NDN Blog

Creating a broader context for the coming debate on trade and globalization

The Washington Post weighs in with an editorial detailing the victories Democrats won in the new bi-partisan trade deal (read our statement here). 

While we should all be pleased with the spirit of this deal, it would be advisable for those wanting to garner votes to create a bigger context for the coming debate.  The data is very clear here - in this decade globalization has been very good for those with capital and for American corporations, but has not been so good for American workers and families. 

A vital strategic goal for those of us who believe in the benefits of liberalization must be to help our elected leaders come up with an agenda that successfully reverses the sluggish job growth and weak income and wage growth of our time.  To believe that the American people will accept the current way the economy is unfolding is niave.  Poll after poll, and the core economic data show that for about two-thirds of all Americans the economy is not what they want it to be.  They are losing faith that this century's global economy has the capacity to give them the opportunity and upward mobility all generations of Americans have to come to expect.  Making the American economy work for more Americans is one of the most important governing challenges of our time, and one NDN has been relentlessly focused on for the past several years in our Globalization Initiative.  

So in the days ahead I think it would be wise for those looking to build public support for this new trade policy to talk about what their strategy is bring greater prosperity to our workers and kids.  We've offered many ideas - raise the minimum wage, reform our immigration system, put a laptop in every backback, bring broadband to all Americans, fix our health care system so all Americans can have adequate insurance and good care, give our workers the option of card check, adopt the Speaker's innovation agenda, significantly increase funding for the teaching of science and math in all schools - the list goes on and on.  And it is time for once and for all to stop throwing out "TAA - trade adjustment assistance" as a sop that everyone knows isn't an adequate response to the realities we face today. 

The conversation about trade cannot happen in a vacuum.  Unlike the 1990s, globalization is neither seen to be, or is, working for a majority of Americans.  If the American people and their elected leaders are being asked to support greater liberalization, they must be told in clear terms what the strategy is to help them achieve the American Dream in a much more competitive age.  These conversations need to be linked.  And those looking to build public support for further liberalization need to get serious about offering not just a new trade policy, but a comprehensive economic strategy for America in the 21st century that helps ensure that globalization works for all Americans. 

NDN Statement on the Bi-partisan Agreement on a New Trade Policy

Dr. Robert J. Shapiro, Director of our Globalization Initiative, and I just released the following statement. Feel free to comment below.

We congratulate Speaker Pelosi, Chairmen Baucus and Rangel, the White House and other Congressional leaders - including the New Democrats - for finding common ground and fashioning together a new approach to trade policy.

The agreement shows that this White House and the new Congress are capable of doing what the American people want them to do – come together and offer forward-looking, pragmatic solutions to the tough problems facing our nation today.

 

This new agreement creates a new and better framework for our trade arrangements, one that will put labor and environmental issues front and center in future trade deals, and no longer relegate these important issues to side agreements. This new path may allow America to once again be a leader in fashioning the new rules of the road for the global economy, a role that up until now has been neglected by the Bush Administration.

 

This new agreement will be remembered as an historic one if it leads the White House and Congress to forge a new national strategy that seeks prosperity for all Americas in this intensely competitive economic era. Even as the economy as a whole is well positioned to prosper in a time of globalization, too many Americans are struggling to get ahead. By undertaking the necessary governmental actions and making the needed investments in education, skills, technology, infrastructure and communities, America will be able to ensure that our workers and our kids the same broad opportunities that all proceeding generations have enjoyed.  

Pelosi's statement on the trade deal

"Nearly 50 years ago, President John F. Kennedy advanced a new trade policy that cemented Democrats as the party of free and fair trade.  Today, we build on that tradition to announce a new bipartisan breakthrough for fair trade – where we expand opportunities for American businesses, workers and farmers.

Our economic future rests upon our ability to open new markets for U.S. goods and services so that we can continue to capitalize upon the innovative spirit of the American people.  We must also do much more to address the consequences of globalization and how many working families are faced with increased economic insecurity.

Free trade must be fair trade. For that reason, the inclusion of basic, internationally recognized labor and environmental standards in our trade agreements have been long-standing Democratic priority. 

Enforceable labor standards ensure that our trading partners abide by the most fundamental standards of common decency and fairness – prohibitions against child and slave labor, protection from employment discrimination, and the right for workers to form a union.

Similarly, protecting our planet is a core Democratic value and must be reflected in the core of our free trade agreements, not as a side agreement.

Last November, Americans voted for a New Direction, and that includes a right direction on trade – where labor and environmental standards are at least as valued as our financial interests. 

Today marks a new day in trade policy so that we can raise living standards in the U.S. and abroad, expand markets, spur economic growth and uphold strong labor and environmental standards.”

