By all means, join me on my Looney Tour 2005. This electric wheelchair has enough room for all of us.
All aboard!
Posted on 07/30/2005 6:49:32 PM PDT by RWR8189
PRESIDENT BUSH WENT TO BED at the normal time, roughly 10p.m., on the night the House of Representatives voted on the Central American Free Trade Agreement. But he was awakened by White House staffers to talk to wavering Republicans on the House floor. A cell phone with the president on the line was passed by Bush's chief congressional lobbyist, Candida Wolff, from congressman to congressman. Then Bush watched the vote count on C-SPAN before giving up. The total for CAFTA looked to be stuck at 214, not enough for passage. He went back to bed, only to be called a few moments later by Karl Rove, his political adviser and deputy chief of staff. Three Republicans--Robin Hays of North Carolina, Steve LaTourette of Ohio, Mike Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania--had simultaneously voted for the treaty and it had won. Relieved, Bush went back to bed again. It was after midnight.
Bush worked harder for CAFTA--and stayed up later--than he had for the vote in 2003 on his Medicare prescription drug benefit. The White House, indeed Bush's entire administration, was mobilized for this vote. For days, Bush met with House members individually and in small groups. He traveled to Capitol Hill to address the House Republican conference on the morning of the vote, speaking passionately for nearly 45 minutes with no notes, then answering a dozen questions. Rove was deeply involved, too, making calls and office visits and having lunch with one House member whose vote was critical.
Why the extraordinary effort? It wasn't because the treaty with Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic was so important to the American economy. Exports from the United States to the six countries total about $15 billion a year. That's roughly the buying power of the greater Sacramento metropolitan area. True, the treaty does integrate the six economies more tightly with our own. And it has symbolic value: the big guy to the north embracing his little brothers to the south.
But more important to Bush than its economics or symbolism is CAFTA's national security value. Fidel Castro and his acolyte, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, are desperately trying to undermine the democratically elected and mostly pro-American governments of Central America. They would like to see the Marxist Sandinistas regain power in Nicaragua, for instance, and Chávez is pumping money from his country's oil wealth into that project, among others. (He also provides cut-rate oil wealth to Castro's Cuba.) Both Bush and the democratic leaders in Central America believe CAFTA will bolster their economies and strengthen them against leftist radicals of the Castro/Chávez ilk. Thus, in his address to House Republicans, the president devoted much of his speech to this issue.
A second reason for Bush's enthusiasm for CAFTA is his trade agenda. Presidents have usually gotten their way when they've pushed for more open trade, but after a half century, the free trade consensus on Capitol Hill has collapsed. Meanwhile, countries all over the world--in the Middle East especially--are clamoring to negotiate free trade treaties with the United States. If CAFTA had failed, Bush's entire trade agenda would have been off the table for the remainder of his second term. Instead, it lives. Why does that matter? To qualify for a trade agreement with the United States, countries must adopt the practices of democratic capitalism, which means a treaty might achieve what it took a war to accomplish in Iraq. In the past, trade treaties sailed through the Senate, but CAFTA was ratified only 54-45--and that masks how difficult it was for Republicans to put together a mere majority. The House has traditionally looked even less favorably on free trade.
There's a third reason CAFTA was so important to Bush. It's exactly what you'd think: politics. After seeing the prospects for enacting Social Security reform fade, Bush needed a victory. Or at least he had to stave off a Democratic win. For the first time in the post-World War II era, the leaders of a party made it their policy to defeat a free trade agreement. Democrats offered a series of unconvincing explanations for their opposition, but their transparent motive was to deal a serious blow to Bush. Had they succeeded, House minority leader Nancy Pelosi would be gloating on national TV about the demise of the Bush presidency. And it would be true. Instead, Bush is revived and ready to take another shot at overhauling Social Security, plus take up tax reform.
Two Republican leaders played significant roles in passing CAFTA. Bill Thomas, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, is an ardent free trader and a genius at drafting legislation that only he understands fully. Thomas is also pragmatic. He allowed a vote on a bill requiring the monitoring of China's trade practices to come before CAFTA. It passed, dissipating some of the anxiety over China. The other Republican who mattered was whip Roy Blunt. He promised all year that he could produce enough votes to ratify CAFTA, and he finally persuaded the White House. Better yet, he delivered.
For all the media chatter about Bush as a diminished force in Washington, he and congressional Republicans have put together a string of impressive victories with more to come. With John Roberts as his nominee, the president is on his way to transforming the Supreme Court into the conservative body that Republicans have dreamed about for decades. Meanwhile, the economy is so robust that Democrats rarely mention it. Is Bush a lame duck? He sure is. He may be the most energized and successful lame duck in the history of the modern presidency.
Fred Barnes is executive editor of The Weekly Standard.
We have someone using a Marx quote, incorrectly interpreting that Marx quote in order to accuse others of being Marxists, all the while agreeing with the Marxist dogma expressed in that quote. It's like the perfect storm.
Incidentally, Rep. Tancredo (remember him? He's the guy who you cited in your reply #133) has the length of the CAFTA-DR Agreement at "nearly 1,000 pages" here (as of June 29, 2005).
By all means, join me on my Looney Tour 2005. This electric wheelchair has enough room for all of us.
All aboard!
"We can't keep them on farms, but we could use the govt to cushion the blow to workers by slowly reducing tariffs and barriers. The problem has seldom been our country having barriers, but others."
