Posted on 07/27/2005 10:42:51 AM PDT by Happy2BMe
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush urged Republican hold outs on Wednesday to back a controversial free trade agreement with Central America, and party leaders predicted he would win but only after a tough fight for votes.
"The president reminded us that we come here not only to represent our district but to represent the nation," House of Representatives Majority Leader Tom DeLay told reporters after a Capitol Hill meeting between Bush and House Republicans, many of whom have opposed it on the grounds that it will hurt industries in their regions. "It will be a tough vote but we'll pass CAFTA tonight," the Texas Republican said. "We will honor our commitments to the south, we will protect our national security and will do it all with very few Democrats."
The long-awaited vote would end months of uncertainty about the fate of the U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA, which lowers trade barriers between the United States, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.
The White House has a harder time rounding up votes for CAFTA than for any other recent trade pact because of stiff opposition from many Republicans in textile and sugar-producing states who fear it will cause job losses.
In addition, most Democrats oppose CAFTA on the grounds that its labor provisions are not tough enough for a region with a poor record on workers' rights. The White House says the labor provisions are stronger than any previous trade agreement and consistent with guidelines Congress set in 2002.
Bush appealed to House Republicans to put aside any "parochial interests" they might have about CAFTA and look at the broader benefits of the pact to the United States and the six other countries, DeLay said.
"It is good for our national security in supporting these fledging democracies at our back door. It is good in our effort against illegal immigration. It is good for our economy," DeLay said.
DeLay said Republicans would gavel the CAFTA vote to a close "when we get 218," the number of votes needed for approval. Republican leaders have angered Democrats in the past by holding votes open until they finally pressure enough party members to vote the way the leadership wants.
CHINA TRADE VOTE
Several Republicans from the textile states of South Carolina, Alabama and Georgia are expected to support CAFTA after reaching a deal with Republican leaders and U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman to address specific concerns.
However, many Republicans from North Carolina -- which has experienced heavy textile job losses -- have remained opposed.
The Bush administration also has made promises aimed at reducing sugar industry opposition to the pact, but many Republicans from sugar-producing states such as Louisiana, Florida, Montana and Idaho continue to have concerns.
The vote on CAFTA will be proceeded by a vote on Republican bill aimed at addressing a number of trade issues with China. House leaders expect to pick up the support of some Republicans in industrial states like Pennsylvania with that bill.
Only six Democrats have publicly announced their support for CAFTA. Portman told Reuters he remained hopeful that many more would vote for it in the end, but declined to give any estimate.
Portman said he had just come from a meeting with three undecided Democrats and they had refused to tell him on they planned to vote on CAFTA.
Different time different issues. But in this they would agree with open trade not wiht protectionist walls.
The Framers of the Constitution ensured that the respective states of the Union would be forever prohibited from implementing trade restrictions and immigration controls against one another. The result has been the largest free-trade and free-movement zone in history among the states.
RECORD LOW INTEREST RATES HAS KEPT OUR ECONOMY MOVING
NOT illegal immigration
NOT NAFTA
NOT a CAFTA
"Cato also supports letting a Chinese government company get its hands on U.S. energy assets."===========================
Did you copy that?
Lots better than it used to be. The PRI reigned for 76 plus years. It takes time to unravel the corruption and political abyss it created.
Look at New York State politics...it's still unbelievably corrupt.
If you can't keep up your end of the argument don't post to me. But one more attempt at this kind of chicanery and I will report you. LOL.
All right already...they were patriots. They were marvelous...life goes one and the original 13 are now 50...and maybe tomorrow they will be 53. Time marches on.
I see you are a bit overwhelmed.
Those are entirely subjective & intentionally simplistic characterizations meant to disparage. Most of the opposition comes from people who believe these huge free trade agreements are destructive and want a truly 'america first' trade policy.
You can laugh yourself silly all you want. But my contacts, visits, and my reading proves the opposite. Things are getting better in old Mexico and NAFTA has helped in that regard.
I stick to what I said though about corruption in NYS; it runs in the many billions far more than in the whole country of Mexico. Here and there NY has corrupt officials (especially among the demorats) but I would venture to say the damage they do is of a greater magnitude than in Mexico.
We can discuss the relative merits of corruption in Mexico vs NY any time you want. After the up vote on CAFTA.
"huge free trade agreements are destructive"
Not meaning to be a jerk, but where do you live? I live on the border and know from first hand experience that the corruption has, if anything, gotten worse.
Psst. This is a secret about unemployment rate. They only do employers survey and not household survey, therefore there are many people who work in private business and are not accounted for in the survey, in other word the unemployment rate is lower than what is published.
It was quite a historical victory for the President and his party - nearly unheard of in this nation's history. Of course, since you don't even know the President's name I don't guess we should expect you to know something like that...
It was more than a year ago that the "distinguished" and powerful chairman of the House International Relations Committee, Republican Henry Hyde -- a real Jekyll and Hyde character -- publicly recommended a Western Hemisphere union government, just like the European Union, which wise voters in France and the Netherlands recently rejected because they knew it would destroy their countries' ability to pass individual laws protecting them.
CAFTA is a major step in that direction, like the Free Trade Area of the Americas. Polls have shown that 80-90 percent of Americans are opposed to CAFTA, but the international one-worlders and the multinationals at the top keep pushing it anyway. If you have a Western Hemisphere union, then U. S. federal, state and local laws will be superseded by whatever the Hemisphere union government promulgates.
Our leading congressman on this issue is Rep. Ron Paul (R), of Texas, who has consistently been warning against steps to a one-world government. NAFTA was devastating to many U. S. businesses and factories, destroying hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs, and CAFTA will be more of the same. My own Republican congressman, Virgil Goode, fortunately is strongly against CAFTA, and quite a number of other Republicans are also. They are bucking Bush, who is encoraging the massive invasion of illegal aliens into this country, which will be further aggravated by CAFTA. And now the Council on Foreign Relations has issued a task force report saying that the U. S., Canada and Mexico should be merged so that an enlarged border would "protect" us all. What kind of madness will Americans stand for?
Clinton was a traitor whose impeachment should have been approved (yes I DID participate in the Free Republic Clinton impeachment rally around the Washington Monument), and the Democrats were big spenders, but the allegedly "conservative" Republicans are spending far more than the Democrats on DOMESTIC programs like education, deliberately dumbing down our children.
I hope the PRETEND Freepers who slavishly support Bush no matter what he does and who always toss around the word "tinfoil" against any Free Republic poster who tells the truth will be happy if this terrible bill passes!
Yes.
"free trade" isn't open trade. Its trade managed by a bunch of socialist globalists at the WTO, with the French Socialist, Pascal Lamy at their helm.
Nope, I don't think the founders would support the WTO AT ALL.
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