Posted on 09/17/2003 7:06:29 AM PDT by Theodore R.
The slow awakening of George W.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: September 17, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
Last July, U.S. Trade Representative Bob Zoellick delivered a halftime pep talk to dispirited globalists, thrown on the defensive by the hemorrhaging of U.S. manufacturing jobs.
"What ... a surprise," Zoellick railed at his troops, "to see that the proponents of [free trade] ... have so often abandoned the debate to the economic isolationists and purveyors of fright and retreat."
But by September, Zoellick's own boss seemed to be drifting toward the camp of the "economic isolationists and purveyors of fright."
At a rally in Ohio, which has lost 160,000 manufacturing jobs since mid-2000, President Bush railed: "We've lost thousands of manufacturing jobs because production moved overseas. ... America must send a message overseas – say, look, we expect there to be a fair playing field when it comes to trade."
Yes, friends, at long last, we have their attention.
What's behind this radically revised presidential rhetoric? It is this: U.S. manufacturing jobs are vanishing, and unless he turns it around, Bush's presidency may vanish along with them.
The numbers are breathtaking. Manufacturing jobs have been disappearing for 37 straight months. Not since the Depression have we lost production jobs three years in a row. Since 2000, one in every six manufacturing jobs, 2.7 million, has disappeared. These jobs paid an average wage of $54,000.
Unfortunately for President Bush, while he has a good heart, he was horribly miseducated at Harvard. He simply cannot comprehend that it is free-trade globalism that is destroying U.S. manufacturing jobs, and may yet destroy his presidency.
The serial killer of manufacturing jobs is imports, which are now equal to almost 15 percent of GDP, four times the level they held between 1860 and 1960. What has caused this flood of imports? The trade deals that people like Robert Zoellick negotiate and George W. Bush celebrates.
Consider the numbers.
In July alone, the United States exported $86.1 billion in goods and services. But we imported $126.5 billion, for a trade deficit of $40.4 billion. The total trade deficit for 2003 is estimated at between $480 billion and $500 billion. But the deficit in goods will run closer to $550 billion.
The president's father and Bill Clinton contended that every $1 billion in exports created 20,000 jobs. Thus, a $550 billion trade deficit kills 11 million production and manufacturing jobs.
Say goodbye to blue-collar America.
What is the Bush prescription for curing this metastasizing cancer? In Ohio, he declared, "See, we in America believe we can compete with anybody, just so long as the rules are fair, and we intend to keep the rules fair."
How, Mr. President?
Consider the nation that runs the largest trade surplus with us. In July, we bought $13.4 billion in goods from China and sold China $2.1 billion. U.S. imports from China this year should come in around $160 billion, and U.S. exports to China at $25 billion.
We will thus buy 10 percent of the entire GDP of China, while she buys 0.25 percent of the GDP of the United States. Is this "fair trade"? But how does Bush propose to close this exploding deficit? How can he?
Where a U.S. manufacturing worker may cost $53,000 a year, a factory in China – with $53,000 and using the same machinery and technology as a U.S. factory – can employ 25 reliable, intelligent, hardworking Chinese at $1 an hour.
If you force U.S. businessmen to pay kids who sweep the floor a $5-an-hour minimum wage, while their rivals pay highly skilled Chinese workers $1 an hour, how do you square that with the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection of the laws?
Does the president, when he goes on about keeping "the rules fair," mean he will insist that China start paying its skilled workers $25 an hour and subject their factories to the same payroll taxes, wage-and-hour laws, OSHA inspections and environmental rules as ours?
Beijing will tell him to go fly a kite, Made in China.
It is absurd to think we can force foreign nations to accept U.S. rules and regulations on production and American standards on wages and benefits. And why should foreign nations comply, when – with their present policies and laws – they are looting our industrial base and walking away with our inheritance?
The men who have custody today of what was once the most awesome manufacturing base the world had ever seen are ideologues, impervious to argument or evidence. Like the socialists of Eastern Europe, zealots like Zoellick are beyond retraining. They are uneducable. They have to go. The sooner they do, the sooner we can get about rebuilding the self-sufficient and sovereign America they gave away.
Ummm... do you want to go look at the time of my original SATC post and see where the stock was then? Then check where it is now. I'm doing OK, thanks.
Harley-Davidson handed him a four-page memo describing the Chinese methods by which they simply prevent HD products being sold in PRC.
ANd they gave it to him while he was on a plant tour at HD!
Not exactly diplomatic--but it got the point across.
Pat's been right about Trade and Immigration for at least a decade, and the only RINO response is usually: "well, he's a racist, homophobe, protectionist, anti-Semite, who can't be elected, and that's why he's wrong on Immigration and Trade."
Your efforts to deny the role of the Executive Branch in the development and implementation of policies and regulations that affect and direct the economic affairs of our nation is truly lame.
ARTICLE I, Section 7.
Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President of the United States; if he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his objections to that House in which it shall have originated,...
Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the United States; and before the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him,
.
ARTICLE II, Section 2. The President shall ...
...have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties
.
ARTICLE II, Section 3. He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient;
Similarly the trade treaties and economic proposals submitted by the Bush Administration for consideration by a GOP-controlled Congress are extremely lame. But I can see why you believe he has no influence since the spineless puppet hasn't bothered to use his veto power even once.
I actually see the opposite happening. Many of the jobs being lost are highly skilled positions such as computer programmers, technical support reps, system analysts, etc. These are the jobs moving to India, Singapore and elsewhere for a fraction of the cost it takes to hire somebody with the same skills. Meanwhile, it seems that every restaurant I go to is looking for waitstaff, dishwashers, etc.
Don't get me wrong. I'm very disturbed by this scenario also.
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And if hew wakes up to that fact, he will do just enough to get suckers to reelect him, then return to his old patterns of doing nothing. He's the kiss of death.
He has?? He was saying the Japanese were going to destroy us economically over a decade ago. He said after NAFTA we were done for. A decade later our economy is as strong as it has ever been while Japan's has been in a decade-long decline.
Your revision lacks the sense of rhythym and of flow necessary for stirring speech. Its inclusion of the propping "obviously" informs the reader that the phrase following it can be ignored as old news. The overbalancing of the two clauses dulls the sentence to an academic level. In short, it sucks.
Surely some of your co-workers are going to be watching the game, right? Are you as nervous as I know they are?
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