do you remember when President George W. Bush, in 2005, held a summit meeting with the "three amigos" to promote the free movement of people and goods across our borders with Canada and Mexico? The Council on Foreign Relations then spoke of "building a North American community" with a common "security perimeter" and "labor mobility" among our three countries.

Texas planned to build a massive North American Free Trade Agreement superhighway that would begin at its southern border with Mexico and eventually reach northern U.S. cities. The Kansas City Southern Railway bought a Mexican railroad and began branding it as the NAFTA railroad, with the goal of carrying Chinese products from Mexico's Pacific Port of Lazaro Cardenas all the way to Kansas City, Missouri.

The prospect of an economic union with Mexico, which could eventually become a North American Union modeled on the European Union, rightly alarmed many Americans. Texas Gov. Rick Perry was forced to abandon his NAFTA superhighway, and President Barack Obama quietly removed Bush's Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America from the White House website.

But the NAFTA railroad, now called the Kansas City Southern de Mexico, is up and running. Thanks to the exclusive reporting of Dr. Jerome Corsi at WorldNetDaily, we learn that this train is now playing a major role in bringing tens of thousands of young Central American immigrants into our country illegally.

Americans have been aghast at the sight of unending waves of people, ranging in age from babies in arms to tough, tattooed teenage men. The trip north is no joy ride: riding on the top of moving freight cars for hundreds of miles, preyed on by bandits. Those who take this harrowing trip call it "La Bestia" (the Beast) or the "Train of Death."

How were these desperately poor people able to travel the distance of more than a thousand miles from their homes in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador to the U.S. border? The answer, apparently, is that they were allowed to hitch a ride on the NAFTA train that is owned and operated by an American company traded on the New York Stock Exchange, Kansas City Southern Rail Network.

Obama, predictably, is demanding that American taxpayers foot the monstrous bill. A mere billion dollars or two won't be enough. Obama's first demand is for $3.7 billion, and that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Considering all the entitlement programs these kids will eventually soak up, from public school education to medical care, this is easily a trillion-dollar problem. American taxpayers will again be the ones left holding the bag.

This is the background for an astonishing article recently published by three of our most famous billionaires: Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Sheldon Adelson. The three men, whose combined worth approaches $200 billion, say they are putting aside their political differences (Adelson is a Republican; Gates and Buffett are Democrats) to demand immediate so-called immigration reform.

The billionaire advice-givers tell us the immigration "impasse certainly depresses the three of us," but a vacation trip to sunny Murrieta, California, might have lifted their spirits. The administration sent agents dressed in riot gear there to confront residents opposed to the busloads of illegal immigrants being driven there.

The three amateur political wannabes of Adelson, Buffett and Gates could have offered to provide some of their own luxury real estate to welcome the many busloads of illegal kids. That would provide much-needed relief for average Americans from the very depressing news that hundreds or thousands of teenagers living here without legal permission and who cannot speak English might soon be dumped in their small town.

Instead of explaining how these immigrants will find jobs at a time when so many Americans are unemployed, the three billionaires instead focus on their own desire to expand a cheap supply of college graduates who are foreigners. Misnamed "talented graduates," these immigrants are no more talented or entrepreneurial than American-born graduates.

This racket of giving visas to foreign students (sometimes falsely labeled "the best and the brightest") has enabled Gates and the ultra-rich to hire foreigners at less cost, with less risk of competition, than fully qualified Americans. The oversupply of foreigners willing to work for lower wages has made it impossible for average American wages to increase in more than a decade, and our middle class has fallen below even Canada's.

Fortunately, Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions pulled the curtain down on the amateur hour by observing, "It is clear that three of the richest billionaires in the world have no clue what Congress owes to the American people." Sessions could have added that the trio of politically clueless businessmen should first tell us what they are willing to fund before demanding phony immigration reform at the expense of American workers and taxpayers.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
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To: Count of Monte Fisto

Reagan was sent a message 2 months into his presidency.


21 posted on 07/15/2014 10:12:50 AM PDT by RckyRaCoCo (Shall Not Be Infringed)
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To: boycott

22 posted on 07/15/2014 10:13:29 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: Pelham
Aw, did I make fun of one of your heroes?

No trouble defending Ronald Reagan on my part, whatsoever.

23 posted on 07/15/2014 10:14:23 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: make no mistake

Eventually. The destruction of the United States must happen first. Eventually an Agenda 21 Hunger Games style of an existence.


24 posted on 07/15/2014 10:16:21 AM PDT by riri (Plannedopolis-look it up. It's how the elites plan for US to live.)
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To: 1rudeboy

This was a good line from the article:

“The oversupply of foreigners willing to work for lower wages has made it impossible for average American wages to increase in more than a decade, ....”


I work in an industry where so many jobs have been moved overseas. I go into all types of manufacturing plants throughout North America. There are so many things we used to manufacture here that are now gone. These jobs are gone.


