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Free trade's victims turning against Bush, GOP
The Herald Sun ^ | August 25, 2003 | associated press

Posted on 08/25/2003 2:05:47 PM PDT by snopercod

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- This year's highly publicized job losses in North Carolina manufacturing, including the Pillowtex bankruptcy, could mean trouble next year for President Bush in a region that was a stronghold in 2000.

Bush won more than 56 percent of the vote in both North Carolina and South Carolina in 2000. But his strong support of free trade has turned some against him in the South, where U.S. trade policies are blamed for the loss of jobs in textiles and other manufacturing sectors.

Andy Warlick, chief executive officer of Parkdale Mills in Gaston County, said he doubts he will repeat his 2000 vote for Bush next year.

"He made a lot of promises and he hasn't delivered on any of them," Warlick said. "I've had some firsthand experience of him sending down trade and commerce officials, but they're just photo ops. It's empty rhetoric."

Fred Reese, the president of Western N.C. Industries, an employers' association, said executives are beginning to raise their voices against Bush and are planning education and voter drives.

"We're seeing a new dynamic where the executives and employees are both beginning to see a real threat to their interests. You're going to see people who traditionally voted Republican switch over," Reese predicted.

The hard feelings were on display days after Pillowtex's July 30 bankruptcy filing, when Republican U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes walked into a Kannapolis auditorium to meet with former workers.

"Thanks for sending the jobs overseas, Robin!" shouted Brenda Miller, a longtime worker at the textile giant's Salisbury plant.

In December 2001 Hayes -- who is an heir to the Cannon family textile fortune -- cast the tie-breaking vote to give Bush the authority to negotiate "fast-track" trade agreements, trade treaties that Congress must vote up or down with no amendments.

At the time, Hayes said he won promises from the Bush administration that it would more strictly enforce existing trade agreements and pressure foreign countries to open their markets to U.S. textiles.

"Are we pleased with the way they responded? Absolutely," Hayes said. "Are we satisfied with where we are? Absolutely not."

Jobs in many industries have fled overseas since 1993, when Congress passed the Clinton-backed North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. About half the textile and apparel jobs that existed in 1994 are gone.

Since Bush took office in January 2001, it is estimated North Carolina and South Carolina have lost more than 180,000 manufacturing jobs.

And even more textile jobs could be out the door once quotas on Chinese imports expire at the end of next year.

Republican U.S. Rep. Cass Ballenger voted for NAFTA and fast-track, and has seen his 10th District lose nearly 40,000 jobs, primarily in the textile and furniture industries.

"Certainly, there's a political cost to any controversial vote no matter which side you take," he said. "People are casting stones, but we're trying to pick them up and build something."

Democratic U.S. Sen. John Edwards voted against fast-track in 2002 after voting for an earlier version. In 2000 he voted for permanent normal trade relations with China.

Recently, though, while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, Edwards has attacked Bush's trade policies and called for fairer trade measures.

Robert Neal, vice president of the local chapter of the Pillowtex workers' union, said Hayes has worked to try to ease the impact of job losses in his district.

"Though he (Hayes) voted for fast-track, he is really concerned about the workers and their conditions in the state of North Carolina," Neal said.

Not everyone feels that way.

Reese is organizing 1,500 manufacturing companies across North Carolina in an effort to leverage what he calls a new voting bloc.

In South Carolina, voter drives are planned for the first time at Milliken & Co., which has about 30 plants in the state. Mount Vernon Mills of Greenville, S.C., is forming a political action committee.

The company's president Roger Chastain, a one-time Bush voter, doesn't expect to support the president or Jim DeMint, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Ernest Hollings.

"We're basically liquidating our whole middle class, polarizing people on the two extremes, have and have-nots," Chastain said of the manufacturing job losses. "We'll be a Third World country."


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events; US: North Carolina; US: South Carolina
KEYWORDS: economy; fasttrack; jobs; manufacturing; nafta; northcarolina; oldnorthstate; pillotex; treetrade
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To: Texas_Dawg

>>Make up your mind. Which is it? Am I the problem or are you? <<

You are. I'm simply exploiting the situation as I can.

You're supporting the greater bad. You think we can continue on this course forever.

>>Personally, I understand economics a little better than you<<

Sure you do. I bow to your infinite wisdom. Lol.

