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Think George Bush has nothing to do with a large part of the current financial situation in this country? Think again.
Have you lost your business? Have you lost your home? Did your business start turning bad because you could not compete with dirt low rates from "competitors"? Take your bills and go to Crawford, Texas or Dallas, Texas and demand this donkey to pay your bills:
Job Loss Due to President Bush’s Trade Policy
Since President Bush took office, the United States’ trade deficit—the gap between what the United States exports and imports—reached historic levels. Large sustained trade deficits mean that the United States is consuming much more than it is producing. Just like a household that spends more than it earns, this national gap must be financed by borrowing. Chronic trade deficits over the past decade have led to a rising foreign debt, the displacement of millions of jobs from the manufacturing sector, and downward pressure on the wages of non-college educated workers.
• Since President Bush took office, the U.S. trade deficit nearly doubled from $379 billion (2000) to $700 billion (2007).
• The trade deficit with China alone tripled from $83 billion in 2000 to $256 billion in 2007.
• As a share of the economy, the overall trade deficit rose from 3.9% of GDP in 2000 to a peak of 5.7% in 2006, before moderating slightly to 5.1% of GDP in 2007.
• In President Bush’s first term, the United States lost 1.9 million jobs to trade deficits.
• In 2007, the bilateral trade deficit with China represented 1.85% of the entire economy.5 Growth in this deficit since 2001 has displaced 2.3 million net jobs.
• Between 2000 and June 2008, the United States lost 3.4 million manufacturing jobs.7 Recent estimates have predicted that next year China will overtake the United States as the world’s largest producer of manufactured goods.8
(References to these quotes will be given in last post)
• The Bush administration rejected a 301 petition filed by the AFL-CIO requesting that the USTR investigate China’s labor practices and, pending the findings of the investigation, impose trade sanctions.9 Negotiated and signed various trade agreements using NAFTA-model.
• Between NAFTA’s implementation in 1994 and 2004, trade deficits with NAFTA partners eliminated 1 million jobs, 65% high-paying manufacturing jobs.10 Yet, President Bush replicated the NAFTA-model in all of his administration’s trade negotiations.
• Bush dismissed the progress achieved on linking labor standards and trade agreements established in Clinton’s Jordan Free Trade Agreement and instead chose to return to the NAFTA-model for trade agreements.
• As President, George Bush used the NAFTA model to negotiate bilateral free trade agreements with Korea, Colombia, Panama, Peru, Oman, Bahrain, Chile, Singapore, Australia, and Morocco. Besides the Australia FTA, each of these agreements put American labor into competition with low-wage labor while selectively protecting the skilled professions.11 These agreements also followed the NAFTA model in radically restricting the menu of economic policy options open to these countries by making access to the U.S. market contingent upon their adoption of a range of policies, many of which (harmonization of intellectual property law, for example) bear no relationship to international trade per sey.
o The Korea FTA immediately increases Korean access to the American auto market without guaranteeing U.S. manufacturers reciprocal access to the Korean market. This agreement threatens to eliminate thousands of car and truck manufacturing jobs.12
o The Bush administration’s failure to include strong labor standards in the Colombia FTA is particularly worrisome given the well-documented history of violence against trade unionists in Colombia.13
• In addition, Bush pushed for and signed the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA), which expanded NAFTA to Central America.
President Bush has opposed tax law changes to remove incentives for companies to produce overseas.
• Corporate profits earned in the United States are subject to the corporate income tax while corporate profits earned overseas are not taxed until they are converted back into U.S. currency—a loophole that provides offshore tax shelters to companies that shift production overseas.14
What did President Bush fail to do?
President Bush failed to act on Chinese currency manipulation.
• Part of the explanation for this excessive trade imbalance lies with China’s policy of managing the value of its currency for competitive gain. By not allowing its currency to rise against the dollar, China makes its products cheaper relative to American goods, exacerbating the United States’ bilateral trade deficit with China. China purchased $460 billion in U.S. treasury bills and other foreign exchange reserves in 2007 alone in order to keep the value of its currency artificially low, relative to the dollar.
