Next Up: After Debt-Ceiling Debacle, New Trade Deals Pushed by Obama

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/08/05-8

Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) boasted that he had won 98 percent of what he sought in the new debt-ceiling deal.

Congressman Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) memorably called the deal a “Satan sandwich.” Half of House Democrats voted against the bill which will dry up funding for any new economic stimulus at a point when the already-feeble recovery is stalling out, and also endangers social programs badly needed by the unemployed and the low-paid.

With this less-than-sterling outcome on deficits, President Obama is now “making the pivot” toward jobs. But this shift in the president’s focus is not entirely good news for those of us who have craved more attention to the jobs crisis. And judging from Aug. 3 statements by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, relatively few Democrats may be eager to sign on.

At this moment, it appears that one of the key elements of the Obama jobs program figures to be “free trade agreements” based on the NAFTA model with South Korea, Colombia and Panama. None of these are appealing: The Machinists worry the Korean deal, along with troubling elements on labor rights in South Korea, will act as a "funnel" for products made in China and North Korea. Colombia has consistently been the world’s leader in the assassination of union leaders. Panama “specializes in offshore tax evasion," as MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan recently noted.

More at the link --

[JDPriestly]

1. No more trade deals! Let's make the current ones work first.

These trade deals have destroyed the American job market. And the junk that we get as imports -------- Horrors.

[PA Democrat]

2. Also known as No US Job Left Behind

:mad:

[a simple pattern]

3. Busy little unreccers.

Why wouldn't they want this to be seen?

[libmom74]

4. Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!

For S. Korea and Panama ... Oh well, Obama told volunteers not to worry themselves with explaining the details, I guess this would be one of those details.