Free Traitors (Trade) are NOT Democrats

[FreakinDJ]

I am sick and tired of countless discussions with RATpubliCON / Chamber of Commerce operatives posing as Democrats/Liberals/Progressives claiming "Free Trade" is good for the economy.

Some of these posers even live in the countries that EXPORT to the USA and they come here to DU and argue in favor of these lopsided treaties (Duh - I wonder why). Others I can only explain as "Wall St. Worshippers" whose only concern in life is IF they can just Kiss enough Corporate ASS maybe - just maybe - they'll let them in the Rich Boy's Club.

The end result of all this horse shit is exactly what we have now - A Top Heavy / Wealthy Elite 1% Economy which by design EXCLUDES the 99%. Healthcare for the Wealthy, and a Ponzi Scheme Retirement system - that or they just plain steal the retirement funds and stick the tax payers with the bill



FUCK THAT SHIT

Watch out Folks - they are coming out of the woodwork as the TPP nears a vote

[Nye Bevan]

1. Is Barack Obama a Democrat?

Obama gets win as Congress passes free-trade agreements

The South Korea deal has the potential to create as many as 280,000 American jobs, according to a recent assessment by the staff of the U.S. International Trade Commission, and to boost exports by more than $12 billion. Several major labor unions have warned that any gains will come at the cost of layoffs among American workers because of heightened competition from South Korean imports.

The South Korea deal is widely hailed as the most consequential trade pact since the North American Free Trade Agreement was ratified in 1994.

The House approved all three deals and was quickly followed by the Senate. Final approval of the agreements represents a victory for the Obama administration and congressional leaders in both parties, who have touted the trade pacts as a means to jump-start the flagging economy without additional government spending. Ratification of the agreements holds particular importance for President Obama, who has set a goal of doubling U.S. exports by 2015 and is facing a tough bid for reelection with unemployment stuck at 9.1 percent.

“I look forward to signing these agreements,” Obama said late Wednesday. He hailed passage as “a major win for American workers and businesses.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/obama-gets-win-as-congress-passes-free-trade-agreements/2011/10/12/gIQAGHeFgL_story.html

[FreakinDJ]

2. Words can't describe my disappointment

[bossy22]

6. The larger economy in the group is always the loser

Look at it this way- We have a 17 trillion dollar economy, and the combined economies of all those countries is 1.7 trillion. Essentially we just traded our advantage in a 17 trillion market for an advantage in a market 1/10th its size. Sounds like someone got the short end of the stick doesnt it?

The fact is that there are very few good paying careers out there that don't require you to go into $200,000 debt before you can land a job. Manufacturing is one of them. Yes, we will re-train workers, but i doubt their new jobs are going to pay anything like their old ones. The factory worker is getting replaced by the fast food worker.

[pa28]

7. That agreement passed with just 59 Democrats joining 219 Republicans.

So if we're judging on that fact alone I'd have to say no.

[FreakinDJ]

9. That agreement was Negotiated by Foreign Interest in America's behalf - Literally

Members of the Peterson Economic Institute negotiated the Korea trade pack and the Peterson Economic Institute Board members reads like the "Who's Who" of FOREIGN CORPORATIONS

◾Globalist think-tank dedicated to affecting policy on issues related to international economics, including global warming, the global financial crisis, sovereign wealth funds, and job outsourcing

◾Has played key role in affecting many decisions in U.S. and around the world regarding globalization

◾In 2006, renamed after Blackstone Group co-founder Peter G. Peterson, a former director of the Council on Foreign Relations

Members of the Board


Peter G. Peterson (Chairman of the Board)◾ Founder and Chairman, Peter G. Peterson Foundation; former Senior Chairman, The Blackstone Group; former Secretary of Commerce and Assistant to the President for International Economic Policy.

George David (Vice Chairman of the Board)◾ Chairman, United Technologies Corporation.

Reynold Levy (Chairman of the Executive Committee)◾ President, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

Leszek Balcerowicz◾ Former Deputy Prime Minister, Poland; former Chairman, Center for Social and Economic Research, Warsaw, Poland; former Minister of Finance of Poland; President, National Bank of Poland.

Ronnie C. Chan◾ Chairman, Hang Lung Properties Limited.

Chen Yuan◾ Governor, China Development Bank; former Deputy Governor, Peoples Bank of China.

Andreas C. Dracopoulos◾ Director and co-President, Stavros Niarchos Foundation.

Jessica Einhorn◾ Dean, SAIS, Johns Hopkins University; former Visiting Fellow, International Monetary Fund; former Managing Director for Finance and Resource Mobilization, World Bank.

Mohamed El-Erian◾ PIMCO, Co-CEO and Co-CIO; former President and CEO, Harvard Management Company, Inc.

Stanley Fischer◾ Governor, Bank of Israel; former Vice Chairman of Citigroup.

Jacob A. Frenkel◾ Former governor of the Bank of Israel and former IMF economic counselor and director of research.

Maurice R. Greenberg◾ Chairman and CEO, C.V. Starr and Co., Inc.; former Chairman, American International Group.

Herbjorn Hansson◾ Chairman and CEO, Nordic American Tanker Shipping Ltd.

Carla A. Hills◾ Chairman, Hills & Company; former United States Trade Representative; former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; former Assistant Attorney General of the United States.

