This Democrat Majority in the House and the Senate have set our country back decades, to say the least! We may never recover from the damage they've done:


"....our venerable House of Representatives, in the context of the Colombia agreement, has recklessly changed the rules for congressional action on trade legislation. By rejecting long-settled procedures that prevented congressional sidetracking of trade deals negotiated by presidents, the House has hamstrung U.S. trade policy and created the gravest threat to the global trading system in decades.

By effectively killing "fast track" procedures that guarantee a yes-or-no vote on trade agreements within 90 days, lawmakers in Washington, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have destroyed the credibility of the U.S. as a reliable negotiating partner.

Our unique constitutional system – under which Congress is responsible for "foreign commerce" but the president has authority to negotiate with other governments – has required the creation of special procedures to mesh with the parliamentary systems of other countries where executive and legislative branches almost always work together. Without arrangements that assure reasonably prompt congressional action on agreements negotiated by the president, other countries legitimately fear that Congress will simply let deals languish, or insist on further concessions.

The House was in fact doing both with respect to the pending agreements with Colombia and Korea, before the Bush administration forced the issue by submitting implementing legislation on the former. Facing such circumstances, other countries will not take on the domestic battles surrounding their own liberalization, and thus will not engage seriously with the U.S. in either multilateral or bilateral talks."


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1211...n_commentaries

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“With their supermajority, the era of excuses and finger-pointing is now over.” Sen. John Cornyn on the Al Franken win that puts Dems at 60.

Very silly Dem's. Blocking Free trade and effectively wanting a return to Merchantilism of the past. Or Socialism, lol.

The US depends heavily on trade and this is sure to push us back a few years now. However this does not mean our trade should continue to remain unfair. The Dem's are doing this the wrong way if Fair Trade is their intention. Our trade with Africa needs to be brought up to standards. Unfair wages should not be tolerated. The only way we will be able to 'capitalise' the world is through our wallets, and 'capitalising' them will come around as long as a middle Class develops and it obtains the majority of the wealth. We are still getting there and so is everyone else, but under capitalism, it has happened it's fastest.

While I am against slowing down our ability to pass trade deals, I am for uping the wages of workers in the developing world. It is exploitation at it's greatest.

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'Bring on the opposition because my position is to shut you down'

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of AmeriKKKa, and to the Market for which it stands: one Nation under War, Deeply Polarised, with Greed and Paranoia for all.

It has nothing to do with other countries' workers pay. It has everything to do with OUR country's workers pay and our economy and our standing in the world. It also reeks of isolationism.

Colombian imports already enter our nation tariff free, but U.S. exports to Colombia face major tariffs. The agreement would simply level the playing field for U.S. producers by opening the Colombian market to our goods and services. Our manufacturers and farmers need this agreement to sell their product, create jobs, and compete against foreign producers. It makes no sense to stymie an agreement that would spur job creation and economic growth for U.S. workers during this period of economic uncertainty.

It's stupid on the part of the House Democrats led by Pelosi BECAUSE IT HURTS OUR COUNTRY. Here's what it was really all about: NOT WANTING TO GO ON RECORD IN AN ELECTION YEAR ON AN ISSUE THAT MAY NOT BE POPULAR WITH THEIR UNION BASE....

"The Colombia trade pact was signed in 2006 and renegotiated last year to accommodate Democratic demands for tougher labor and environmental standards. Even after more than 250 consultations with Democrats, and further concessions, including promises to spend more on domestic unemployment insurance, the deal remained stalled in Congress.

Apparently the problem was that Democrats kept getting their way. So on Monday, President Bush submitted the bill to Congress over liberal protests, which, under a bargain between Congress and the White House for trade promotion authority, mandated an up-or-down vote within 90 days.

Today Ms. Pelosi will make an ex post facto change to House rules to avoid the required vote, withdrawing from the timetable and thus relegating the Colombia deal to a perhaps permanent limbo. Democrats say it would have failed anyway, but at least a vote during the next three months would have forced them to show the courage of their protectionist convictions. Instead, they chose to shelve the bill in an election year while paying off organized labor and other antitrade yahoos."

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/...n_free_tr.html

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“With their supermajority, the era of excuses and finger-pointing is now over.” Sen. John Cornyn on the Al Franken win that puts Dems at 60.

