Thread: Ways & Means Chair Thomas tries to rally pro-globalizati

Ways and Means Chair Thomas Tries to Rally Pro-Globalization Forces
Alan Tonelson
Thursday, May 11, 2006


Retiring House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas has had a great run in recent years steering major trade legislation through the House by the barest of margins and into law. So globalization critics understandably cheered up when at an early April Washington, D.C. speech, the California Republican in essence pronounced the Doha Round of WTO trade talks dead due to European obstinacy on agricultural issues.

Even more heartening for opponents of current trade policies, however, was the larger message Thomas sought to convey to his audience at the American Enterprise Institute. The globalization critics, he warned, had gained the upper hand in Congress. After the off-year election, he warned, they could well be strong enough not only to keep Doha moribund, but to prevent renewal of the President’s fast track trade negotiating authority and “shape where we go with globalization for years to come.”

Of course, no one knows better than Thomas that the globalization proponents have often snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Similarly, no one knows better how many powerful weapons these trade ideologues can draw on. They range from a Republican Congress’s instinctive reluctance to undercut their President on any international issue; to Congress’s even more powerful determination to pass the buck to the Executive Branch and avoid responsibility; to the President’s matchless ability to grant last-minute favors to legislators; to the raw political power and influence of the outsourcing multinational business lobbies (with the treasuries of their attendant political action committees) and the mainstream media.

In fact, given the political and financial resources of the globalizers, Thomas was surely exaggerating the dangers he described precisely to wake up the special interests in time to maintain outsourcing’s momentum.

Still, it’s worth reviewing Thomas’s remarks in detail to see that the bruising fast track and Central America trade fights got the outsourcers’ attention – and thus were well worth the effort – and that the current deadlock over immigration and the firestorm over the Dubai Ports transfer fracas have created new opportunities to weaken the outsourcing movement further.
In Thomas’s view, the globalization cheerleaders have won hands down all the intellectual battles surrounding trade policy. Nonetheless, they find themselves losing ground. A combination of popular concerns over terrorism and about preserving “our way of life” has eclipsed even job-loss fears, and been exploited by “cruel professionals” to super-charge “anti-free trade” sentiment in American politics.

Consequently, Thomas warned, not only does the 2006 election shape up as “pivotal,” but “Right now, where we stand today, the anti-free trade forces I believe...have a better chance of winning.”

As the Chairman explained – in the inimitable style of a veteran politician – “I’ve always a very fundamental – crude if you will but interesting – yardstick to measure elections....I simply say, ‘would I rather be me or them?’ Rarely have I ever been in the position of wanting to be ‘them’ rather than me. I knew I had the issues. If I could articulate them and attract enough money, I knew I could create comfort level.”

The key signs of the outsourcers’ waning political power, Thomas made clear, were the hard-fought battles over fast track and Central America. “You have no idea how hard checking off that [fast track] box was....I will tell you that in this Congress, nothing associated with trade will pass, unless it passes by one, or two, or three votes. That is just the world we live in....”

According to Thomas, the near-term implications alone of losing control of Congress could be devastating for the outsourcing lobby. Principally, fast-track renewal would become nearly impossible. In the Chairman’s words: “It ain’t good timing to talk about renewal of TPA [“Trade Promotion Authority” – the official euphemism for fast-track]. If you look at the practical consequences of dealing with TPA, yes, it expires in July of 2007; but the built-in time table mean that if you don’t have something in the pipeline and fairly significantly along in the pipeline, then you’re not going to get anything accomplished.”

As Thomas sees it, renewing fast track next year and giving free trade “any chance of [clearing] the smoke of the 2006 general election” will depend heavily on whether the administration can show major progress toward signing new trade agreements this spring. And this is where his recommendation that the President shift his focus away from Doha – which he considers undoable because of “irreconcilable differences” with the European Union – comes in.

Instead, Thomas is urging Bush to focus his limited remaining trade negotiating resources and political capital on a series of bilateral or regional agreements with those trade partners “that provide the best access for U.S. goods and services into their markets.” Top on his list: least developing countries that would agree to objective, science-based health and other regulatory standards, and to meaningful protection of intellectual property rights, plus Malaysia and South Korea.

