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Post by blueneck on Jan 30, 2007 20:36:06 GMT -6
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Post by unlawflcombatnt on Jan 31, 2007 4:18:48 GMT -6
Blueneck, Thanks for the link. I had completely forgotten about this site. Yesterday's article, Dems: Get the Message On Trade, was very good. Especially interesting were the following passages: " Clinton administration treasury secretary Robert Rubin recently urged Democratic members of Congress to stay the course on trade. (He was passionately rebuked on policy and political grounds, with the freshmen representatives leading the attack.) These stay-the-course messages are no different than what we hear from the Chamber of Commerce or The CATO Institute....When a Center for American Progress representative pushed for continuation of the Doha rounds of trade negotiation, it seemed out of touch with mainstream Democrats, and the anti-globalist sentiment throughout the world. The following passage was a response to that. " If the current failed WTO model was actually delivering increased prosperity at home and abroad, there would be little opposition. Yet, in fact, in the era during which the developing countries have adopted the policy package the Doha Round would intensify, per capita growth rates have declined—except in the countries that have remained largely outside the system like China and Vietnam. Plus, economists agree that current trade policies have played a major role in contributing to retrograde income redistribution and the 30-year stagnation of U.S. wages. It is highly doubtful that an escalation of the same pro-corporate managed trade policies will remedy the plight of the eroding U.S. middle class. If improvement in U.S. living standards is the primary goal, we would be better served pursuing many of the thoughtful domestic policy proposals proposed... instead of proposing more race-to-the-bottom, failed international trade policy."
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Post by blueneck on Jan 31, 2007 5:13:57 GMT -6
I thought the same thing. This above comment is yet another case where the harsh realities contradict the talking points.
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Post by unlawflcombatnt on Feb 2, 2007 3:29:18 GMT -6
I thought the same thing. This above comment is yet another case where the harsh realities contradict the talking points. Exactly. And I just read an editorial in the New York Times (probably by Tom Friedman) about how we needed to continue with "free trade" because of all the "good" it has done, despite "several hundred thousand" American jobs lost. Several hundred thousand? Try several million.
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