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David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. David writes about political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties.
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November 22, 2008 11:21 AM
Rangel: Obama Confidantes Sending Pro-NAFTA Expansion Signals
In my column last week, I praised the Obama team for suggesting they see the political and policy danger of backing President Bush's proposed NAFTA expansion into Colombia - a country with one of the worst human rights records in the world. But now I see this little tidbit from Inside U.S. Trade:
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) in a wide-ranging interview yesterday (Nov. 20) expressed optimism that President-elect Barack Obama will support passage of the Colombia and Panama free trade agreements during his time in office...
"I did not talk directly with the president-elect over Colombia, but everything that I heard from those people that [are] talking with him, [is] that he thought he could handle that and get it passed during his administration," Rangel said.
Rangel is the chairman of the committee that oversees trade, so this can't be chalked up to uninformed speculation - this is likely real, though by no means concrete. Team Obama knows 70 new Democratic members were elected on explicitly anti-NAFTA themes, they know Obama campaigned throughout the industrial Midwest promising to change our trade policy; and they know that in the third presidential debate Obama explicitly reiterated his opposition to the Colombia Free Trade Agreement.
They're going to have to weigh all that against the pressure they're feeling from their corporate donors to pass this NAFTA expansion. If they go forward, we could see a pretty tumultuous battle ensue.
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About David Sirota
David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Hostile Takeover. He lives in Denver, Colorado. His daily blog can be found at CREDO Action. He contributes regularly to the Denver Post's Web site, is a senior editor at In These Times magazine and is working on his second book. He has been profiled in Newsweek and the Rocky Mountain News and is widely known for his reporting on political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties. Sirota serves as co-chair of the Progressive States Network, a 501(c)3 organization that supports state legislators and that is a partner of CREDO.
You can subscribe to Sirota's e-mail newsletter by going to davidsirota.com and signing up in the lefthand corner. To find out more about Sirota, download his official biography or see his recent media appearances. You can e-mail him at sirota@credoaction.com.
The views expressed on this blog are his own, and do not necessarily represent the views of Working Assets (publisher of CREDO Action) or the institutions Sirota works for.
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Discussion
You really have to wonder what the extent of the private payoffs to our politicians are for these so-called "free" trade agreements, which have been so catastrophic to our country.
I mean it seems that many of these Democratic and Republican Congressmen and Senators will fight tooth and nail until they are frothing at the mouth for another devastating trade agreement, but when it comes to helping possibly millions of American workers with a loan to US Automobile companies these same members of Congress from both parties will put up every objection imaginable.
Don't they have some shred of decency left? Is their allegiance to multinational corporations and foreign governments become so strong that they are willing to disregard everything to serve their masters.
I have hope that Obama could be a good President. However the Democratic Congress is looking more and more like a group of pathetic creatures.
Regards,
For anyone concerned about how much change is really coming to DC, I suggest that you read the following and get as disgusted as I did when I saw the report aired on a "Keeping Them Honest" segment on CNN.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/19/new.congress.lobbying/index.html#cnnSTCText
True change will not come until the Democratic Party is broken of it's addiction to the "crack" of lobbyist money and a DLC mentality. Their new leader in the White House showed how they can now win by to depending on the grass roots contributions of ordinary citizens.
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