“We’ve got to use [existing fast track authority] for the rest of this Congress to maximize our new trade posture,” Thomas insisted. “Time is short.....My worry is that if we don’t do this, the connected dots of the 2006 elections say it won’t be a very pretty picture.”

Thomas is surely way off base when it comes to the substances of globalization issues. Popular anxieties about uncontrolled immigration and about the national security threats generated by a completely open door to foreign capital and thus to foreign ownership of U.S. assets are entirely rational. Moreover, the trade policy status quo isn’t in trouble because recent presidents haven’t signed enough trade agreements. It’s in trouble because the numerous agreements they have signed so completely reflected the outsourcers’ interests, and have done so much damage to the domestic production base and the nation’s finances.

But however out of touch Thomas is on the real-world impact of globalization, his expertise on political trends in Washington can’t be seriously questioned. And his broader message could not be more important for globalization critics – who sometimes get too dispirited by their failure to win outright victories. Congress’s premier globalization cheerleader isn’t yet saying that the critics are winning. But even after writing off some of his language to a “mobilize the troops” mission, he’s admitting that we’re no longer losing.


http://americaneconomicalert.org/view_a ... od_ID=2452

You have no idea how my blood is boiling while reading this.

NAFTA =bush 1 set it in motion and clinton finished it off

CAFTA = clinton got it rolling & bush 2 GOT IT THRU IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT

FTAA = final disaster........they're moving it up as we speak! No matter who takes the whitehouse in 08, this is the goal.

We MUST stop this AMNESTY. It's directly tied into the agreements above. You see, they have to have amnesty in order to finish these agreements.
We lose our sovereingty if they get amnesty in any form.

Yes, 2ndamendsis, you are absolutely correct!! Amnesty is the end of the United States. Alot of people on other forums that I've been rattling with are now seeing what is happening but think erroneously that they will just take it to the ballot box in November and in 08. Too late. What happens right now determines the destiny or lack thereof of the United States. If amnesty and/or guest worker or whatever name they want to call it passes, then we are finito!!

It's now or never.

Globalization, NAFTA, CAFTA, Amnesty = One World Government

The U.S. Globalists are trying to beat the E.U. to global control over it all. The American people stand in their way. Having pliable, grateful illegal aliens in a majority would be easier to manage and use propoganda on.

I had once been told that GW was a born-again Christian, and I have no right to question if that event ever happened in his life, but I have to question how committed he actually is, or if it was all false pretenses. It seems to me that it is, otherwise he would not be doing the things he is doing.

I used to think that the Skull and Bones thing was all hype and conspiracy theory, but I am beginning to see it all fits in with the beginnings of global control and a One World Government.

We have to keep fighting it all. It may take a lot of effort, but we have to, and try to show people that it is not some kooky conspiracy theory. It is becoming reality.

Did you see this on the news? Other countries (in Europe mainly) are fighting illegal immigration, too. The whole damn world seems to be going insane. We are not alone in our fight here in the US, and we are not alone in this fight in the world. The open borders wackos are in for a tough fight. This is rapidly becoming a GLOBAL fight. With international news coverage, any time they see our side on TV they will know the American citizens are fighting mad.

WRITE! CALL! PROTEST! Tell a friend.

Originally Posted by KickEmOut

Did you see this on the news? Other countries (in Europe mainly) are fighting illegal immigration, too. The whole damn world seems to be going insane. We are not alone in our fight here in the US, and we are not alone in this fight in the world. The open borders wackos are in for a tough fight. This is rapidly becoming a GLOBAL fight. With international news coverage, any time they see our side on TV they will know the American citizens are fighting mad.

WRITE! CALL! PROTEST! Tell a friend.

But, I have read about France, England all wanting illegal immigration and some legal immigration to stop as they are flooded with people...but I have not read any protests coming out of Canada...

Have any of you?

KICK,

We have.......

The African alliance {can't remember it's name}
The EU
and I give you
The AMERICAS

Whoever will obtain GLOBAL DOMINANCE first?