Thread: The Second Battle of NAFTA

The Second Battle of NAFTA
By Patrick J. Buchanan
Tuesday, March 4, 2008

If Canada and Mexico do not renegotiate NAFTA, said Hillary Clinton
in the Cleveland debate, she would "opt out" of the trade treaty
that was the legislative altarpiece of Bill Clinton's presidency.
Barack agreed. NAFTA is renegotiated, or NAFTA is gone.

Barack went further. He has denounced "open trucking," the feature
of NAFTA whereby Mexican trucks are to be free to roam the United
States and compete with the Teamsters of Jim Hoffa's union, which
just endorsed him.

The trade issue is back, big-time. For to blue-collar workers in
industrial states like Ohio, NAFTA is a code word for betrayal -- a
sellout of them and their families to CEOs panting to move
production out of the United States to cheap-labor countries like
Mexico and China.

Our workers' instincts are backed up by stats. In 2007, the U.S.
trade deficit with Mexico soared 16 percent to $73 billion, a
record. Mexico now ships more cars to us now than we ship to the
world. And where did Mexico get an auto industry?

The U.S. trade deficit with China shot up 10 percent to $256
billion, the largest trade deficit ever between any two countries.

Charles MacMillion of MBG Services has run the numbers.

In manufactures, the United States had a trade deficit of $499
billion in 2007, a slight improvement over the $526 billion record
in 2006. Yet that trade deficit in manufactured goods with the
world is more than twice as large as our $224 billion bill for
OPEC's oil.

Under Bush, the U.S. trade deficit has doubled. Three million
manufacturing jobs have vanished. And America has begun to run a
trade deficit in advanced technology goods of more than $50 billion.

Our trade deficit in advanced technology goods with China is $67
billion, eight times what it is with Japan.

"Free trade is essential to the creation of high-paying quality
jobs," said Bush on Thursday. But if exports create jobs (and they
do), imports displace them. And if we import half a trillion
dollars more in manufactures than we export, is not Bush trade
policy literally slaughtering industrial jobs?

Is there not a correlation between $4.3 trillion in trade deficits
under Bush, the 3 million manufacturing jobs lost under Bush, the
fall of the dollar by 50 percent against the euro under Bush and
the resurgence of inflation, signaled by a quadrupling of the price
of gold, under Bush?

Neither Hillary nor Obama has laid out a new trade-and-tax policy
to deal with the de-industrialization of America and our deepening
dependency on foreign technology, manufactures and the loans to pay
for them. But at least they are listening to the country.

John McCain seems blind and deaf to the crisis. In Michigan, he
informed autoworkers their "jobs are not coming back" and explained
his philosophy: "I'm a student of history. Every time the United
States has become protectionist ... we've paid a very heavy price."

This is ahistorical nonsense. From 1860 to 1913, the United States
was the most protectionist nation on earth and produced the most
awesome growth of any nation in history. In 1860, the U.S. economy
was half of Britain's; in 1913, more than twice Britain's.

In 1920, Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge won a landslide, cut
income taxes from Wilson's 69 percent to 25 percent and doubled
tariffs. America went on a tear. When Coolidge went home in 1929,
the United States was producing 42 percent of the world's
manufactured goods.

Who were America's protectionists?

Alexander Hamilton and James Madison moved the Tariff Act of 1789
through Congress. Aided by Henry Clay, John Calhoun, Thomas
Jefferson and John Adams, President Madison enacted the Tariff of
1816 to protect U.S. infant industries from British dumping.

Abraham Lincoln used Morrill Tariff revenue to fight the Civil War.
The 11 GOP presidents who followed, from 1865 to 1929, all
protectionists, made America the greatest industrial power in
history, with a standard of living never before seen. Mocking
protectionism, McCain is repudiating Republican history and all its
achievements up to the era of Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon.

America rose to power behind a Republican tariff wall. What has
free trade wrought? Lost sovereignty. A sinking dollar. A hollowing
out of U.S. manufacturing. Stagnant wages. Wives forced into the
labor market to maintain the family income. Mass indebtedness to
foreign nations, and a deepening dependency on foreign goods and
borrowings to pay for them. We have sacrificed our country on the
altar of this Moloch, the mythical Global Economy.

It took Rip Van Republican 20 years to wake up to the disaster of
open borders and five years to realize the folly of igniting wars
in which no vital interest was at risk. How long before the GOP
wakes up to the reality that globalism is not conservatism, never
was, but is a pillar of Wilsonian liberalism, in whose vineyards
our faux conservatives now daily labor.

SOURCE: http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=HV68Z& ... GgcmXO4elw

Here's an article on NAFTA written allmost 15 years ago by Pat Buchanan. The GOP blew it with the Bush's. Pat Buchanan should have been the GOP presidential nominee and if had become president, we would never be in the mess we are.

November 7, 1993
PJB: America First, NAFTA Never
by Patrick J. Buchanan - November 7, 1993

It’s Not About Free Trade — It’s About Our Way of Life…

“It may not be too great a flight of rhetoric to say that, at this crossroads of post-Cold War history, Pat Buchanan and Ross Perot represent the cause of evil.â€

NAFTA NEVER should have been in the FIRST place!

