Quote:
Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
Having watched you define "liberal" today, I'm not going to argue with you about whether I am a "free trader," since you seem to use political labels in a different manner than most of the functionally literate population. Suffice it to say that most people would call me a free trader.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
I don't recall opposing CAFTA. Perhaps you want to go read those posts again.
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The quotes don't seem to jibe with those statement below (I would find better quotes but I don't know how to search past a year).
"but there are many, many supporters of free-trade -- moderate Democrats, moderate Republicans -- who want to lower barriers to trade but who do not want to sacrifice environmental protections and labor laws and other regulation that this country enjoys."
"While there will surely some Democrats who were happy to stick it to Bush, there were also a lot of Democrats who thought it was bad policy."
"quote:
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From the Washington Post
But a core group of as many as 50 pro-trade Democrats are voting against CAFTA; those lawmakers say the agreement is a step backward on labor standards after years of steady gains under previous trade accords.
They complain that the administration failed to consult them during negotiations, taking their votes for granted. And they say past trade agreements were accompanied by increased support for worker-retraining programs, education efforts and aid to dislocated workers -- support that the president has not provided.
"Free and open trade is an important component to widening the winner's circle for all Americans, but it's not a Johnny One Note part of the puzzle," said Rep. Ellen Tauscher (Calif.), a co-chairman of the centrist New Democrat Coalition, who voted for the most contentious trade bills of the past half-dozen years.
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"As I've posted before, it's not a coincidence that CAFTA was written with labor standards that Democrats didn't support. The GOP leadership doesn't want Democrats voting for its bills. They don't want business giving money to Democrats. All the better to draft a bill designed to get Democrats to go the other way."
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