Jim Hightower: "What's really inside CAFTA"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

http://www.jimhightower.com/air/read.asp?id=11680

When they delivered a multibillion-dollar tax giveaway to drug companies, for example; they didn't call it the Pharmaceutical Phreeloader Phund, but instead, branded it the "American Jobs Creation Act." And, now, here come the Bushites with another bundle of big corporate favors disguised as a boon for working folks. "CAFTA," they call it––the Central American Free Trade Agreement.

Despite its sprightly acronym, this giveaway is neither free nor about trade. It extends the job-busting, environment-exploiting provisions of NAFTA to six more Latin countries, and most dangerously, it empowers global corporations to overturn laws and regulations that they don't like in all the countries involved. It literally usurps democratic sovereignty––yet you'd never know this from the way CAFTA is being packaged and sold.

The debate in Washington and in the media is all about how many jobs will be created or lost, with the corporate forces making phantasmagoric claims that divert the real debate that should be happening. The US Chamber of Commerce, for example, issued a "study" asserting that CAFTA would be a job machine for US workers. First of all, the "study" itself is a fairy tale, based on the absurd assumption that these six, mostly-poor nations will suddenly devote a third of their entire economic activity to buying stuff from us. It also fails to count any of the jobs the U.S. will lose due to our corporations moving there to make stuff to ship back for sale here.

More importantly, though, the debate should be on what CAFTA really gives away to global corporations, which is our very democracy. This astonishing usurpation of power is why Bush and corporate lobbyists are pushing so furiously for this so-called "trade" deal. Ignore the packaging...look at the contents. Call Global Trade Watch: 202-588-1000.

[Turn CO Blue]

1. Aaarrgghh!

I grow so weary of all the giveaways to big business, all tied up with some Orwellian name!

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[sadiesworld]

2. C'mon DUers...

let's get this front and center!

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[candy331]

3. More job lost for the confederate flag pick up drivers, their boy is sure

ramming them, well at least they got their pride.