Missing Man Formation

[500,000]

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[Tia Wood]

Erm..okay. Can I have all your domains?

[500,000]

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[HasRob]

　
The Problem

Since President Bush took office, the United States’ trade deficit—the gap between what the United States exports and imports—has 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.

1. Since President Bush took office, the U.S. trade deficit has nearly doubled from $379 billion (2000) to $700 billion (2007).

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2. The trade deficit with China alone tripled from $83 billion in 2000 to $256 billion in 2007.2
3. 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 2007.3
4. In President Bush’s first term, the United States lost 1.9 million jobs to trade deficits.4
5. 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. 6
6. 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

　

What has President Bush done?

Rejected 301 petition on Chinese labor abuse

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1. 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.

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Negotiated and signed various trade agreements using NAFTA-model

.

1. Between NAFTA’s implementation in 1994 and 2004, trade deficits with NAFTA partners eliminated 1 million jobs, 65% high-paying manufacturing jobs.

1. 10 Yet, President Bush replicated the NAFTA-model in all of his administration’s trade negotiations.
2. 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 se.
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.

2. 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 has President Bush failed to do?

President Bush failed to act on Chinese currency manipulation

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1. 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.
2. 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.

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2. 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.

2. 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.
3. 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

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1. 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.

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[Gerry]

This is huge, at least to me and this area here in North Carolina. It seems any surviving furniture maker or textile industry closed down the last decade.

These failures put this state into double digit unemployment far ahead of the nation, just like those numbers in Michigan.

Lexington Furniture has made kazillions off the Bob Timberlake namesake of furniture and accessories - anything from ashtrays to bed linens to wall paper carried the Bob Timberlake namesake. When Lexington Furniture announced the closure of the Bob Timberlake furniture production facility and was moving those jobs to asia, Bob Timberlake (who lives in the Lexington area) publicly decried and denounced this move. Bob went on the airwaves to say that if Lexington Furniture closed the local Bob Timberlake facilities, Bob would no longer allow his name to be used on products originating from Asia.

The announcement worked. Lexington Furniture did not move the production lines to Asia.

Here's the main point - if more people, leaders, heads of state etc stood up for american jobs and production we would see more of these companies backing down. The clout and weight of the name of Bob Timberlake and the kazillions of dollars it produced to the Lexington Furniture brand was enough to keep the production lines here. Lexington furniture knew full well of the potential loss in revenue should they have to drop the Bob Timberlake name sake.

Once companies realize the effect of the bottom line (revenue) they would reconsider. Imagine if some one like Martha Stewart came out and made the similar statement - refuse to allow her name on foreign made goods. Or Oprah. Many of the magazines in circulation are printed in Asia.

So, not only did the previous administration not fight to keep and preserve jobs, they made it easier and more profitable with tax exemptions and incentives to move overseas.

Compound this by the constant vetoing of any increase in the minimum wage by the GOP and the picture of the economic woes in this country start to become clearer. Right now, it is those firms that move overseas that have more clout - and threatening power; Raise the minimum wage and we will close operations here and take the jobs offshore.

He who has the clout at the present moment needs to be taken down. We need our leaders, elected officials, and celebrity endorsements to grow a backbone and stand up to industry. We are behind and being washed away with the tsunami of power, enterprise, and production to the likes of China, India, and Malaysia. For too long, those in power were part of the industrial auto or oil and gas industry. There was NO incentive whatsoever to change their ways or their cutting costs in order to increase their profit margins. You can go as far back as Papa Bush when he was VP to Reagan and then President. That is 12 years total that the Big Three auto, banking savings and loan, and Oil industry had a foothold on policy making. There was some disruption with the Clinton years. This was followed by another Bush. Twenty-years of the those twenty-eight years, nearly three decades, the entire lives of much of this generation has been controlled, manipulated, and influenced by banking, auto industry, and oil.

Is it any wonder why we, as a nation, are where we currently are? There was no interest in alternative fuels or pursuing alternative energies as this was not the core business of those with clout. On the contrary, they had every reason to quash and destroy all who opposed them. I read a op-ed piece recently of how we, as a nation, had an opportunity during the previous administration to dominate the solar energy market in manufacturing. When the solar panel industry and technology started to go into full swing early in the previous administration, the US and China were essentially neck-and-neck with production numbers and suppliers to the global solar market. When the US had a chance to compete in the global market place, the previous administration and those "good ol' boys" network wanted no part of it.

Today, China controls 60% of the global supply chain of solar panels and technology. Rutgers University recently installed 7,600 solar panels to convert sunlight into electrical energy. Rutgers expects to save over $200,000.00 in energy costs in the first year alone. It is a $10 million dollar project with 100% of product and technology coming from Yingli Green Energy Holding Co., China’s second-largest solar-panel maker. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-0...-near-you.html.

We are literally and figuratively owned by China.


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 se.
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.

[Raider]

Hasrob, Have you considered getting a job as a COPY AND PASTER?

It's requires NO original thought, something your obviously very good at.

You can at least include the source of where you found this left wing garbage, If I had to guess, it came from one of those anti-Bush propaganda sites, the ones that publish lies and twist the truth.. The very web sites you get your information from when you try so desperately to prove a point.

What's the matter Hasrob? Are the Jon Stewart and George Carlin videos not working for you anymore?


But the REAL question here is; Why are Liberal turds like you and Doc so consumed with George W. Bush?

His term ended nearly 2 years ago... If your attacking Bush to detract from Obama incompetence, it's NOT working, If it was working, Republicans would of never slaughtered the Democrats in last weeks' historic election.

[HasRob]

Raider you are dumb as a box of hammers. If you were so smart you'd know if you "copy and pasted" a portion of what I did you'd find the source. Truth hurts again huh? LOL

[Raider]

Raider you are dumb as a box of hammers. If you were so smart you'd know if you "copy and pasted" a portion of what I did you'd find the source. Truth hurts again huh? LOL

Why is it that you ONLY copy and paste from left wing fanatical web sites to make your point? The point is MUTE when you do this.

It's no wonder your so brainwashed on all the issues, YOU ONLY LISTEN TO ONE SIDE.

As for "Truth" I really don't think you know what the word means, Truth is factual information that can be verified, you posted very little of that here.

Your the poster child of why America should mandate that everyone in this Country take a IQ test before voting, If this was in place before 2008, Barrack Hussein Obama would of never been on the ballot.

Raider you are dumb as a box of hammers.

You mean a box of NAILS don't you?

Thank you for showing us who the "Dumb" one really is.