I'm part of an internation corporation and I deal with products shipping all over the globe.

China is only part of the problem. Many products come from Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, India and elsewhere. I deal with this every day. I'm guessing you've never even been to Asia. I guess that means though, you know more about it than me. Uncle, Uncle. You win. LOL.

I've got a job for you. I'll pay you $20 Hong Kong Dollars to drive a truck into the mainland. That's the going rate for drivers by the way. Now, when you learn that the truck is filled with products made in the USA, will you take the job? No? Why? Not enough money? Ok, assume I'll give you $2000 USD to do it? Would you? Please? Wanna know why i'd offer that? Chances are you'll be detained at the border and your passport will be siezed for about 2 weeks. This is standard practice for ANYTHING going into China.

Course, the flip flop of that, going out, get's a wave and off it goes. Until you are part of that process, you simply WILL NOT UNDERSTAND that the rest of the world does NOT deal fairly with the USA. You are the problem.

381 posted on 08/25/2003 8:13:31 PM PDT by Malsua
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To: Texas_Dawg
Want to bet me on it?

Nope. I never bet more than I'm willing to lose. Besides, I hope he wins.

382 posted on 08/25/2003 8:13:32 PM PDT by null and void
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Comment #383 Removed by Moderator

To: Texas_Dawg
Texas_Dawg wrote:

"So we're not all doomed?"

Probably not until 2008...
384 posted on 08/25/2003 8:16:01 PM PDT by bluejay
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To: Malsua
I've got a job for you. I'll pay you $20 Hong Kong Dollars to drive a truck into the mainland. That's the going rate for drivers by the way. Now, when you learn that the truck is filled with products made in the USA, will you take the job? No? Why? Not enough money? Ok, assume I'll give you $2000 USD to do it? Would you? Please? Wanna know why i'd offer that? Chances are you'll be detained at the border and your passport will be siezed for about 2 weeks. This is standard practice for ANYTHING going into China.

I missed the part where you, as an American, are legally required to work with China.

385 posted on 08/25/2003 8:16:55 PM PDT by Texas_Dawg (Proudly posting without the </sarcasm> tag for at least a few months.)
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To: FITZ
I predict that what Bush will do is wait for a Republican of some kind to get into California and bail-out California right before the election ---- if $15 billion can be thrown at African AIDS, certainly there is $35 billion or so around to throw at California. With those electoral votes, he doesn't have to worry about a few other minor states like Florida.

Works for me! IF, and it's a big IF, California isn't already too far gone. "Cupping the dead"...

386 posted on 08/25/2003 8:17:31 PM PDT by null and void
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To: Texas_Dawg
I'll give you a Buchanan Brigade hint: These "merchants" often have big noses and often need the blood of Gentile children for certain religious rituals of theirs.

Second Danbury Baptist Church of Elvis the Holy Redeemer, Reformed?

387 posted on 08/25/2003 8:17:39 PM PDT by Poohbah (Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women.)
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To: harpseal
I have read your 14 point plan a number of times on different threads on this subject and for the most part I am in agreement. There is a point however that I am less confident in supporting and that is #5 (reducing corporate income tax to zero in return for “buy American “/ “hire American”. I do not think that this particular point focuses on the problem of exporting American jobs and carries with it a few unseen problems.

Firstly, small businesses that have little or nothing to do with exporting jobs overseas will indeed flock to this idea. We would see a drastic move from C corporations to fully incorporated because it would be a gigantic tax break with having to give up very little. Unless accompanied with discretionary spending cuts, this just adds to the tax burden of the personal income taxpayer and does little or nothing to solve the problem.

Secondly, corporations which deal with direct services or corporations that have little or no overseas market would also flock to this plan as it is a nice tax break. However since these corporations have little or nothing to do with the problem it is just a tax break that (without spending cuts) is just shifted to the personal income taxpayer.

Thirdly, those corporations that do export labor may not see this as an enticement to stop. Each would have to weigh the net profit of “buy America / hire America against whatever they pay in corporate income tax. Many of these companies (primarily due to breaks given by congress since 1986) pay a small percentage of their real profit on federal corporate tax. Small businesses (C corporations) carry a much larger load, both in numbers and amount).

