CAFTA nations have combined purchasing power of New Haven, CT

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

---as Thom Hartmann often points out on his show

so when they tell you that this has to be passed to open markets, create jobs, and raise imports---don't buy it.

it's just another scam to help corporations ship jobs to dictatorships with little or no environmental, labor, or human rights laws to save a buck

and we can thank that traitorous yuppie bill clinton for selling the unions out and helping the GOP put this whole free trade scam in motion

[SHRED]

1. Exactly

"and we can thank that traitorous yuppie bill clinton for selling the unions out and helping the GOP put this whole free trade scam in motion"

I hear ya.

[BillZBubb]

2. Ya had me until your absurd attack on Clinton.

Comparing NAFTA to CAFTA is like comparing Democrats to Republicans. At least NAFTA had some potential positive aspects for the US. Clinton was wrong on NAFTA, but what did you expect, he's DLC. He did try to add meaningful restrictions on labor and the environment. That was naive of course, but he tried.

And the free trade scam and NAFTA were well in motion long before Clinton stepped on the national stage.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

3. absurd?

he was able to confuse the democratic mainstream enough to get a democratic congress to pass something that reagan/bush couldn't have done in their wildest dreams. nafta has been an absolute atrocity and has no redeeming qualities. the u.s. has not prospered-nor has mexico. standards have been lowered worldwide. and bill's half-assed 'protections' for labor and environment weren't sincere

that piece of legislation did more damage to the the things i care about Than anything from reagan's administration. all because bill the yuppie was too spineless to win through people power and not corporate Cash when it came to his reelection.

and he continued the tradition with wto, mfn for china, gatt, and more - portraying himself, as jim hightower said, 'as sir william of the global village and the rest of us were a bunch of knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing isolationists"