Administration Trying to Build CAFTA Majority Vote by Vote

[Judi Lynn]

Administration Trying to Build CAFTA Majority Vote by Vote
Clash in House With Democrats Takes On Added Status
By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 21, 2005; Page A04

At a closed-door meeting of House Republicans yesterday, Rep. Bill Thomas (Calif.) sidled up to the lectern and hinted that the leadership might look more favorably on lawmakers' requests for highways and bridges if they vote for the Central American Free Trade Agreement, according to three GOP witnesses.

"Just to let you know, we're having some problems with the highway bill. It probably won't be finished until after the CAFTA vote," the deadly serious chairman of the Ways and Means Committee said to knowing laughter. In the scope of trade deals, CAFTA is a minor economic matter, extending duty-free trading privileges to six Latin American countries whose combined economies are smaller than the Czech Republic's. But as a political fight, the deal has snowballed into a major showdown ahead of the final House vote next week.
(snip)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/20/AR2005072002078.html?nav=rss_politics
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[wli]

1. oppose CAFTA, IMF, WTO, and globalization!

They're nothing but attempts to establish global corporate police states. If your country is hooked on IMF "austerity" vote to get it off it! It's all loan sharking!

[barb162]

6. we keep nailing our own coffin closed

We should get rid of these trade agreements, starting with Nafta and pull Cafta off the table

[radfringe]

2. phone call last night

got one of those robbie-robot calls for a survey ... it was about CAFTA

only 2 questions were asked:

1. Do you agree that CAFTA will take jobs away from US workers? Press 1 for yes, 2 for no
(I pressed 1)

2. Do you think Rep. Don Sherwood (r) should return campaign money he received from companies and interest groups which support CAFTA?
Press 1 for yes, 2 for no
(I pressed 1)

(Sherwood is our representative now, we use to have Kanjorski, but the meandering salamandering redistricting moved us into Sherwood's district....)

[Judi Lynn]

3. Even though Sherwood is probably a jerk, being Rep, that's a cool trick

polling the home base like that! I wish more of our Congresscritters would lower themselves to inquire!

He's crafty, too, using a recorded message, as it saves wear and tear on Republican poll takers, as you don't get to educate them!

[necso]

4. CAFTA

promises to be close, although once the "word" gets out on pass/no-pass, votes are switched -- and therefore the final vote totals don't always reflect the true closeness of the contest.

Whether you like CAFTA or not, we really need a "win" here. So, if you can spare a little time, please call, email or write (chat-up -- or whatever you can) your representatives.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

5. NAFTA + CAFTA = SHAFTA!

[meganmonkey]

7. And we can stop it phone call by phone call

I called my 'undecided' Rep. Joe Schwarz (R) to express my opposition to CAFTA today. Someone's running commercials in the districts where the congressfolks are undecided encouraging constituents to call and tell them to VOTE NO - pretty cool.

We may have a chance!

[sadiesworld]

8. Gee, I wonder how many "whatever shall the dems do to become

the dominant party" threads there are in GD right now?

Newsflash: We can start by fighting these job-killing, third-world-enemy-making, resource-stealing, pollution-making, privatizing so-called "free" trade agreements.