FINAL CAFTA VOTE ROLL CALL - How did your Congressman Vote?

CongressionalRecord ^

[Happy2BMe]

FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 443(Republicans in roman; Democrats in italic; Independents underlined)
      H R 3045      RECORDED VOTE      28-Jul-2005      12:03 AM
      QUESTION:  On Passage
      BILL TITLE: Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act

	Ayes	Noes	PRES	NV
Republican	202	27		2
Democratic	15	187
Independent		1
TOTALS	217	215		2

---- AYES    217 ---

Aderholt Akin Alexander Bachus Baker Barrett (SC) Bartlett (MD) Barton (TX) Bass Bean Beauprez Biggert Bilirakis Bishop (UT) Blackburn Blunt Boehlert Boehner Bonilla Bonner Bono Boozman Bradley (NH) Brady (TX) Brown (SC) Brown-Waite, Ginny Burgess Burton (IN) Buyer Calvert Camp Cannon Cantor Carter Castle Chabot Chocola Cole (OK) Conaway Cooper Cox Crenshaw Cuellar Culberson Cunningham Davis (KY) Davis, Tom Deal (GA) DeLay Dent Diaz-Balart, L. Diaz-Balart, M. Dicks Doolittle Drake Dreier Duncan Ehlers Emerson English (PA) Everett Feeney Ferguson Fitzpatrick (PA) Flake Foley Forbes Fortenberry Fossella Franks (AZ) Frelinghuysen Gallegly Gerlach

Gibbons Gilchrest Gillmor Gingrey Gohmert Goodlatte Granger Graves Green (WI) Hall Harris Hart Hastert Hastings (WA) Hayes Hayworth Hefley Hensarling Herger Hinojosa Hobson Hoekstra Hulshof Hyde Inglis (SC) Issa Istook Jefferson Jenkins Johnson (CT) Johnson (IL) Johnson, Sam Keller Kelly Kennedy (MN) King (IA) King (NY) Kingston Kirk Kline Knollenberg Kolbe Kuhl (NY) LaHood Latham LaTourette Leach Lewis (CA) Lewis (KY) Linder Lucas Lungren, Daniel E. Manzullo Marchant Matheson McCaul (TX) McCrery McKeon McMorris Meeks (NY) Mica Miller (FL) Miller, Gary Moore (KS) Moran (KS) Moran (VA) Murphy Musgrave Myrick Neugebauer Northup Nunes Nussle

Ortiz Osborne Oxley Pearce Pence Peterson (PA) Petri Pickering Pitts Platts Poe Pombo Porter Price (GA) Pryce (OH) Putnam Radanovich Ramstad Regula Reichert Renzi Reynolds Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rogers (MI) Rohrabacher Ros-Lehtinen Royce Ryan (WI) Ryun (KS) Saxton Schwarz (MI) Sensenbrenner Sessions Shadegg Shaw Shays Sherwood Shimkus Shuster Skelton Smith (TX) Snyder Sodrel Souder Stearns Sullivan Sweeney Tanner Terry Thomas Thornberry Tiahrt Tiberi Towns Turner Upton Walden (OR) Walsh Wamp Weldon (FL) Weldon (PA) Weller Westmoreland Whitfield Wicker Wilson (NM) Wilson (SC) Wolf Young (AK) Young (FL)

---- NOES    215 ---

Abercrombie Ackerman Allen Andrews Baca Baird Baldwin Barrow Becerra Berkley Berman Berry Bishop (GA) Bishop (NY) Blumenauer Boren Boswell Boucher Boustany Boyd Brady (PA) Brown (OH) Brown, Corrine Butterfield Capito Capps Capuano Cardin Cardoza Carnahan Carson Case Chandler Clay Cleaver Clyburn Coble Conyers Costa Costello Cramer Crowley Cubin Cummings Davis (AL) Davis (CA) Davis (FL) Davis (IL) Davis (TN) DeFazio DeGette Delahunt DeLauro Dingell Doggett Doyle Edwards Emanuel Engel Eshoo Etheridge Evans Farr Fattah Filner Ford Foxx Frank (MA) Garrett (NJ) Gonzalez Goode Gordon

