Posted on 03/16/2008 12:47:42 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued
The US administration on Wednesday threatened to submit a contentious free trade agreement with Colombia to Congress without the consent of the Democratic leadership in a move that would open up a new front in the fight over US trade policy.
Susan Schwab, US trade representative, told reporters that in the absence of an agreement with House Democrats, the White House would ask Congress to consider the Colombia free trade agreement “immediately or very shortly after” the Easter recess, which ends on March 30.
“We can’t let delay translate into inaction,” Ms Schwab said. The administration’s decision represents a break with the common practice in Washington of the White House and congressional leaders agreeing on the timing for the consideration of free trade agreements.
As such, it marks a high-risk, high-return strategy that will force the Democratic-led congress to take a position on a difficult issue in an election year.
While free trade agreements are unpopular in the US, with senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both criticising them on the campaign trail, the Bush administration has been highlighting the security components of the Colombia deal, portraying it as a way of bolstering President Alvaro Uribe against Hugo Chávez of Venezuela.
(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...
Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. (Smoot-Hawley was signed in 1930).
This thread is interesting in that there are a number of conservatives arguing for bigger government, higher taxes, and reliving the glory days of the 1950's when the top tax bracket was 90% (or was it higher, I don't remember).
Remember this alleged rumor?
They deny that the US military has ties but wasn’t the actual rumor regarding his own personal family compound or property? Didn’t his niece go down there when she was having all her drug problems, etc?
I vaguely remember what the circumstances were. Would like to know what is really factual.
Bares repeating.
Colombia's legal exports to the US are mostly oil, leather goods and flowers. Colombia's imports from the US are mostly manufactured goods, computer/communications equipment and medical equipment.
I know some people would like to fight global warming by raising the price of oil but other than the flower growers and leather smiths, how exactly does the current system benefit American workers?
Therefore, the only response is to clamor that the government step-in and protect us.
Help me follow your reasoning. We should not reduce Colombian tariffs on our manufacturing exports, because the lefties have floated a rumor Bush has bought a ranch in Paraguay?
They've no conception of what this article even means and are not prepared to engage in a rational conversation about it.
I'm just waiting for the first moronic comment that it is somehow "unconstitutional" for the President to go ahead without the permission of the protectionist neo-Leninists in the House.
Exactly.
Idiotic hyper-capitalism and "free trade" is what ushers in socialism.
But the guys who became millionaires off of "free trade" live in gated communities so what do they care. A trashed and socialist America is of no concern to them
When the economy turns to shit the masses look for shelter from the storm and that shelter is government. As is Hillary and Barrack pie in the sky socialist promises and rhetoric
There is a good reason for building up a US military presence there - to keep an eye on the Hamas types around Foz and Ciudad Del Este but who in their right mind would want to live there?
It's flat, hot, run by crooks, populated by some of the more poorly educated people on the planet (even by California public school standards and I am trying to be polite here), infested with rats, cockroaches, mosquitoes and muslims. Illegal immigrants from there flock to slums in Argentina.
It has no culture, lousy soccer teams and there's neither a Gucci store nor a Walmart in the whole country. Despite a great deal of post war German immigration the beer is lousy - if you ever have to go there pick up enough Brahma in Brazil to hold you over.
I could go on but of all the countries in the world I've been to Paraguay is about second from the bottom on my personal "fun places to live" list. (The DR being on the bottom but at least THEY have good looking women.)
This is one of those things cooked up by the black helicopter crowd.
"actual rumor" So you're spreading that rumor without any proof? That's beneath FR standards.
I thought you were out on a limb with your comment about "Marxists," wideawake, but the above comment placed you back in range.
Looks like the freerepublic is coming up with a new definition of the work "conservative". I just came from this thread where some clown was complaining about Bush spending too much on defense.
Maybe we need to spray for Obama trolls...
I was on one of the TTC threads today, and someone was complaining that the government was loaning money to a private consortium to build it, instead of building it itself (and presumably funding it 100% with our tax money).
I took a new look at this Bush 41 deal and could not agree more.
Watch it; it was that kind of cr@p that got Willie Green banned.
I just think it's interesting that free-trade threads tend to bring out the conspiracy theories.
All of Marx's thought is based on two underlying principles: that Ricardo's labor theory of value is valid, and that government intervention is necessary to insure that value is maintained.
That's the excellent lesson to be drawn from Marxism: that seemingly innocent stupid mistakes lead to many, many people being killed.
And, of course, all the free trade opponents on this thread are arguing for a labor theory of value and for government intervention in prices to maintain it.
The founding fathers neither subscribed to the labor theory of value nor did they imagine government intervention in the economy was necessary to maintain that flawed assumption.
So, by definition, they cannot have been Marxists.
I live in Ohio, please let me know what jobs Ohio has lost to a free trade deal with Columbia?
Right now Ohio gains more from Free Trade than we lose. The jobs lost in Ohio were lost for 3 reasons. 1. High personal taxes. 2. High corporate taxes. 3. Rust belt industry that disappeared many years ago because they couldn't compete.
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