Why is there never any truth in packaging when Washington politicos deliver special-interest goodies to their corporate backers?
When they delivered a multibillion-dollar tax giveaway to drug companies, for example; they didn't call it the Pharmaceutical Phreeloader Phund, but instead, branded it the "American Jobs Creation Act." And, now, here come the Bushites with another bundle of big corporate favors disguised as a boon for working folks. CAFTA, they call it - the Central American Free Trade Agreement.
Despite its sprightly acronym, this giveaway is neither free nor about trade. It extends the job-busting, environment-exploiting provisions of NAFTA to six more Latin American countries, and most dangerously, it empowers global corporations to overturn laws and regulations that they don't like in all the countries involved. It literally usurps democratic sovereignty - yet you'd never know this from the way CAFTA is being packaged and sold.
The debate in Washington and in the media is all about how many jobs will be created or lost, with the corporate forces making phantasmagoric claims that divert the real debate that should be happening.
. . .
More importantly, though, the debate should be on what CAFTA really gives away to global corporations, which is our very democracy. This astonishing usurpation of power is why Bush and corporate lobbyists are pushing so furiously for this so-called "trade" deal.
http://www.journal-advocate.com/Stories/0,1413,120~7821~2898747,00.html
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