Pelosi: CAFTA a Step Backward for Workers in C. Am. and a Job Killer here

[Dover]

WASHINGTON, July 28 /U.S. Newswire/ -- House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi spoke on the floor of the House late tonight in opposition to the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Below are Pelosi's remarks:

"I oppose CAFTA because it is a step backward for workers in Central America and a job killer here at home...Democrats understand the need to help our Central American neighbors reap the benefits of increased trade, but the costs of this CAFTA are too high with too little to justify this agreement's deficiencies."

"Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to the Central American Free Trade Agreement. It is a small treaty economically, but it has enormous implications for our country.

"I oppose CAFTA because it is a step backward for workers in Central America and a job killer here at home.

"As a Californian, and there are many in the chamber this evening, we all know full well the significance of our close ties to Central America. My own City of San Francisco is blessed with large populations of Central Americans, including those who sought sanctuary from El Salvador and those fleeing decades of civil war in Guatemala.

"Our fate is tied with our neighbors in the hemisphere. President John F. Kennedy recognized this in 1961, when he announced the Alliance for Progress, calling for 'vast multilateral programs to relieve the continent's poverty and social inequities.'..cont'd

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=51000

[Dover]

1. Oxfam: Backroom Deals Enable Bad Trade Agreement to Pass

WASHINGTON, July 28 /U.S. Newswire/ -- International aid organization Oxfam expressed concern today at the midnight passage in the US Congress of the Free Trade Agreement between the United States and Central American countries and the Dominican Republic (DR-CAFTA), as the agreement threatens to throw many poor farmers in Central America and the Dominican Republic into deeper poverty. But Oxfam pointed out that passage of the agreement by the narrowest of margins, more than a year after it was signed, indicates how little support there is for this trade agreement in the United States.

Only after many months of intense lobbying efforts by the White House involving backroom deal-making and partisan pressure was the agreement passed in the House of Representatives by two votes. "In forcing passage of an unpopular trade agreement, the administration chose to ignore widespread concerns raised by many members of Congress and their constituents, as well as by farmers, trade unions, and church and community groups in the US, Central America and the Dominican Republic," stated Stephanie Weinberg, trade policy advisor with Oxfam America. "Whatever the spin, DR-CAFTA will institutionalize an uneven playing field instead of establishing fair and equitable rules for trade."

Although the White House portrayed a vote for DR-CAFTA as a show of support for democracy and development in the region and as promoting US national security, this doesn't face up to the facts. Widespread citizen opposition to DR-CAFTA in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic continues to delay congressional consideration of the agreement in those countries, while strong protests accompanied the process of ratification in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, where military forces were called in to quell the mounting opposition...cont'd

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=50998

[getmeouttahere]

2. Page One of BushCo playbook....

if the world doesn't want something, you force it upon them, no matter how vehemently it is opposed. In fact, the more vehemently it is opposed, the more the people need it, and we know what is good for them.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. Right out of Orwell.

[StrafingMoose]

4. At some point...

you could say "their" interests are symetricaly opposed to the people's interests.