Green, Al Green, Gene Grijalva Gutierrez Gutknecht Harman Hastings (FL) Herseth Higgins Hinchey Holden Holt Honda Hooley Hostettler Hoyer Hunter Inslee Israel Jackson (IL) Jackson-Lee (TX) Jindal Johnson, E. B. Jones (NC) Jones (OH) Kanjorski Kaptur Kennedy (RI) Kildee Kilpatrick (MI) Kind Kucinich Langevin Lantos Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Lee Levin Lewis (GA) Lipinski LoBiondo Lofgren, Zoe Lowey Lynch Mack Maloney Markey Marshall Matsui McCarthy McCollum (MN) McCotter McDermott McGovern McHenry McHugh McIntyre McKinney McNulty Meehan Meek (FL) Melancon Menendez Michaud Millender-McDonald Miller (MI) Miller (NC) Miller, George Mollohan Moore (WI) Murtha Nadler

Napolitano Neal (MA) Ney Norwood Oberstar Obey Olver Otter Owens Pallone Pascrell Pastor Paul Payne Pelosi Peterson (MN) Pomeroy Price (NC) Rahall Rangel Rehberg Reyes Ross Rothman Roybal-Allard Ruppersberger Rush Ryan (OH) Sabo Salazar Sánchez, Linda T. Sanchez, Loretta Sanders Schakowsky Schiff Schwartz (PA) Scott (GA) Scott (VA) Serrano Sherman Simmons Simpson Slaughter Smith (NJ) Smith (WA) Solis Spratt Stark Strickland Stupak Tancredo Tauscher Taylor (MS) Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Tierney Udall (CO) Udall (NM) Van Hollen Velázquez Visclosky Wasserman Schultz Waters Watson Watt Waxman Weiner Wexler Woolsey Wu Wynn

---- NOT VOTING    2 ---

Davis, Jo Ann

Taylor (NC)

---

[Egon]

Can you give a specific example of a "free economy," and list some of the characteristics that define it?

Not sure about a list, but it boils down to this:

From an economic perspective, any government should be about removing the barriers to free trade. Taxes, fees, regulations, restrictions, etc., are all barriers to free trade imposed by government on its own industries. Whereever possible, these should be reduced or eliminated. This should result in a relatively "free economy".

In order to have a level playing field, it is assumed that the country you're trading with is following a similar model. If they're not, it can often lead to imbalances on the playing field that are detrimental to your industries. Where this is the case, it is your government's responsibility to protect its industries by imposing tariffs to keep everything fair.

If this isn't done, you end up with other countries "dumping" their products on us until our competing industry segment ceases to exist. Then the other country raises the price of that product and there's nothing you can do about it, as you have no competing product.

In a perfect world, this self-checking would happen universally. Unfortunately, it is not in the best interests of some world leaders to have "free trade". Therefore, they artificially control the levels of their currency (China) to give their industries an advantage. In others, the disparity in standard of living (India) is such that their workers can afford to live on much lower wages.

This means that you end up in the situation we're finding ourselves in: 90% of the products in your house are made in China and when you call technical support on your Dell computer (most of the parts therein made in Taiwan) you end up speaking to someone in Delhi.

We're not talking about isolated industry segments here (manufacturing, textiles), we're talking about industries across the board. That's not the product of "free economies".

[Ex-expromissor]

"We hope we won't have to buy any weapons from China to defend ourselves from China."

In WWII Japan was shooting US steel at our soldiers. Wall Street played a large roll in NAZI Germany's build up just prior to WWII. But hey! Those companies made quite a profit and that's all that seems to be what really matters to some at the time I guess. Here we go again...

[Tulane]

Nice strawman...what does our government's inability to enforce trade law with China have to do with Cafta? Answer: zero.

[Major_Risktaker]

WOW! I didn't know that. I also hear their is a free South American Trade agreement also in the works.

[Tulane]

So you're saying Costa Ricans are going to build weapons based on Cafta? Huh?

[politicalwit]

Most of the pro-CAFTA/NAFTA people think only on the profit side of the equation with little or no consideration to the human element of business. Truely sad.

[Alberta's Child]

One of the untold stories about NAFTA is that it helped the U.S. maintain some level of control over critical imports from our North American neighbors.