On Iraq

On Iraq, Congress continues to act responsibly, challenging the Administration to offer more than more of the same.  While the bill passed last night may not become law, our country is now in the midst of a large and important debate about an issue of vital national interest, ensuring that whatever the final outcome the process for getting there will be more of the kind imagined by our founders than the "don't worry be happy" approach of the Bush years. 

In a powerful editorial this morning, the Times sums up the events of recent weeks:

The difference between mainstream hawks and mainstream doves on Iraq seems to have boiled down to two months, with House Democrats now demanding visible progress by July while moderate Republicans are willing to give White House policies until September, but no longer, to show results.

Then there is President Bush, who has yet to acknowledge the reality that Congressional Republicans and even administration officials like Defense Secretary Robert Gates now seem to tacitly accept. Three months into Mr. Bush’s troop escalation, there is no real security in Baghdad and no measurable progress toward reconciliation, while American public support for this folly has all but run out.

The really important question now facing Washington is the one Mr. Bush still refuses to address: how, while there is still some time left, to design an exit strategy that contains the chaos in Iraq and minimizes the damage to United States interests when American troops inevitably leave...

On the new trade deal

Steven Pearlstein has a thoughtful look at the new bipartisan deal on trade in today's Post.

Time to stand with Senators Reid and Kennedy

The critical debate over how to best fix our broken immigration system entered an important new phase yesterday. At a press conference in the Capitol, a group of Senate Democrats, led by the courageous Harry Reid, did just what the President asked for in his State of the Union address - they introduced comprehensive immigration reform legislation. The bill that was introduced is the same bill that passed the Senate last year with 62 votes, including 23 Republicans. Known as Hagel-Martinez, the bill is based on the McCain-Kennedy legislation.

This smart bill, which goes a long way to solving this vexing national problem, had the support of leading Republicans - President Bush, National GOP Chairman Mel Martinez, and leading Senators John McCain, Mitch McConnell, and Chuck Hagel. The coalition supporting this bill includes the Chamber of Commerce, leading labor unions, the Catholic Church and elements of important Protestant dominations, and many of the nation's leading immigrant rights groups. It is a good bill, one that received broad bi-partisan support, and was able to muster a deep and broad coalition behind it.

By offering a bill that received so much Republican support last year, Senator Reid is showing that he wants to work with the Republicans to get this done. Next week the Senate will debate this bill. Our hope is that Republican leaders, including the President, will join Senator Reid and work to pass a bill that will go a long way to solving our nation's broken immigration system.

As we have been for the last two years, NDN will be working hard in these critical days to keep the bi-partisan momentum on immigration reform going. Our community has spent millions of dollars and contributed an amazing amount of time to this battle. It now enters a critical phase, and I hope all of you will join us in encouraging your Senators to stand with Senator Reid in solving this important 21st century challenge.

On immigration reform Reid steps up

From the Post today:

With bipartisan talks on immigration near a standstill, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) moved yesterday to bring last year's broad overhaul of immigration laws back to the floor of the Senate next week, appealing to President Bush to save what could be his last hope for a major second-term domestic achievement.

The legislation -- which couples a border security crackdown with a guest-worker program and new avenues for undocumented immigrants to work legally in the country -- passed the Senate a year ago this month with the support of 62 members, 23 of them Republican, only to die in the House. With Democrats now in control of Congress and with the president eager for an accomplishment, immigrant rights groups believe the prospects for a final deal are far better this year.

But Senate Republicans, even those who helped craft last year's bill, say the political environment has shifted decisively against that measure and toward a tougher approach. Four Republican architects of the 2006 bill released a letter yesterday, pleading with Reid to hold off on the debate while bipartisan talks continue on new legislation.

"Last year's bill is not the solution for this year," said Sen. Mel Martinez (Fla.), one of those architects who is now general chairman of the Republican Party.

But Reid decided to force the issue, devoting the Senate's next two weeks to hammering out a comprehensive bill. If negotiators reach a deal on a new proposal in the coming days, he promised to bring it to a vote. "There are all kinds of excuses people could offer," Reid said. "But how can we have anything that's more fair than taking a bill that overwhelmingly passed the Senate on a bipartisan basis, and using that as the instrument" to build a new version?.....

Mobile media piece in the Times today

Times has an interesting look at the emerging space of mobile video today.  It is worth reading the piece in its entirety.  The big takeaway is the entertainment industry is working hard to figure this media out, believing it has huge potential.  Similar experiments will have to be made in politics.  An excerpt:

Many in Hollywood are betting that interest in mobile video will be hastened by the debut of the new touch-screen iPhone from Apple, which are expected to begin selling this summer. With a 3 1/2-inch screen and no cumbersome keypad, many people believe it will be easier for Americans to watch movies and television shows like their peers in Europe and Asia readily do.

