[aristeides]

NAFTA passed in 1993, while the Dems still controlled Congress. Then GATT was passed by the lame-duck Congress after the '94 election, before the Republican takeover.

Actually, I suspect the business establishment saw to it that Clinton was elected in '92 precisely so as to get NAFTA and GATT passed. Without a pro-"free" trade Dem president in office, the congressional Dems would have opposed NAFTA and GATT, and they would never have gotten through Congress.

[wayoverontheright]

NAFTA passed in 1993, while the Dems still controlled Congress. Then GATT was passed by the lame-duck Congress after the '94 election, before the Republican takeover.

True.

I think NAFTA was Clinton's way of cozying up to business, and one of the ways in which his minions telegraphed that his administration was FOR SALE. I have always been astounded at the fact that CEOs of large corporations, by the time of Clinton's second run for the presidency, were LINING UP to contribute to him, even though they had to see that they were the DECLARED ENEMY of Clintonian tax and regulatory policy. The reason? Protection money. And he obliged them.

Clinton had obviously read Ayn Rand and had grasped that American capitalism could be brought to its knees with the FULL COMPLICITY of business, and he almost pulled it off.