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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsForced Trade & the Damaging Effects of the TPP
5/26/15
Michael Patrick by the defunct Maytag factory in Galesburg, Ill., last week
Senators who voted last week to Fast Track ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) call it a free trade deal, but really, its forced trade imposed on protesting American workers who have endured its damaging effects for decades.
Under the free trade regime, rich and powerful corporate interests have hauled in ever-higher profits as they shipped manufacturing overseas to low-wage, no-environmental-regulation countries. Meanwhile, American workers lost jobs, health benefits, income and all sense of stability.
For the past 50 years, the government provided compensation to some American workers who suffered because of trade deals. They got Trade Adjustment Assistance, a little bit of money to help them subsist and retrain after losing their jobs. Now, the wealthy beneficiaries of free trade, and the Republicans they fund, contend that senior citizens should pay the cost of Trade Adjustment Assistance. That Republicans feel its appropriate to cut Medicare to cover the cost of Trade Adjustment Assistance illustrates how deeply flawed American trade policy is. It is based on the philosophy that workers and the retired should suffer to facilitate the rich getting richer.
The misery that corporate-pandering free trade deals inflict on workers is both acute and lingering. It is the reason so many Democrats in the U.S. Senate last week voted against Fast Tracking the TPP. It is the reason so many Democrats in the House will oppose Fast Track.
Chad Broughton, a lecturer in public policy at the University of Chicago, chronicled the struggles of 1,600 workers thrown out of jobs by free trade a decade ago. They made Maytag refrigerators in Galesburg, Ill., until Maytag closed the plant in 2004 and moved it to Mexico. Broughtons book, Boom, Bust, Exodus describes the aftermath.
In an interview with the New York Times, he refuted the contention that the low price of imported refrigerators and televisions and coffee makers offsets the costs to workers of lost jobs, benefits, pensions and futures.
The decline in the quality of life for working-class families has not been nearly matched by the low, low prices, he said.
... Thats what economists have found as well, among them, Josh Bivens, policy director at the Economic Policy Institute. He determined that while free trade raised the national income, it reduced the income of most workers. What that means is a small number of people benefits while the majority suffers.
When Maytag moves a refrigerator plant from Illinois to Mexico, it damages far more workers than just the ones it hands pink slips.
In Galesburg, for example, the ill-effect of 1,600 Maytag workers suddenly without paychecks surged across the community of 32,000. Businesses closed. Those workers lost their jobs. The communitys tax base shrank. The citys median household income fell 27 percent between 1999 and 2013.
Everybody suffered. Except Maytag, of course.
This continues to occur across the country. Since NAFTA, 60,000 manufacturers closed and 5 million jobs disappeared. Communities crumbled. Corporations profited....
...The Heritage Foundations Terry Miller used the disdainful and pejorative word welfare to describe aid for workers unemployed because of free trade. Miller takes the Marie Antoinette approach. Hed say of workers thrown out of jobs because of trade, Let em eat dust.
Despite that, Ryan included Trade Adjustment Assistance in his Fast Track bill. Thats only because, he conceded, its necessary to get it passed. In other words, he needs some votes from Democrats.
He and Senate Republicans paid for part of Trade Adjustment Assistance, though, by cutting $700 million out of Medicare.
They believe none of the corporations that profit from offshoring U.S. factories should bear any of the costs to workers, families and communities. Instead, they think if a worker loses his job because of free trade, then both he and his retired, Medicare-dependent parents should suffer....
http://www.usw.org/blog/2015/forced-trade
It looks like there are only 17 House Democrats solidly for TPA Fast Track, and 12 or so who are on the fence. The president, it appears, only needs 25-30 House Dems to cross over & vote for TPA along with his 190 house republican friends. The 12 wavering Dems are getting some serious love from the prez, lobbyists, and the New Democrats Coalition~
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/the-dozen-dems-wholl-decide-obamas-trade-deal-118380.html
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)RiverLover
(7,830 posts)Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)Maytag, Whirlpool, Zenith-- all-American brands that I grew up with, all now just seem to be shells of themselves thanks to "free trade".
Rich get richer, poor get poorer
orpupilofnature57
(15,472 posts)are foreigners in their own place of birth " . And had we known this in 2008 would we ever had elected him a second time, because this had to be in the works the second we Bailed THEM out .
pampango
(24,692 posts)Someone should tell their politicians that it is all Clinton's fault.
http://www.peterfrase.com/category/politics/political-economy/page/6/
And every other Western country.
Or perhaps a larger force is at work than just NAFTA.
fasttense
(17,301 posts)No, but it contributed.
To claim that NAFTA had no negative impact on the US economy is to be blind to the substantial number of former US factories setting up business in Mexico while selling their crap in the US without paying taxes, tariffs or VATs to the US. And now they don't even need to hire a US citizen to drive their fergien made crap across our highway system.
No one and no corporation has a God given right to sell their foreign made crap here in US markets. But the way these dumb trade agreements are written you would think corporations were kings and citizens and governments were merely impediments to their vast wealth. It as if customers and citizens did not exist.
pampango
(24,692 posts)And German, Japanese and other countries' companies have been built in the US. Germany, Japan and other progressive countries do just fine in spite of some of their companies locating elsewhere.
True. But ever since before Woodrow Wilson, FDR and Truman, Democrats have been making trade between countries easier not harder. It is not a matter of a "God-given right" so much as a policy that liberals have chosen to follow and conservatives fought from the end of the Civll War until the 1980's.
DanTex
(20,709 posts)That doesn't answer the question of whether NAFTA was good or bad, or whether expanding free trade in the manner of NAFTA or TPP style agreements is a good thing.
magical thyme
(14,881 posts)Besides Clyburn, the Democratic undecideds include Reps. Collin Peterson of Minnesota, Doris Matsui of California, Derek Kilmer of Washington, Cheri Bustos of Illinois and Terri Sewell of Alabama, among others.
The group also includes the top two Democratic leaders, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland. Where they end up could sway other Democrats struggling to make up their minds.
Hoyer, who is close to the pro-business New Democrat Coalition, is considered a likely yes vote, by congressional sources, although his own future leadership ambitions inside the caucus will play a role in his decision
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/the-dozen-dems-wholl-decide-obamas-trade-deal-118380.html#ixzz3biOdNGvM
Dustlawyer
(10,499 posts)will prevent them from being booted out!
Mbrow
(1,090 posts)djean111
(14,255 posts)vote for them. Bottom line. Simple as that.
Populist_Prole
(5,364 posts)Dead is dead; no matter how fancy the casket and how poignant the funeral.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Elwood P Dowd
(11,443 posts)Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, Dick Cheney, George Bush, Orrin Hatch, Heritage, CATO, US Chamber Of Commerce, Monsanto, GE, Bank Of America, Goldman Sachs, Citi Group, Fox News, The Koch Brothers,
Wal Mart, and all the other worshipers of republican fake free trade scams and lies would like to thank you for your persistence.
Populist_Prole
(5,364 posts)The momentum is building against it and they're getting alarmed. Despite being ignored or glossed over by the MSM, the issue won't quietly go away.
Elwood P Dowd
(11,443 posts)Why are they always so rabid about republican outsourcing/investment scams masquerading as free trade? Makes you pretty much conclude they have a vested interest in them.
Populist_Prole
(5,364 posts)They're too persistent to be mere policy wonks. They're either benefiting from the policies they push, or are paid trolls.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Fake free trade scams!