CAFTA Scam

Rarely do I disagree with the economic stance of the Libertartian Party. Yet when it comes to "free trade", I couldn't disagree more. Free trade is an outright scam, and the Republican Party should be embarrased to have this stain on their record. In his latest column, Pat Buchanan blasts CAFTA in particular and free trade in general.

Today's trade agreements are about reshaping the world to conform to the demands of transnational corporations that have shed their national identities and loyalties and want to shed their U.S. workers. Tired of contributing to Medicare and Social Security and having to deal with Americans who need health-care and pension benefits, they want to dump them all and hire Asians who will work for $2 an hour.

Trade treaties have become enabling acts by which global companies desert their home countries. CAFTA will enable U.S. firms to shut down factories here, lay off their labor force, and hire Dominicans and Costa Ricans, but retain free access to the U.S. market. They get to fire their American workers – and keep their American consumers. What a deal.

Under Bush, 3 million manufacturing jobs have disappeared, one in every six.

Corporations are not intrinsically evil. Most do provide an economic good or service to the local communityl. On the other hand, corporations that exploit cheap labor at the expense of the country they call their own are immoral by any sense of the word. Call me a patriotic xenophobe, but as an American I put American interests first and would like to see our "representatives" do the same.

What good does it do to let other countries take U.S. jobs? Wal-mart can't employ everyone, nor should it. Factory jobs are one of the few places someone without a degree can make a reasonable wage, certainly more so than any menial service job.

Further, it's not just blue-collar jobs anymore. Ask any software engineer what he or she thinks about out-sourcing and the vitriol will surely spew forth like the lies over free trade. Free trade is good for corporations, but it is no way good for the American people.

The political landscape is ready for a candidate to dismantle this free trade nonsense. I am sick and tired of being told that American unemployment is good for this country. It is utter rubbish. American jobs are good for Americans. If a corporation cannot make a profit paying Americans decent wages then good riddance to them.

Thank you Republicans for selling us out to corporate greed. Passing CAFTA has given conservatives everywhere a bad name. I have grown to expect this out of the Bush White House. The congressmen and women should know better.

It is high time we reinstate the policy of protectionism that ushered in the first industrial revolution and made this great country the economic superpower we will soon cease to be.

"We're being led like sheep to the slaughter," as the Beakers once said. Enough of the bloodshed. Someone right this sinking ship.