Right, so why the complaints about CAFTA, when we *already* have most of those countries on a 'tariff-free' policy for most goods? (one exception: sugar)
This is no-lose for USA (unless you are a labor union Socialist or Govt-tariff-dependent sugar farmer).
stop with this labor union nonsense. the entire US tech industry, white collar non-union workers, are systematically being offshored to India and China by Fortune 100 technology companies like IBM, HP, Oracle, etc.
yes, I know that and I am all for it.
what I am saying is, that this part of the program is no longer politically achievable it seems - do we have the votes in congress for private SS accounts? you tell me.
what I am saying is, what other ideas are left for passage of a SS "reform" bill, that excludes private accounts? not much except the same old ideas about income caps and retirement age. better for Bush to do nothing then sign onto that.
no, the buggy ship makers walked a cross the street to the auto plants that were opening up - in the US.
what street am I supposed to walk across to hold onto my job, the Pacific ocean?
import quotas for autos ended in 1994, and light truck tariffs remain. those two policies are responsible for almost all of the foreign transplants manufacturing autos for the US market, in the US.
you obviously don't know too many workers in the tech industry. many have left the field entirely, just walked away to become math teachers, government employees, or work selling real estate and other services. I know one guy who does roofing now.
go pitch your ideas to the furniture manufacturing workers in north carolina. you can probably find alot of them working at Lowes, Home Depot, and Walmart now.
I'll be moving from the private sector to government employment as soon as the buzzsaw gets to me. you and the other free traders will be paying my salary - and I plan on being very lazy in my new position, so plan on paying higher taxes.
The competition is fierce for those sinecures, particularly if you are a white male. Pity that when Torie assumes power, your public employee pension will hit the dumpster. Good luck - you might need it.
matriculation into US EE and CS programs is dropping sharply over the past few years - what do these young people know about what is going on, that you do not?
Some sectors gain jobs, others lose them. Such is life. My brother who is in tech (a project manager) in the Bay area of California, tells me that the tech labor market has firmed up there considerably in the past year or so. He felt so confident, that he quit a job he didn't like with a long commute, and secured one with which he is very satisfied, within a few weeks. Not bad for an old man of 58. Granted, he is literate. It helps to be literate, and a good writer, along with being facile with tech.
Ummmm....how 'bout becoming the best you can be at whatever skills the current market demands then go out an GET A NEW JOB if that's what's required!
Damn...some of you folks really need to wake up...or does the concept of "self-sufficiency" only work when you toss it at a welfare recipient or the dead-beat holdin the sign on a freeway overpass or when you write your congress-critter complainin about that single mom suckin up food stamps?
Look dude, you seem to want sympathy or just vent rather than learning to adapt to the realities in front of you. You will die a bitter human long before you will ever be able to force reality to conform to your concept of "fairness". Life isn't fair...tough. Deal with it or don't. There's plenty in line in back of you who are more than willing.
what we have now is something wholly different then losing mop and broom manufacturing, or xmas tree lights. we aren't losing just the buggywhip industries anymore - we are losing top tier jobs, the kinds of jobs and industries that would generate the next technological waves, innovations, future industries. free trade has made engineering a 30K per year job - so by default, it won't exist in the US. in the meantime, a manager at a Chili's restaurant makes $80K a year (the son of a co-worker of mine, we laugh about it when we talk about why we still work at our jobs).
and you see it manifesting in other places now - who needs college anymore? enrollment in vocational schools are way up, young people see that its better to spend your 18-22 years of age time frame working hard in some service job and earning some money with the hopes of moving up the ladder, rather then going to college and taking on $60K in debt to get a job competing with the Indians and Chinese.
this phenomena is just getting started - trust me, 20 years from now, you won't like the results.
And all those talented Chinese and Indians are just a click with an attachment away. No government can stop it.
"you obviously don't know too many workers in the tech industry. "
LOL ... I *am* a worker in the tech industry, semiconductros/EDA, and doing quite well.
"many have left the field entirely, just walked away to become math teachers, government employees, or work selling real estate and other services. I know one guy who does roofing now."
Well, I know the tech workers who are still in the tech field. I also know that everybody everywhere is hiring 'selectively'. There are needs and opportunities, and engineering employment is higher than ever, and unemployment is down at the under 4% mark, ie, full employment.
If someone thinks roofing is better for them, fine.
But to insist you cant find a job in technology or engineering is to preach nonsense.
to argue that companies in thie field aren't offshoring like mad, is sheer lunacy. you say you work in semis, they are sending plants to china as fast as they can. HP, IBM, Oracle - pushing 10s of thousands to India.
"I'll be moving from the private sector to government employment as soon as the buzzsaw gets to me. you and the other free traders will be paying my salary - and I plan on being very lazy in my new position, so plan on paying higher taxes."
Dang, next thing you'll be saying is you're voting Democrat!
Why not play the part to the hilt!
Here's another plan: Let's offshore Govt. services,
so you can't even get those jobs.
Techers will be piped in from Bangalore via the internet.
Medicaid processing done by Mexicans ... in Mexico.
And we will have our own foreign legion ...
...oh wait, it is already happening:
http://michaelyon.blogspot.com/
and for those who do continue to work in the US, here is a good example of how they are being burned out:
http://www.chiefengineer.org/content/content_display.cfm/seqnumber_content/2085.htm
that's exactly the point my my sarcastic comment - my former colleagues who are now math teachers in the public schools, vote Dem now. is this what we want to encourage?
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