I would love to see corporate income tax reduced. However, I would also like to see personal income tax reduced. I am a little hesitant to favor any change that would lower one to the detriment of raising the other.

388 posted on 08/25/2003 8:18:24 PM PDT by thtr
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To: dogbyte12
Anytown has a name. It's Silicon Valley...
389 posted on 08/25/2003 8:19:26 PM PDT by null and void
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To: dogbyte12; hchutch; Chancellor Palpatine; Poohbah; austinTparty; rdb3; All
Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains.

I just want to highlight this quote one more time for all the Buchanan Brigaders on this thread who think we evil "RINOs" are being unfair in our claims of what is really deep down beneath a lot of the rantings on trade that he and his crowd vomit.

"Merchants"? So that's what we're calling them now? Classic.

390 posted on 08/25/2003 8:19:48 PM PDT by Texas_Dawg (Proudly posting without the </sarcasm> tag for at least a few months.)
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To: Poohbah
Second Danbury Baptist Church of Elvis the Holy Redeemer, Reformed?

Yes. Exactly. :-)

391 posted on 08/25/2003 8:20:45 PM PDT by Texas_Dawg (Proudly posting without the </sarcasm> tag for at least a few months.)
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To: Texas_Dawg
"I'll give you a Buchanan Brigade hint: These "merchants" often have big noses and often need the blood of Gentile children for certain religious rituals of theirs."

Jehovah’s Witnesses?

392 posted on 08/25/2003 8:21:19 PM PDT by Mad Dawgg (French: old Europe word meaning surrender)
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To: dogbyte12; All
And just for the sake of disclosure, not that it matters, but I'm not a "Merchant".
393 posted on 08/25/2003 8:21:46 PM PDT by Texas_Dawg (Proudly posting without the </sarcasm> tag for at least a few months.)
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To: dogbyte12
It's something both radical feminists and radical free traders don't address. What about the american family? Are your free trade ideals worth more than the family?

To some here it apparently is. The thing that astonishes me is that I have yet to come across a "free trade" advocate that talks about the NECESSITY of opening up markets to OUR goods and services. It's like they don't care that many of our so-called trading partners follow the very thing they proclaim to hate i.e. "protectionism" and “mercantilist trade practices” that create huge lopsided trade deficits with America.

About the best they can do on that front is to say, laughably, that those countries are doing us a favor while hurting themselves. Yeah Riigghhht.

Given that reasoning I supposed if they were mugged they would say it was a mutually beneficial experience.

394 posted on 08/25/2003 8:22:49 PM PDT by WRhine
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To: Mad Dawgg
Jehovah’s Witnesses?

Yes. And Hare Krishnas.

395 posted on 08/25/2003 8:22:58 PM PDT by Texas_Dawg (Proudly posting without the </sarcasm> tag for at least a few months.)
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To: Texas_Dawg
'And just for the sake of disclosure, not that it matters, but I'm not a "Merchant".'

But... do you play one on TV?

396 posted on 08/25/2003 8:23:06 PM PDT by Mad Dawgg (French: old Europe word meaning surrender)
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To: Texas_Dawg
And just for the sake of disclosure, not that it matters, but I'm not a "Merchant".

Not that it matters, indeed. God forbid anyone should ever mistake T-Dawg for a "merchant".

397 posted on 08/25/2003 8:23:51 PM PDT by Junior_G
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To: Texas_Dawg


>>I missed the part<<

You certainly did.

You completely MISS that the USA doesn't have open markets to sell ANYWHERE yet the rest of the world can openly sell in the USA and exploit our market.

Game, Set, Match. YOU LOSE.



398 posted on 08/25/2003 8:24:09 PM PDT by Malsua
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To: Mad Dawgg
But... do you play one on TV?

Of course. Don't you know all Merchants run TV and the media?

399 posted on 08/25/2003 8:24:22 PM PDT by Texas_Dawg (Proudly posting without the </sarcasm> tag for at least a few months.)
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To: Junior_G
'Not that it matters, indeed. God forbid anyone should ever mistake T-Dawg for a "merchant".'

Heh, what is really hilarious is that I am a voting member of our Downtown area's "Merchant" League.

400 posted on 08/25/2003 8:25:48 PM PDT by Mad Dawgg (French: old Europe word meaning surrender)
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