LOU DOBBS TALKS ABOUT NORTH AMERICAN UNION

Partial Transcript From Lou Dobbs Tonight/CNN, Nov 29, 2006

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/ ... dt.01.html


When Mexican president Vicente Fox leaves office this week and Felipe Calderon takes his place, President Bush will be the last of the so-called three amigos. Bush, Fox, and, of course, Canadian prime minister Paul Martin were the originators of the so-called Security and Prosperity Partnership, which critics call nothing more than a North American union. It means open borders, commerce of all costs, and, by the way, without the approval of either American voters or the U.S. Congress.

Christine Romans reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Waco, Texas, 2005. Under these three men, the Security and Prosperity Partnership was born. An effort, the governments say, to harmonize regulation and increase cooperation between three very different countries.

The Mexican president in Cancun this spring...

VICENTE FOX, MEXICAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We need to elevate the competitiveness of our economies.

ROMANS: And a new Canadian prime minister joining the discussions as this North American partnership barrels ahead, with departments and ministries of all three governments working quickly to integrate North America by 2010. The official progress report boasting, "Implementation is on track."

And now Mexico's new president, Felipe Calderon, widely expected to keep the progress moving. Critics, though, say there's too little transparency and no congressional oversight.

TOM FITTON, JUDICIAL WATCH: There's nothing wrong with neighboring governments talking to each other, synchronizing their watches to make sure they're all on the same page in the cases of emergency or on trade issues or even on the flows of goods and people. But if policies are being made that the American people might oppose, or that are contrary to the law, especially as it relates to immigration, you know, they're doing something a bit more nefarious.

ROMANS: He points to SPP documents urging the free flow of goods and people across borders and a wish list from business interests that borders remain open during a flu pandemic. Worse, critics say foreign policy elites are promoting a European-style union, erasing borders between the three countries and eventually moving to a single North American currency called the amaro (ph).

A Commerce Department spokesman, however, denies this -- "There is absolutely no plan for a common currency."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: Speculation about that erupted again this week after some in the Canadian business contingent included a list of their long-term goals for the SPP. But people involved with the partnership between the three countries are very quick to distance themselves, Lou, from that very, very unpopular idea.

DOBBS: The fact is -- and everyone watching you and that report tonight -- for any American to think that it is acceptable for the president of the United States and this executive department of his government, his administration, our government, to proceed without the approval of Congress or a dialogue and a debate and a -- and a public voice from the people of this country is absolutely unconscionable.

ROMANS: The defense of those folks who are saying that they're involved with the SPP is that they're not doing anything that would require congressional approval or voter approval. They're just harmonizing the regulations between the three countries.

DOBBS: What they're doing is creating a brave new world, an Orwellian world, in which the will of the people is absolutely irrelevant. And I think we've had a sampling of what's going to happen to people who do that in the future.

I can't imagine this standing. But then again, I couldn't imagine its beginning nor the fact that it's gotten this far.

Christine, thank you.

Christine Romans.

That bring us to the subject of our poll tonight. A North American union, Mexico, the United States and Canada, a really good idea or a really bad idea?

Cast your vote, please, at LouDobbs.com. We'll have the results here later.

A North American Union (Mexico, the United States and Canada), a really good idea or a really bad idea?

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/lou.dobbs.tonight/