A brief history lesson is in order here. Back in the early 1980s when oil prices were at record highs, the region around Fort McMurray in northern Alberta started to attract a lot of attention as a source of oil for North America. The oil from that area is very expensive to refine, so it never made sense to extract it when the price of oil was lower. A company called Suncor was able to develop a process for extracting and refining that oil for something like $15 per barrel, and when the price of oil rose above the $30-$35 mark there was an enormous economic boom in Western Canada.

That boom was very short-lived, and its collapse was hastened by what was know in Canada as the National Energy Policy -- in which the Trudeau government basically forced the nation's producers (particularly the government-owned Petro-Canada) to ship a substantial portion of their product to eastern Canadian cities at below-market prices rather than sell them on the global market. The Alberta economy collapsed, and to this day western Canadians derisively refer to those times using a creative acronym for the old Petro-Canada ("Pierre Elliott Trudeau Ripped Off Canada").

A similar situation could very well have occurred in recent times, as the price of oil has again reached historic highs. Even worse -- there was public pressure across Canada to apply that socialist redistribution of Canadian wealth to natural gas, not just oil (the price of natural gas skyrocketed in the late 1990s and in 2000 even as oil prices were still low). The Canadian government was explicitly prevented from doing such a thing because it would have been a clear violation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

It's no accident that Canada and Mexico have recently passed Saudi Arabia as the largest suppliers of crude oil to the United States.

[Colorado Doug]

I think you'd better look at the facts on this. When did China purchase the Panama Canal? I'd appreciate you posting factual information on this purchase transaction, please.

Please, you know exactly what I mean. Don't pretend otherwise. If you don't think that China controls the canal, then tell me who does. i would appreciate your not throwing out straw men based on splitting hairs. Try addressing the substance of the post and not some trite point contained therein. Our Representatives unleashed the monster that is China, now you claim that we have to have this WTO controlled mess to counter China.

[Das Outsider]

And the ironic thing about it is it was handed to them by the GOP.

They were willing to do the job that ordinary Republican congressmen wouldn't.

Viva la CAFTA y viva los Mexicrats!

[hedgetrimmer]

Again, they have the power to delegate that authority,

No they don't. The Constitution doesn't give the Congress the authority to change responsiblity for trade.

Because the Constitution was predicated on elected representation, when Congress abdicated its authority this way, it positively struck a blow at the Constitution and its primary purpose-- to protect individual rights.

"Free traders" seem quite willing to give up elected representation for trade deals, but most of the American people are not willing to do so.

[eleni121]

My conservative Republican congressman voted for CAFTA.

Doing the right thing for America.

[Tulane]

Most of the who think they are entitled to the same job year after year don't live in the real world, how sad.

[Dane]

Last night was a great victory for the Democratic party.

And the ironic thing about it is it was handed to them by the GOP

Wow the truth from happy, you support the democrats. I posted a picture of one of your "goddesses" so you don't have to run down to the local DNC headquaters to give offerings.

[Ex-expromissor]

"They delegated that authority..."

Please direct me to the part of the Constitution which allows Congress the authority to do so.

"...why don't you get someone ti sue the Congress and claim it was an unconstitutional delegation of power..."

For the same reason that no one will sue all of the past US Presidents who have declared War when only Congress has that authority. Most US citizens obviously don't care any more. Blowing off the Constitution is now "cool". We are now happily on our way to a North American version of the EU. Oh Joy!

[Tulane]

So you're saying there are no implicit powers conferred upon the Congress by the Constitution? You sure you want to stick with that one?

[MinorityRepublican]

So you're saying Costa Ricans are going to build weapons based on Cafta? Huh?

You ain't playing by the rules. You are actually using logic.

[Tulane]

AHG! GASP!! PUT THAT AWAY!!!

[Das Outsider]

"Free traders seem quite willing...."

We, the unwashed populist fools, shouldn't have a say in trade deals, anyway. I just want to be a Gamma. Let the natural born leaders take care of all the important stuff. (/Alpha praise)

The Left doesn't hold the monopoly on elitism--only 95% of the time.

[Tulane]

Oh, maybe you forgot about the mountains of American jurisprudence that steadfaslty holds that the Constitution contains both express and implicit grants of power.

[politicalwit]

"Most of the who think they are entitled to the same job year after year don't live in the real world, how sad."

Yes, stability in your life, your work and your family are terrible things. We should require every employer terminate employees at well just to keep the slackers on their feet.