Make no mistake: we need more free trade deals

[MannyGoldstein]

From http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x738010">Obama's weekly address today:

"It’s time Congress finally passed a set of trade deals that would help displaced workers looking for new jobs, and that would allow our businesses to sell more products in countries in Asia and South America"

This time free trade will really help the Job Creators create more jobs. Really! No, seriously!

[AmericaIsGreat]

1. It's like every day he gives me more reason to dislike him

What the fuck has happened to this guy?

[atreides1]

3. The guy we saw in 2008

That was great acting...this guy is the real deal!

So, nothing happened.

[chill_wind]

7. Remember this?

Obama, Clinton, Goolsbee, Canada, Nafta

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/us/politics/04nafta.html

(I had forgotten all that.) Oy.

[alp227]

15. ya know, I think that I'll skip over a candidate who boasts about "change"

do you agree? lesson learned from Obama.

[MrMickeysMom]

2. I can't even laugh...

Fair trade would piss his friends off.

[chill_wind]

4. Obama (2006): Most of us in this room are strong free-traders.

Barack Obama at the launch of the Brookings Institute's Hamilton Project

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-5Y74FrDCc

[ProSense]

5. Is this

supposed to be a shock? Were you listening?

Obama 2008: "I don't think its realistic for us to repeal NAFTA"

Senator Brown's statement on the deals.

[MannyGoldstein]

6. It's a full-frontal assault on working Americans

We need to protect Americans, not eviscerate us.

[Hawkowl]

17. Bad policy is not a shock

You are deflecting the criticism. The point is not that Obama was always a free trader. The point is that more free trade agreements will significantly exacerbate the job loss of Americans. The data is overwhelming. So, instead of proposing job creation policies, Obama is advocating accelerating the exportation of jobs.

Besides, exports are a VERY SMALL part of the US economy. A red herring as it were. We would be much better off manufacturing our own goods and selling them to ourselves. That was the strategy we used from 1776 - 1982 when Obama's hero, Reagan, started dismantling the tariff system.

[Armstead]

18. There wasn't any choice except McCain,So had to hope forvthe best

But people still have a right to be pissed off that Obama is pushing for policies that have been a disaster for the working and middle class.

Just one more example of Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss....The Old Boss who fucked us over before.

[golfguru]

8. We need more FAIR trade, not free trade

where we get flooded with cheap goods and they impose
import duty on our goods.

I would not let any country export to us any more than
they buy from us. That policy will kill China...too bad.

[sad sally]

13. Past trade agreements (NAFTA, CAFTA, WTO Agreements) and now new ones with

Koreas, Panama and Columbia are lowering wages and killing jobs - and they haven't proven to make life better for the countries exploited by corporations seeking slave labor.

The number one thing is trade. Free trade collapsed a very long time ago. What we have today is not free trade at all, it's ruthlessly manipulated trade -- manipulated by America's big trading partners, starting with China but including many others. And we're doing nothing to stop them.

America's titanic ($497 billion last year) trade deficit is ripping the guts out of industry after industry, but we have no answer. And you can't gut industry after industry and expect not to reduce your GDP.

If we didn't have this horrendous trade deficit, we simply wouldn't be fighting many of these budget battles. Why? because we'd have a larger GDP, so tax revenues would be higher. Spending on public benefits would be lower, and painlessly so, because fewer people would be poor and middle-class people would have more money to take care of themselves.

[golfguru]

14. All good points n/t

[jwirr]

9. What products - we do not make that many things in this country anymore. nt

[TheKentuckian]

10. The right mix of tariffs and taxes and we would. Not overnight but we would.

[jwirr]

16. I agree with that. I was speaking about the immediate future.

[bhikkhu]

11. That's one argument I don't get at all...

most things i can see the nuance, or the advantage somewhere, but the history of the free trade movement is the history of the decimation of local markets and the destruction of jobs and self-sufficiency. I haven't heard any convincing positive side, except from the same people who think we're still headed to a future of abundance, with robot servants and flying cars and so forth.

[Jakes Progress]

12. It's like calling a missile a peace keeper.

The corporate agenda throws in the word "free" so that it sound good. It isn't free, and it doesn't promote freedom. It's a lie that has become entrenched in the vocabulary of the new democrats.

[Armstead]

19. If it doesn't make sense to you, that's because it doesn't make sense

Oh, it makes sense to the handful of oligarchs who benefit.

But there is no logic to it if the goal is to protect jobs and the US domestic economy.

[LWolf]

20. Talking points from the enemies of U.S. workers. nt

[Dawgs]

21. Why is anyone surprised? The WH is full of Clinton appointees. n/t

[GeorgeGist]

22. In spite of the giant sucking sound ...

that's Obama; clueless again.

[JoeyT]

23. So not only was he lying about renegotiating NAFTA and CAFTA,

we're going to get stuck with more free trade crap.

I know, let's all wonder why poor and middle class people vote against their economic interests again! You know, without acknowledging that you're not really voting for whether you get fucked, just how.

I hope Congress and the Senate block this garbage, but I'm not holding my breath.

[totodeinhere]

24. Waiting for some Obama cheerleaders to weigh in on this one. n/t

[Safetykitten]

25. Yes! More free trade....oh! OH!...don't forget tax rebates to companies!