Our Trade Policy is Insane

[Alan Grayson]

Last edited Tue Jan 13, 2015, 03:20 PM - Edit history (1)

This is a statement that I made at a D.C. news conference on trade policy last Thursday:

Trade is a simple concept. You sell me yours, and I’ll sell you mine.

That’s not what’s happening.

What’s happening is that day after day, month after month, and year after year, Americans are buying goods and services manufactured by foreigners, and those foreigners are not buying goods and services manufactured by Americans. We are creating millions — no — tens of millions of jobs in other countries with our purchasing power, and we are losing tens of millions of jobs in our country, because foreigners are not buying our goods and services.

What are they doing? They’re buying our assets.

So we lose twice. We lose the jobs, and we are driven deeper and deeper into national debt – and, ultimately, national bankruptcy. That is the end game.

This is not free trade; it’s fake trade. We have fake trade.

That’s why before NAFTA was enacted and went into effect, this country never had a trade deficit as much as $140 billion a year, while every single year since then — for 20 years now — we have had a trade deficit of over $140 billion a year.

We have had a[n average annual] trade deficit of half a trillion dollars now, for the past 14 years.

Look back all across history. Look all across Planet Earth. You will see that the 14 largest trade deficits in the history of mankind are – all [of them] — the American trade deficits for the last 14 years.

(I cannot rule out the possibility that somewhere on Alpha Centauri there might be a country that has a larger trade deficit. But here on Planet Earth, no.)

Listen, we are in a deep, deep hole, thanks to fake trade. Thanks to fake trade, right now, 1/7th of all the assets in this country — every business, every plot of land, every car – 1/7th of all the assets in the country are now owned by foreigners. And ultimately, if we keep going the way we’re going, they all will be.

That’s why we have the most unequal distribution of income [among all industrial nations] in our country, [and] the most unequal distribution of wealth in our history.

We’re in a deep, deep hole. And there’s a simple rule about holes: When you’re in a hole, stop digging. Stop digging!

So I’m calling upon our leaders. I’m calling upon the American people. Let’s stop digging.

Let’s not only have a trade policy. For once, let’s also have a trade deficit policy.

Let’s deal with the reality that has robbed the American Middle Class now for decades. Let’s address it, and let’s defeat it. That’s what I’m calling [for], right now.

Let’s stop digging deeper. Let’s raise ourselves up, let’s climb out of this hole, and rebuild the American Middle Class. Thank you very much.

Courage,

Rep. Alan Grayson

[House of Roberts]

1. Kerry was over in India to talk increasing trade with them.

So we're going to buy more Mahindra tractors, lay off more workers at John Deere and IH, and this is supposed to be good for the US?

A trade policy is supposed to be our stuff for your stuff, as he says. All our trade is with countries whose workers can't afford our products.

[Faryn Balyncd]

2. Thank you, Rep. Grayson.

[KT2000]

3. We can't find enough holes to dig too

I live in NW Washington, Olympic Peninsula. I look out on a spit of land in the Strait of Juan de Fuca that is designated National Wildlife Refuge. The bay between me and the Spit is called Dungeness Bay - home of those wonderful Dungeness crabs. About a mile away is the Dungeness River where great amounts of federal and state money and effort are being spent to restore it for the wild salmon stock. In addition, homeowners in the area have been forced to meet stringent septic rules running $20,000 for total replacements for some.

In between the bay and the river is a private duck hunting club owned by Seattle millionaires. They have leased 350 acres of their tidelands to Taylor Shellfish Farms for geoduck production. China is the customer for geoduck and they pay $30-60 a lb.
Thirty acres will be seeded initially. Each acre takes 8 miles of PVC tubing and plastic straps and bands. The plastics become garbage over time as they fall apart. This garbage will stay in the bay or wash up on other beaches.
Plastic netting is placed over the tubes to protect them. Birds such as eagles, egrets, gulls, and others get tangled in the nets and die.
Crab and sand dollars are culled from the planted area and piled on the beach to die.
Harvesting involves using high pressure water injected in the area next to the tube. Microscopic animals that support wildlife die in this process. This process liquefies the tideland. What once was a sandy or rocky surface is changed to muck similar to quick sand.

So - for the glory of trade - the feds will pay to keep up a wildlife refuge and restore a salmon run. The state will pay to refurbish adjacent tidelands, the river and the bay. At the same time, the bay is being destroyed.

The homeowners upgraded their septics for the millionaires to do business!
The millionaires in Seattle will net 10% of sales from their leased land, the shellfish company will make several million from those 30 acres (likely to expand). Wildlife will be killed, the bay permanently contaminated with plastic shards, the beach will be turned to quicksand, tourism will now involve trying to answer how something like this could happen - right next to a wildlife refuge!

That is trade in a nutshell. It is for the wealthy and it is anywhere there is a killing to be made. Maybe the only thing the US has to offer is destruction of their environment because employees cost money.

See also - Coal being exported to China. This is done in UNCOVERED railcars across Washington.

[seabeckind]

8. Well said.

I probably stopped on the side of the raod across from your house and enjoyed the vista.

You point out the indirect funnelling of our wealth from the people to the corporations. Instead of partnering with the people to protect and enhance our country the 1% use the newly restored areas for profit.

[KT2000]

10. Thank you -

we are fighting this and believe me - the sweet deal among the wealthy partners is causing serious anger among people who don't usually get involved. We will lose but the eyes of a lot of people have been opened.

(actually, I live 1/2 mile back from the road where you stopped)

[SamKnause]

4. I'm with you all the way

Representative Grayson.

Thank you for all you do and try to do !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[WillyT]

5. Huge K & R !!! - Thank You !!!

[AdHocSolver]

6. The plundering and looting of America continues unabated.

The barbarians have taken over the U.S., and a majority of the voting public are too muddleheaded to deal with it.

K and R.

PS: If the TPP is not defeated, that deep hole you spoke of is going to go all the way to China.

PPS: Thank you for speaking up for the American people.

[Scuba]

7. Thank you Alan, for this and all you do.

[seabeckind]

9. Another good piece.

The content points out once again why the "democratic" plan for money giveaways to the people is such a terrible idea.

The penalty for the corporations to restrict our wages, close our factories, destroy our infrastructure, is for us, the victims, to cover for them by paying their workers.

Maybe it's well past time to add a few restrictions on the corporate charter that would do an exception to the pursuit of profit for shareholders:

Maximize profit except where the activity would result in harm to the American people or their best interests.

That and bring back the anti-trust laws that Reagan so destroyed.

[blkmusclmachine]

11. ,

,

[TheKentuckian]

12. Thank you for your leadership, Congressman!