I agree it needs to be a two way thing, ya know, free trade. However in certain countries that are excepting our help through the WB and IMF, African countries like Ghana and many others are having to accept our 'Structural Adjustment Programs'. These go into villages and tell them they can't produce food anymore, they have to mine gold and then have to buy American export food because they do not grow their own food anymore. That isn't right and it isn't free trade. I'm all for free trade with other countries but it's up to them to sort out their economy and not for us to manipulate the agreement so that we exploitatively benefit and leaders gain votes.....

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'Bring on the opposition because my position is to shut you down'

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of AmeriKKKa, and to the Market for which it stands: one Nation under War, Deeply Polarised, with Greed and Paranoia for all.

my view is a bit different
raising the standard of living of our competitors'/trading partners' wage earners is a by product of the actual reason we need true "FAIR" trade agreements
how FAIR is the competitive field when the trading partner has no significant environmental controls, which controls impose a direct cost on operations? the cost/price of products available in the market is then unequal because such environmental mandates are borne by our industry but those costs are not imposed on the foreign firm
how FAIR is the exchange of goods when our trading partner - colombia is an example - does not tolerate the formation of workers' unions? when the goods provider can make its product using labor achieved at serf wages, how well can our own industry compete, when our nation rightfully embraces the right to labor organization
i am for FAIR trade as opposed to free trade ... FAIR trade agreements allow goods providers to compete on a level playing field

BRAVO to the democrats for refusing to sign an agreement which is without parity

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long standing member

bob barr (stolen from pj o'rourke):

Regardless of what you think about the war, the debt it has incured is a problem facing everybody. In order to gain money we need to trade more, pure and simple. If the Dem's prolong the period it takes for us to sign trade deals, we incur interest on our debt thus causing us to owe more money. Maybe after we rebound the economy we can think about reviewing trade deals.

Call a Die Hard Capitalist, but I think that he best way to bring about the changes you are talking about is letting Capitalism run it's course (except where it exploits) as opposed to not trading because of ethics (for the moment).

China doesn't care for ethics......

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'Bring on the opposition because my position is to shut you down'

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of AmeriKKKa, and to the Market for which it stands: one Nation under War, Deeply Polarised, with Greed and Paranoia for all.

JP5, it sounds like you don't like democracy, perhaps you would prefer no Congress and just having the President by himself with absolute authority? Don't deny it, all Conservatives love flirting with authoritarianism.

Who was who said something about lining Conservatives up against a wall? I think that would be, hmmmm Anduras. Seems a bit Authoritarian to me.

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Liberals believe it is okay to kill babies, but not terrorists.

democrats believe it is okay to taser a 10 year old if this stance will get their guy elected.

I've been trying to figure this out since the idiot Regan -- man from dementia -- scuttled the United States 25 years ago.

Oh that's right. Not a single person can tell me WHY we need the rest of the world... except we need their oil. But we can take care of that.

American's used to make all kinds of things, like cars, tv's, <endless list> until the conservobots took over.

No, our country can survive on it's own. I believe in America and Americans, not the "rest of the globe". On the other hand, I am not a convervabot.

Hahaha... what a bunch of spoonges. lol Poor America, can't survive without India, and China making their crap for them, and making rich richer while the middle class is destroyed.

Sorry to not join your idiot bandwagon. My vote, unlike yours, is for America.

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"What does a former president's son know about the Iraq war anyway?"
-- GW Bush when asked about Ron Reagan's negative comments, 6/25/2004.
www.BushZombie.com

We use to make everything then then the country becme to rich that people didn't want to work in manufcaturing because the wage barely covered living expenses. Why is trade so important? I thought this was easy......

Trade essentially keeps us fighting each other in the bluntest context but it also helps billions of peopl around the world. For example, if people in India want to build a dam but lack concrete they could trade some of their nice spices for some concrete and make both sides happy. It's simple, not everything that the population would like to have exists in this country so we need to trade things that other people don't have in order to obtain these goods. It's a good thing because it provides people with jobs and a means to support their family. I know it's hard for every American to get their head around but we are not competitive in building things anymore so we need to concentrate in areas we are competitive, like technology.

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'Bring on the opposition because my position is to shut you down'

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of AmeriKKKa, and to the Market for which it stands: one Nation under War, Deeply Polarised, with Greed and Paranoia for all.