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.
Thanks. You sound jealous.
Bush in 2004, baby. It's gonna be beautiful. We're going to crush you fools.
I am still supporting the President as of now in 2004 despite you, you DU troll. It is so brilliant on your part. Be the world's worst jerk, and people will associate snottiness with the President. Your gig is up.
Go back, ye troll!
We? LOL.
Delusions of grandeur.
Does this make me a "neocon" or a "merchant" or a "Zionist" or a "globalist" or whatever the codeword is today?
Since you trade equities you should know where capital is flowing, is investment in the US up or down compared to foreign investment?
You seen the stock market lately? You seen Europe's markets (or everyone else's for that matter) lately?
Day trader basically. Just like I said.
About jobs, he is right again. One way to compete with China's labor policies is to put all of our prison population to work making products for Wal-Mart for $1.00 a day per person.
By the way who or what was that cartoon character next to Pat?
Yep, Bush has a chance now that he has started to wake up and listen to Buchanan.
He certainly was right when he said it. Had the Japanese not floated their currency and become "fair" capitalists, who knows what would have happened. As long as the Chinese currency does not float, then they will be in a position to take advantage - to capitalize - on their advantage.
I used to just think he was stupid. Those who won't bend, break. I have positions on issues, but I am able to see the other side on them. There are arguments pro free trade that do make sense to me, for example.
However, this clown insults, never budges, and insults anybody who has any doubts about the president. What is the result of his actions? It drives people away from the President. He isn't too stupid to not know this. He is deliberately associating his obnoxiousness with the president. He is a DU plant. I too hope admin figures this out. It reminds me of republicans who would heckle democrats by pretending to be Marxists who agree with them, or democrats pretending to be David Duke supporters who also supported Bush I.
It is political theater. Dawg is being deliberately a jerk in order to make the president look worse. I suggest that we all call out this DU troll every time he tries to paint republicans as major league clymers with his characature of a greedy uncompassionate republican.
Seriously, he is the liberal stereotype of a republican jerk. That is why I know he is a liberal DU plant.
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