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.
You're pretty good. I can't say I really know anything about you other than that you live in a fishing town (or, whatever) and that you are very, very, very Catholic (what else is new) and that you hate Bush and capitalism.
I'm happy that Bush woke up and is agreeing with Buchanan. Now all Bush has to do is level that playing field that he built.
Can you show me any Reagan advisers that support higher tariffs? I can show you numerous Reaganites that are for free trade and who love GWB.
He agrees with him about as much as he agrees with John McCain on campaign finance reform (which he signed into law). He's not dumb. He realizes that very few Americans understand economics and many are easily demagogued on this issue (you know... all those damn Mexicans and what not). Trust me... GWB is a little smarter than you. I can promise you that.
Haha. When did I do that? Are you feeling OK?
Oh, so you are a liscenced psychologist as well as a day trader, and you administered a Stanford-Binet exam on both of them. Wow, you are a jack of all trades, and not a DU disrupter. My mistake.
Everybody who follows these threads knows it jerk. Maybe it was the Sieg Heil in response to my posts. Perhaps it was the merchant bit, perhaps it was the Ein Fuhrer posts. I dunno, maybe one of those.
DU TROLL ALERT
How do you figure? Do you think the terrorists would have just given up if they couldn't have gotten visas? They could have WALKED across the Canadian border, snuck in inside a container ship, taken a boat ashore, etc.
About jobs, he is right again.
Don't you find it ironic that Pat is againt government intrusion into daily life and supports the limited view of government the Constitution provides for, and yet he wants the government to insert itself in private industry?
By the way who or what was that cartoon character next to Pat?
Like it said below the picture, Stimson J. Cat., star of the cartoon Ren 'n Stimpy. An underrated actor if there ever was one. (Hey, at least he never badmouthed the country) ;-)
He sure is. And dumber than Buchanan, I can promise you that.
You wanna bet, DU boy? That seems to be your level of sophistication.
And where in any of those did I say you approved of Auschwitz? I didn't think so. I do like your occasionaly vaguely veiled anti-Semitic posts though. They're funny.
Maybe so. A hell of a lot more popular and politically savvy than Buchanan though.
If you read my posts, ya evil little DU troll, you should know that I endorse Sharon liquidating Arafat, to cease negotiating with the PA, and to liquidate any trouble makers. It is all part of my anti-semetism.
I used to be really angry at your loathesome race baiting, but I will allow everybody else to see you for what you are. You are a DU troll. Too bad you have been found out.
He can if nobody can afford to pay tuition at his school because Daddy's or Mommy's job got outsourced overseas.
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