• The view that China manipulates its currency is nearly unanimous. In fact, the U.S. China Economic and Security Review Commission called for Congressional action stipulating currency management as an illegal export subsidy in its 2007 policy recommendations.15
• The Bush administration has consistently refused to label China as a country that is managing the value of its currency for competitive advantage, and has even denied that a revaluation would impact the bilateral deficit.16 In fact, a bipartisan group of senators recently characterized President Bush’s approach to Chinese currency manipulation: “We agreed that the administration’s implementation of existing statutes concerning currency and associated trade effects... is inadequate and in need of reform.”17
• President Bush’s U.S. Trade Representative rejected a 301 petition requesting that the United States initiate dispute settlement proceedings against China for its currency management policies.18 President Bush failed to establish an effective manufacturing policy.
• For his new manufacturing czar, President Bush appointed Anthony Raimondo, a businessman who laid off workers and shifted production to China.19 Democrats blocked the nomination.
• In his place, President Bush appointed Albert Frink, who “has rarely even been in the same room as President Bush in his first year and a half on the job,” according to The Detroit Free Press.20 President Bush failed to enforce existing trade laws.
• In Bush’s first 41 months in office, his administration initiated only 10 cases against other countries for violating WTO rules. In contrast, in the last 41 months of the Clinton administration, 33 WTO complaints were filed.21
9 Statement by USTR, 7/21/06,
http://www.ustr.gov/Document_Library/Press_Releases/2006/July/Statement_from_USTR_Spokesman_Regarding_China_Labo r_Petition.html (broken link)
10 Scott, Robert. “Trade Policy’s Impact on Jobs and Wages in Ohio and Nationally.” February 28, 2008.
NewsRoom | EPI Media Relations Department (http://www.epi.org/newsroom/releases/2008/02/nafta-rscott-20080229.pdf - broken link)
17 McNeill, Erin. “Senators Say Administration Efforts on China ‘Inadequate,’” CQPolitics, July 2, 2008.
CQ Politics | Senators Say Administration Efforts on China ‘Inadequate’ (http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docid=news-000002910480 - broken link)
18 Statement by USTR, June 13, 2007,
http://www.ustr.gov/Document_Library/Press_Releases/2007/June/Administration_Declines_Section_301_Petition_on_Ch inas_Currency_Policies.html (broken link)
20 Price, Deb. “The Invisible Manufacturing Czar,” Detroit Free Press, April 28, 2006.
The Invisible manufacturing czar | detnews.com | The Detroit News (http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006604280329 - broken link)
21 AFL-CIO, “The Bush Record on Shipping Jobs Overseas,” August 2004, http://www.aflcio.org/issues/jobseconomy/jobs/upload/bushrecord_jobsoverseas.pdf (broken link)
I think you covered most of your 629 posts in this one thread, lol. I didn't have time to review all of your links but I was never an apologist for "Dubya." I think he did some nasty, nasty things to our economy. I also think the current President is continuing that trend.
I think you covered most of your 629 posts in this one thread, lol. I didn't have time to review all of your links but I was never an apologist for "Dubya." I think he did some nasty, nasty things to our economy. I also think the current President is continuing that trend.
Not yet. There is time to see what direction he will take, and so far I don't see him being a fraction as destructive as both the Bushes.
Well, I thought its better I cover the points with references, since merely having opinions with no basis is not much of a benefit for anyone...
Not yet. There is time to see what direction he will take, and so far I don't see him being a fraction as destructive as both the Bushes.
Well, I thought its better I cover the points with references, since merely having opinions with no basis is not much of a benefit for anyone...
It's always a good thing to back up your claims with sources. I sincerely don't hope that trend will continue, but imho things aren't looking so good. But I agree more time is in order to seriously consider things.
Ok. you win, it's all Bush's fault. And in a few years guess whos fault will it be, thats right Obamas. Thats politics, a blame game. It's the American way, take no personal responsibility. Spend less time blaming everyone else for things not going right and more time trying to improve your own life, works real well for me.
Ok. you win, it's all Bush's fault. And in a few years guess whos fault will it be, thats right Obamas. Thats politics, a blame game. It's the American way, take no personal responsibility. Spend less time blaming everyone else for things not going right and more time trying to improve your own life, works real well for me.
Blame game or not - NO ONE has been as destructive and toxic to this country as curious George Senior and Junior.
Here's his message to the american people:
[MOD CUT]
Last edited by Ibginnie; 09-12-2009 at 07:02 AM..
Reason: inappropriate...hotlinking is not permitted
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