Posted on 07/07/2005 6:56:22 AM PDT by PreviouslyA-Lurker
The Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) has passed the Senate 54-45 and now moves to the House. If passed, the implementation of CAFTA would expand NAFTA--the 1993 free trade agreement between the U.S., Canada and Mexico--to include Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic.
Judging by the miserable failure of NAFTA to accomplish any of its stated goals, CAFTA can be expected to further increase the U.S. trade deficit, loss of American jobs, poverty in Central America, and the influx of poor illegal immigrants to the United States.
A study by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace concluded that subsidized agricultural imports from huge U.S. farms, at below-market prices, have forced more than a million small farmers in Mexico off their land, adding to the pressure to sneak across our border. Since NAFTA was passed, illegal immigration from Mexico has increased dramatically and CAFTA can be expected to have the same effect on Central American countries.
These free-trade agreements not only send American jobs south of the border, where environmental laws are lax and workers have scant protection. Even worse, they weaken existing U.S. environmental protections, labor standards and national sovereignty. Foreign corporations that claim such regulations unfairly hurt their profits can sue the U.S. government, which is subject to the authority of an international governing body that can--and ha--overruled state and federal courts. The Canadian company Methanex is suing the U.S. government for $970 million over California's law banning the carcinogenic gasoline additive MTBE.
You are just NOW figuring this out ???
Why do you think Bush is pushing so hard for CAFTA ???
*** THE BIG ONE AMERICA AGENDA ***
But this? This is a travesty. NAFTA was bad, CAFTA is a nightmare.
Increase illegal immigration? You mean they'll be coming across the border in droves?..............
The United States of North America, U.S.N.A. kinda has a ring to it.........
Why is it that every politician turns into a back-stabbing globalist once he reaches national office? Bush was never really like this before IIRC.
If only we could annex just the land.....
But unfortunately over 100 million people would come with the package. ....people whose culture is completely alien to our own (in the case of our neighbors to the South, at least). And as a result, we'd inevitably take on many of the qualities of that third-world hellhole.
Just the cost of giving all these goodhearted hard working people the Earned Income Tax Credit will bankrupt us. And then we will need to cut them in for Social Security and the full banquet of social and welfare benefits.
How many Democratic Senators shall we give them (minimum two)? Based on their population of over 100 million they would be entitled to about 130 seats in the House of Representatives and you can expect most of these to be Democrats. The most popular politician in Mexico right now is the Mayor of Mexico City and he is a flaming socialist so you can bet that the Mexicans won't be electing very many Republicans despite their supposed conservative family values.
Bad idea!
Mexico would never voluntarily give up its soverignty to become a part of the USA.........unless we gave them the same deal as Texas.........
I agree. In fact I think they rather have their heart set on reclaiming the Sothwest for Mexico.
They have always been bitter that we took half their territory expecially since we got the half that had all the paved roads in it.
Why is it that every politician turns into a back-stabbing globalist once he reaches national office? Bush was never really like this before IIRC.
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Personally, I did not think the Bush family would carry this disasterous fantasy out -- and I was DEAD WRONG. I believe it started to show (maybe even before) with Bush One, back when he signed legislation BLOCKING the questioning of potential illegals at the voting booth, if they present a driver's license, even if it is fraudulent. When I came to realize this, I was astonished. I don't know what has happened to Washington. It really is out of control, with power-centric politicians IGNORING the protecting of America, their Presidential oaths, their sworn duty to protect the soverignty of America, ALL THE THINGS THAT ARE AMERICA....
The people had better wake up quickly. This ego and power-driven agenda of Washington is burying the United States, VERY QUICKLY.
I'm more than willing to give them California in return for a secure border with 20 foot fence ...............
Term limits in Congress would be one solution. Makes it harder to establish the "beltway" attitude. Secondly, we must hold our leaders accountable. Not by voting Dem, but by properly using our primary elections to eliminate bad candidates.
Mike Pence is our hope in 2008.
At least there's a few real conservatives in the House that can be on our side here...perhaps we have a chance for it to not pass...
WHY would they pass this? DO they think taking jobs from the US and moving to Mexico will keep people in their own country? I don't get it.
It's not the people we have to worry about. It's if they bring THEIR government along with them. Replace their government with our Government, hopefully re-bound by its Constitutional restraints in the process of intergration, and I'd see that as a good thing.
Yep. It'd all be doom and gloom bringing them under our system/Constitution.
That, and our welfare system needs to be scrapped anyway. This would just be an excuse to do so.
I am a little confused about who the "they" is that you are referring to.
If by "they" you mean our Congress then the reason they might pass it is that a lot of them believe that free trade will float the boats for these nations and help them join the first world. Others are bought and paid for by big business and will do their bidding regardless of what they believe or their constituents want. But it may not pass because a lot are angry about the Administration's refusal to address the borders and there is a lot of concern about lost jobs and expanding trade deficits. And there is some belief that NAFTA resulted in increased illegal immigration.
If by "they" you mean the governments of the 5 CAFTA banana republics you just need to understand that they are totally corrupt and only govern for the benefit of the 2% of the people in their countries that are fabulously rich. They don't give a rat's a$$ about what happens to the other 98% so long as they can keep them under their heels and prevent them from standing the elites up against a wall and giving them the firing squad that they richly deserve.
Their people and (corrupt) gov't can't be separated -- the latter flourishes as direct result of the values of the former.
Read jackbenimble's post #8 above to get an idea of the practical result were such an annexation to happen.
Ah, I see you already read it.
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