Nobuyuki Idei◾ Chief Corporate Advisor, Sony Corporation.

Karen Katen◾ Senior Advisor, Essex Woodlands Health Ventures; former President, Pfizer Human Health; and former Vice Chairman, Pfizer Inc.

W. M. Keck II◾ President, Coalinga Corporation.

Michael Klein◾ Former Vice Chairman, Citigroup.

Caio Koch-Weser\◾ Vice Chairman, Deutsche Bank Group; former Deputy Minister of Finance for Germany; former Managing Director, Operations, World Bank

Alan G. Lafley◾ Chairman of the Board, Procter & Gamble.

Lee Kuan Yew◾ Senior Minister and former Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore.

Donald F. McHenry◾ University Research Professor of Diplomacy and International Affairs, Georgetown University; former US Ambassador to the United Nations.

Mario Monti◾ President, Bocconi University.

Paul O’Neill◾ Former Secretary of the Treasury.

David O’Reilly◾ Retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, ChevronTexaco Corporation.

Hutham Olayan◾ President and CEO, Olayan America Corporation.

James W. Owens◾ Chairman and CEO of Caterpillar.

Samuel J. Palmisano◾ Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer, IBM Corporation

Frank H. Pearl◾ Chairman and CEO, Perseus LLC, and founder and chairman, Perseus Books/Perseus Publishing

Victor Pinchuk◾ Founder of Interpipe Corporation

Joseph E. Robert, Jr.
◾ Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, J. E. Robert Companies.

David Rockefeller
◾ Former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Chase Manhattan.

Lynn Forester de Rothschild
◾ CEO and President, E.L. Rothschild Limited.

Renato Ruggiero
◾ Former Italian Foreign Minister; former Vice Chairman, Salomon Smith Barney International Ltd.; former Director-General, World Trade Organization; former Chairman, Fiat.

Richard E. Salomon
◾ Managing Partner, East End Advisors, LLC.

Sheikh Hamad Saud Al-Sayari
◾ Former Governor, Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency.

Edward W. Scott, Jr.
◾ Chairman of the Board of the Center for Global Development, philanthropist, and cofounder of BEA Systems.


http://publicintelligence.net/peterson-institute-for-international-economics/

[bossy22]

10. Are you surprised

why wouldn't any foreign leader (corporate or political) not want easier access to the U.S. market. It just so happens to be the largest market on earth for most products.

[FreakinDJ]

11. Not surprised at all our lawmakers are selling off America 1 piece at a time

[TreasonousBastard]

3. Was FDR a Democrat? He tried to repeal...

Smoot-Hawley and other credit and trade restrictions. I have little doubt he'd be in favor of the current treaties.

FDR and the the Democrats back then were the Free Trade Party, realizing that killing trade was one of the major causes of the Depression.

Killing trade would have absolutely no benefit to us nowadays, either, and could easily cause another meltdown.

Before making such wild statements, check out how many US jobs would be at risk at places like Boeing and other exporters, to say nothing about jobs at importers.

And, ummm... just how would you bring the making of Canon cameras, BMW cars, French cheeses, and Brazilian coffee "back" to the US? All that, and much more, would disappear from our shelves. You say we can live without them? Sure.

[Enthusiast]

15. I have huge doubts that FDR would favor trade deals

like TPP that compromise national sovereignty.

No one is advocating no trade. But allowing the nation to lose entire major industries and subsequent manufacturing job losses are not in our best interest. We have all the past trade deals to examine as examples. The American worker has been screwed time and again.

The President knows full well we do not want these goddamned trade deals yet he is pursuing them anyway. How could the President do this and call himself a Democrat. The President has even admitted that NAFTA might need to be renegotiated. Maybe that was only "lip service".

You equate stopping the TPP as "killing trade". What a wild exaggeration! Have you looked at our trade imbalance?

[intaglio]

4. And Protectionists are Democrats??

Right ...

[TheKentuckian]

14. Democrats are supposed to be about American working folks, not fundamentalist free trade zealots

Further, very few are opposed to trade in general but rather the wild west, wage crushing, job killing, race to the bottom "free trade" has consistently shown to be.

Under reasonable conditions trade can be great, poorly and unwisely structured and you end up with a clusterfuck that acts as one more of systems to transfer wealth to the top.

Plus, these agreements aren't just trade, they also transfer sovereignty to multinationals from nations which tends to reduce (and threaten to eventually undo) democracy.

[Enthusiast]

16. You are right. Great post!

[TheKentuckian]

19. Thanks E

[onethatcares]

5. all one has to do

is see how NAFTA has worked out for the American worker. I bet the U.S. International Trade commission had a bunch of great things to say about that too.

Seems the only one that was right was Ross Perot and his "giant sucking sound" of jobs going to Mexico.

[pa28]

8. They'll also tell you about the fantastic environmental and labor "protections" the TPP includes.

Of course those things will largely unenforceable window dressing to facilitate passage. You don't need protections if you are not doing damage in the first place.

[Enthusiast]

17. +1 a whole bunch.......nt

[We People]

12. K&R

[liberal_at_heart]

13. There are democrats who are for it, and they need to be primaried.

[Enthusiast]

18. +1 a whole bunch.......nt

[woo me with science]

20. You're right. They are corporatists,

wearing Democrat suits.