In Bush Win, House Narrowly Approves CAFTA

Associated Press ^ | July 27, 2005 | JIM ABRAMS

[RWR8189]

WASHINGTON - The House narrowly approved the Central American Free Trade Agreement early Thursday, a personal triumph for President Bush, who campaigned aggressively for the accord he said would foster prosperity and democracy in the hemisphere.

The 217-215 vote just after midnight adds six Latin American countries to the growing lists of nations with free trade agreements with the United States and averts what could have been a major political embarrassment for the Bush administration.

It was an uphill effort to win a majority, with Bush traveling to Capitol Hill earlier in the day to appeal to wavering Republicans to support a deal he said was critical to U.S. national security.

Lobbying continued right up to the vote, with Vice President Dick Cheney, U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman (news, bio, voting record) and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez tracking undecided lawmakers.

The United States signed the accord, known as CAFTA, a year ago with Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic, and the Senate approved it last month. It now goes to the president for his signature.

To capture a majority, supporters had to overcome what some have called free trade fatigue, a growing sentiment that free trade deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada have contributed to a loss of well-paying American jobs and the soaring trade deficit.

Democrats, who were overwhelmingly against CAFTA, also argued that its labor rights provisions were weak and would result in exploitation of workers in Central America.

But supporters pointed out that CAFTA would over time eliminate tariffs and other trade barriers that impede U.S. sales to the region, correcting the current situation in which 80 percent of Central American goods enter the United States duty-free but Americans must pay heavy tariffs.

The agreement would also strengthen intellectual property protections and make it easier for Americans to invest in the region.

"This is a test of American leadership in a changing world," said Rep. Kevin Brady (news, bio, voting record), R-Texas, a leading proponent of the agreement. "We cannot claim to be fighting for American jobs and yet turn our backs on 44 million new customers in Central America.

[patriciaruth]

What causes depressions?

I had the idea that it was the snowball effect.

That there were no federal brakes in the past for putting the halt to a bad trend.

Now we have all sorts of brakes. Unemployment checks. Halt of trading if losses exceed so much. FDIC insurance. Interest rate control. Federal ability to cut taxes or spend stimulus money. Etc.

I'd appreciate your explaining your view of this as this is just my idea, not any formal knowledge.

[ThermoNuclearWarrior]

The majority of Americans want better border security. Bush called the minutemen "vigilantes" which is was completely stupid. Had Bush been doing his job and enforcing those laws there wouldn't be any minutemen on the border.

I also doubt there would be anyone trying to fight U.S. troops on our borders. Maybe some protest but that's it. If someone wanted to literally fight with them they would end up dead and that would be the last person stupid enough to do that. The bottom line is this is a very serious national security issue and we have to start enforcing these laws no matter what the cost. This would have a more positive effect than it would a negative one.

[newzjunkey]

That is the ONLY reason to go along with this (anything-but) "free trade" pile of manure. However, we're not doing anything but importing more and more China-made junk enriching the Chi-Com gov't in the process.

[nopardons]

A president isn't a king, or a dictator, or even a despot. From your post, it is blatantly obvious, that you have absolutely NO idea HOW our government works.

If you believe that the president has THE most power, please explain, in 100 words,exactly what these POWERS are that he can use, to close all four borders. And since we had as bad of a Southern border problem in the early 1950s ( you knew that, didn't you ? ), why wasn't it permanently fixed back then?

[Flux Capacitor]

That's what they WANT you to think.

-Dan

[Darkwolf377]

Very well said. Some people don't seem to be able to put together the very basic idea that if you want illegal immigrants to stop coming HERE you have to make it more attractive for them to stay THERE.

These same people are the ones who seem to agree that the war on drugs won't end until we end the demand here, or alternately make everything legal and allow people to buy them. They just can't seem to make that leap from supply and demand (drugs) to demand and supply (local jobs).

[Darkwolf377]

Anybody wanna make bets on how many Buchannanites blow their top on FR over the next few days?

The three who aren't calling Judge Roberts a radical feminist liberal.

[nopardons]

You're wonderfully clever and enlightened, but what about the Gnomes of Zurich? Ooooooooo...those scary GNOMES..........

[Darkwolf377]

Funny how your post hasn't gotten any other replies. :)

[RWR8189]

I thought so too...

heh

[Darkwolf377]

Clemenza:HA HA! How's it feel to be on the same losing side as Maxine Waters?

Feels pretty good. I never thought I'd see the day that Maxine Waters would be smarter than you. HA HA HA! ;o)

Clemenza 1, NRA2BFree 0

[Darkwolf377]

Facts are stubborn things.

[JudgemAll]

While Rome burns at the hands illegals, terrorists and profiteers doing deals with them, Nero fiddles, and Christian border "vigilantes" are scapegoated.

[patriciaruth]

Agree we have to educate more Americans not to buy Made in China.

But we don't have a Free Trade Agreement with China, as far as I know. So NAFTA and CAFTA aren't causing the flood of Made in China goods and the use of the capital to feed the Chinese military and missile programs.

[RATkiller]

Just a few points.

The top 1% of the people (in terms of wealth) are steadily increasing their per centage of the US's wealth the bottom 95% are losing wealth.

The real wages of a typical "working man" have been steadily declining since 1973.

Under NAFTA, if Acme Widgets makes two half widgets and ships them to Mexico to its maquiladora; they sign a purchase order and it becomes an export to Mexico. Then it is shipped back here as a complete widget. So our balance of trade with Mexico is even worse than the official figures.

From the recession of 2001, if we did not count government jobs there would be a net job loss as of a few months ago. People have looked at the breakdown of private sector jobs created; they are primarily waiters, hotel workers, hospital orderlies, retail sales -- you know the real high tech jobs. There is either a small or negative job growth for whites and blacks; hispanic job growth is good.

The unemployment figures are cooked, boiled and roasted by the administration. One of the things that points to the invalidity of these figures is the discrepancy between the "unemployment count" and the household survey. It would be difficult to prove, but part of the discrepancy is probably due to the large number of illegal aliens. Illegal aliens don't exist for one count but do in the survey. Similarly there are large numbers of people who are unemployed but are not counted as unemployed.

There is evidence that people are moving down in wages. The guy that used to be an engineer and is now driving a federal express truck is making less money. But he is employed.

You have to remember, free trade, is part of a religion for some people just slap that title on a piece of crap and they will worship a piece of crap. Anybody that doesn't do well is a "loser". Get with it, scorch and burn the US for cheaper twinkies.

[Indy Pendance]

Thanks, read the following replies. Apparently, I was communicating with a troll, because he's no longer here.

[DoughtyOne]

You're so right. I mean the illegal immigration NAFTA stopped sure lowered mine.

[DoughtyOne]

Bingo!

Representative governance is on the wain in the United States.

No problem...

[Originalist]

A great win for those who like low taxes!

Not a great win for those who take vitamins, herbs and nutritional supplements. One step closer to needing a prescription to take 500mg of Vitamin C.

Boy, now there are a couple of things that we can compare. Hmm, lower taxes or Flinstone vitamins? How do I decide?

[patriciaruth]

The real wages of a typical "working man" have been steadily declining since 1973

My father drummed into our heads in the 50's that we had to go to college because getting decent paying jobs of the future would depend on higher education.

The real reason for decline in the wages of the typical working person may be that many of them no longer have fathers to teach the realities of the world.

The percentage of kids born out of wedlock has grown astronomically.

I don't think any of the reasons for that were due to Republicans.