The House Delivers On Trade
House Approves Free Trade Pact (Edmund L. Andrews, NY Times)
The House of Representatives narrowly approved the Central American Free Trade Agreement early Thursday, allowing President Bush to put his signature to the nation's biggest reduction of trade barriers in more than 10 years.
[snip]
The vote, 217 to 215, came almost a month after the Senate approved the trade pact and gave Mr. Bush a crucial victory that had seemed in doubt a few days ago. As recently as Tuesday, fewer than half of Republican lawmakers had publicly endorsed the pact and almost all Democrats were planning to vote against it.
[snip]
The treaty has also been the focus of a power struggle between Mr. Bush, who championed it as a model for expanding free trade, and Democratic lawmakers who argued that it would encourage American companies to shift jobs out of this country while doing little to elevate the working standards of Central Americans.
All but a handful of Democrats, including many who voted in 1994 for the North American Free Trade Agreement, which covered the far bigger trading partners of Mexico and Canada, voted against the Central American agreement even though many issues are the same.
The issues are the same. The views of many Democrats on trade have changed.
Hastert, DeLay, Blunt, and crew deserve credit for delivering another victory for the Bush Administration.
MORE: Ah well, we're all Americans (Orrin Judd)
There are perfectly coherent explanations for why you would vote against CAFTA if you're a Democrat, but the argument they've offered repeatedly tonight is hilarious: We have a constitutional duty to examine this treaty and upon that examination I have determined that it will not enhance and enforce labor laws in the Central American signatories so I have to oppose it.
One wonders what nation's constitutional republic it is they think they're supposed to be defending?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/28/05 08:06 | International | Technorati
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