Wow...excellent post, zeezil! Thank you! Eerily prophetic, huh?

I also wish Pat would run again. Maybe a Buchanan/Dobbs ticket???

I loved Pat's reaction when we defeated the two immigration bills. He was elated and stated that he had never witnessed such a revolt by the American people in his lifetime.

Incredible, incredible articles by THE MAN Pat Buchanan. What can I say? The man already said IT ALL.

Originally Posted by zeezil

John McCain seems blind and deaf to the crisis. In Michigan, he
informed autoworkers their "jobs are not coming back" and explained
his philosophy: "I'm a student of history. Every time the United
States has become protectionist ... we've paid a very heavy price."

This is ahistorical nonsense. From 1860 to 1913, the United States
was the most protectionist nation on earth and produced the most
awesome growth of any nation in history. In 1860, the U.S. economy
was half of Britain's; in 1913, more than twice Britain's.

YUP!!

Seems John not only knows little about economics, he knows next to nothing about American history.

In 1920, Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge won a landslide, cut
income taxes from Wilson's 69 percent to 25 percent and doubled
tariffs. America went on a tear. When Coolidge went home in 1929,
the United States was producing 42 percent of the world's
manufactured goods.

Incredible......

Who were America's protectionists?

Alexander Hamilton and James Madison moved the Tariff Act of 1789
through Congress. Aided by Henry Clay, John Calhoun, Thomas
Jefferson and John Adams, President Madison enacted the Tariff of
1816 to protect U.S. infant industries from British dumping.

That was the first bill out of congress: a TARIFF. Protections is AMERICAN.

Free trade is not.

Never let a globalist tell you otherwise. This is a nation built on the concept of protectionism. They can't rewrite history. They have never read it to begin with.

America rose to power behind a Republican tariff wall. What has
free trade wrought? Lost sovereignty. A sinking dollar. A hollowing
out of U.S. manufacturing. Stagnant wages. Wives forced into the
labor market to maintain the family income. Mass indebtedness to
foreign nations, and a deepening dependency on foreign goods and
borrowings to pay for them. We have sacrificed our country on the
altar of this Moloch, the mythical Global Economy.

He just said it all right there.


--Take notes folks. Pat Buchanan has just given you a hand-book on how to expose the fallacies of globalism.

What is really even more disgusting is that even though we are in a deep recession, the economy is going to crap, we have debt running out of our eyeballs and free trade is one of the biggest reasons why, Bush and McCain still want to continue to shove this crap down our throats. It just proves right there that they don't care about this country and they don't care about the people. All they care about is lining their pockets and making themselves and their big business fat cat cronies richer then they already are at our expense.

Now Bush wants to push a free trade agreement with Columbia. Great as if having to deal with NAFTA and CAFTA wasn't bad enough. What's next? Is our food and toys going to be laced with Cocaine? Who cares if the s--t kills people as long as we make a quick buck.

Bush and McCain are about as evil and as rotten as it gets. Bush telling the world that he's confident that McCain will continue to push his policies long after he leaves the office should be enough to convince anyone with a brain that he is not fit for office. Clinton/Obama talking about renegiotating NAFTA or it's going to get killed. It needs to get killed, it should have never been voted for in the first place, just like CAFTA. Only thing is at least Clinton and Obama are willing to admit something isn't working and are looking for ways to fix it. Bush and McCain won't even do that. They'll just continue to press on, no matter how bad things get and how dare anyone question the wisdom of them. After all they know what's best for us, especially since they know what we have to deal with on a daily basis.

When are people in this country going to wake the heck up and see what is going on? With all thats going on yet most people don't ask questions, they don't hold these scumbags accountable. They won't until it's too late and then they'll wonder how this happened and why? Well gee people this crap didn't happen overnight. It happened because you idiots were asleep at the switch and didn't care to wake up long enough to put a stop to it.

You may have already but a great read is his book "Reckoning" he brings it all together the Open Borders, ILLEGALS, NAU, "Free Trade" and much more based on American History.

Originally Posted by carolinamtnwoman

I loved Pat's reaction when we defeated the two immigration bills. He was elated and stated that he had never witnessed such a revolt by the American people in his lifetime.

It is really sad that out government sells us out.

Do what you can do on a grassroots level. Buy at local farmers market from people you know. Buy at small stores. Stay out of Target, Walmart, Sears, Penneys, Home Depot.

Buy Made in the USA, even though it is hard find.

Read Packages and labels. Quit buying China, Mexico, India.

Originally Posted by lccat

You may have already but a great read is his book "Reckoning" he brings it all together the Open Borders, ILLEGALS, NAU, "Free Trade" and much more based on American History.

Originally Posted by carolinamtnwoman

I loved Pat's reaction when we defeated the two immigration bills. He was elated and stated that he had never witnessed such a revolt by the American people in his lifetime.

Day of Reckoning is a good book....But check out State of Emergency and Death of the West if you really feel like you want to know what's going on...