25 posted on 07/15/2014 10:17:20 AM PDT by boycott
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To: boycott
Leading exactly to Schlafly's fallacy: the "oversupply of foreigners willing to work for lower wages" is a result of illegal immigration, not NAFTA. I really do respect her, but I suspect that if NAFTA was abolished tomorrow, a year from now she'd still be wondering why there is a surplus of low-skilled, low-income workers.
26 posted on 07/15/2014 10:22:13 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: 1rudeboy

Have wages kept pace with inflation? No.

http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

There are so many other variables but it certainly hasn’t kept pace.


27 posted on 07/15/2014 10:22:46 AM PDT by boycott
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To: boycott

Do you have a particular time-frame in mind, or did you post me that calculator for no reason?


28 posted on 07/15/2014 10:24:30 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: boycott
"It goes back long before Reagan"

Correct, but not long before Reagan,

By the mid 70s the US's competitive advantages in multilateral trade(WTO) had begun to wane so it was decided to shift to bilateral/regional agreements. If Ford had won his election, it probably would have begun with him.

First was with Israel, then the Caribbean Basin Initiative which was very much like the Maquilladora agreement with Mexico that would be replaced under GW Bush by CAFTA. NAFTA started as a bilateral with Canada, then morphed into a trilateral

29 posted on 07/15/2014 10:25:12 AM PDT by Ben Ficklin
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To: 1rudeboy

Our public schools are creating more than enough low-skilled, low-income workers.


30 posted on 07/15/2014 10:25:31 AM PDT by boycott
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To: Ben Ficklin

Redistribution of wealth goes back a lot of years and both parties can take credit for it.


31 posted on 07/15/2014 10:27:19 AM PDT by boycott
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To: boycott

That is true, and not NAFTA’s fault, either.


32 posted on 07/15/2014 10:27:44 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: itsahoot
"Not Texas, Rick Perry"

Incorrect. It actually began with Guv Bill Clements. Because NAFTA was coming he put the ball in motion giving the task to the transportation think tank at UT to come up with a plan. The report was published while GW Bush was Guv but was set aside because he would be running for prez.

Before the TTC project could go forward Texas first had to have a state referendum ending "pay-as-you-go" which was in the constitution. That would be very controversial so they decided to let the next Guv handle it.

33 posted on 07/15/2014 10:37:39 AM PDT by Ben Ficklin
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To: 1rudeboy

“No trouble defending Ronald Reagan on my part, whatsoever.”

Not a surprise. The 1986 Amnesty was a seriously flawed law that failed in its goal and the treason lobby uses it to demand more of the same.

Patriots find fault with Reagan’s 1986 Amnesty mistake, but of course that wouldn’t include you.


34 posted on 07/15/2014 10:48:45 AM PDT by Pelham (California, what happens when you won't deport illegals)
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To: 1rudeboy
>>Today there are 25 million more MINIMUM WAGE jobs in the US.<<
35 posted on 07/15/2014 10:54:18 AM PDT by B4Ranch (Name your illness, do a Google & YouTube search with "hydrogen peroxide". Do it and be surprised.)
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To: Pelham
"I support Ronald Reagan, therefore I support the mistake that Simpson-Mazzoli turned out to be."
/True Conservative™ logic

Seriously, do you ever tire of seeing your strawmen burnt down?

36 posted on 07/15/2014 10:54:18 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: B4Ranch

Uh, ok. Thanks I guess.


37 posted on 07/15/2014 10:55:22 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: 1rudeboy

Inflation accounts for the increase in wages.


38 posted on 07/15/2014 10:56:11 AM PDT by B4Ranch (Name your illness, do a Google & YouTube search with "hydrogen peroxide". Do it and be surprised.)
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To: B4Ranch

Whoo boy . . . perhaps someone will chance along and explain what the term “real wage” means.


39 posted on 07/15/2014 11:04:33 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: 1rudeboy; boycott

“Leading exactly to Schlafly’s fallacy: the “oversupply of foreigners willing to work for lower wages” is a result of illegal immigration, not NAFTA”

Schlafly is right of course, and rudeboy is predictably more concerned with trying to defend a flawed trade bill rather than the border.

NAFTA is directly connected to the huge increase in illegal immigration that followed its passage. One of the earliest effects of NAFTA was the opening of Mexican markets to cheaper American wheat and corn.

This put thousands of small Mexican farms out of business and the newly jobless Mexicans headed north across the US border. INS surveyed the illegals they picked up and the cause of the post-NAFTA surge was well studied.

Since none of the enforcement provisions of the 1986 Amnesty beloved by rudeboy were implemented the flood of NAFTA illegals was free to enter the US. And now the treason lobby wants even more.


40 posted on 07/15/2014 11:08:19 AM PDT by Pelham (California, what happens when you won't deport illegals)
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