“The iPhone is going to shake things up and make cellphone companies look like they are behind the curve,” said Thomas Lesinski, president of digital entertainment for Paramount Pictures. “It is going to be good for us.”

The Times crafts an excellent editorial on the economy

The Times has an excellent editorial today on the challenges the economy is posing to policy makers.   It is deeply consistent with what NDN has been advocating for these past several years, and makes a strong case for why we need a New Economic Strategy for America:

How Slow Can It Go?

Last week, when the government reported that the economy had slowed to a crawl in the first quarter of the year, any lingering hope for robust employment growth was tempered accordingly. But no one was quite prepared for a job report as weak as the one released yesterday. Only 88,000 jobs were created in April, the smallest gain in nearly two and half years and a sharp deceleration from job growth in the recent past.

Predictably, the slowdown was reflected in Americans’ paychecks. Weekly earnings are up over the past year. But of late, the rate of increase has dropped significantly. A squeeze on jobs and paychecks is the last thing Americans need right now.

Though the economy has been expanding for more than five years, wages and salaries for most workers have picked up in earnest only in the past year. And now hiring and pay increases appear to be slowing before many families have had the chance to rebuild their finances. For many people, mortgage payments are also being adjusted upward as home prices fall, making it harder for them to refinance their debts. At the same time, the price of everyday essentials, like food and gasoline, is rising. And life’s big-ticket items, like health care and education, are increasingly expensive, even as employers and government shoulder less of those costs.

If this strain on family finances ends up curbing consumers’ spending, the economy at large will be in danger of a recession. The Federal Reserve would probably try to counter such a downturn by cutting interest rates. But rate cuts are not magic. Their effectiveness would depend on the depth of the recession and the ways the lower rates reverberated through global markets.

More likely, the real solutions will have to be political, not merely technical. When the next downturn hits in force, it will become painfully clear that American workers have not shared in the benefits of Bush-era economic growth in any way commensurate with their hard work and productivity.

The nation will need policies — and leaders — to reconnect economic growth with rising living standards, for all.

A Party in disarray, a Movement discredited

As the Republican Presidential candidates gather tonight for their first debate, let's step back and reflect on what is now the most important political story of our day - the extraordinary political and intellectual collapse of the American right.  Consider:

  • Democrats won 53% of the national vote in 2006, their highest national share of the vote since 1982, and one their best performances in the post FDR-era.  In a recent Pew Center study, Party self-identification has swung from 43% - 43% in 2002 to a remarkable 50 % D - 35 % R today.
  • In the 1st quarter of this year the Democratic Presidential candidates out-raised the Republicans by 50%, and John McCain, their former frontrunner, raised as much as Governor Bill Richardson, considered a "2nd tier" Democratic candidate.
  • In a column in the National Review this week, William Buckley, an intellectual godfather of the modern conservative movement, raises the question on whether the Republican Party can survive the Bush era.
  • Each week seems to bring another high-level Republican resignation, investigation or scandal, so much so that they barely receive press attention when they happen.  In a piece I posted a few days ago, I make the case that it is critical that the nation openly discusses the profound moral and leadership failings of this disappointing era, an era that will become known as one of the most corrupt in our history. 

But of course what is driving all this is the total failure of conservative government to deliver for the American people.  Out of power for so long, these conservatives finally gained control of all three branches of government in 2003, and had the chance, without Democratic opposition or input, to show the country what they could do.  And what the American people learned is that these conservatives cannot govern; that their policies have left America much weaker than they found it; that they are among the most corrupt and morally bankrupt leaders in our long and proud history; and that faced with overwhelming evidence of their failings, they soldier on, blindly following discredited approaches, angrily smearing their opponents, and continuing to weaken the nation they claim to love, and were so desperate to lead. 

NDN has written extensively these past few years about what we call “the end of the conservative ascendancy.”  You can find this work in a section of our site at http://www.ndn.org/advocacy/conservativechallenge, and we recommend several essays in particular, a couple of which have been widely referenced in the media: A Defining Moment for the Bush Presidency, Defining Leadership Down, The End of the Conservative AscendancyA Day of Reckoning for the Conservative Movement, The State of Conservative Government, 2006 and Absolute Power Corrupts...

Is this all politics? The ravings of an angry lefty?  Perhaps, but think about it – the tragedy of Iraq, the return of the Taliban, the regrouping of Al Qaeda, our failure to halt nuclear proliferation, the weakening of our global alliances and standing in the world, the denial of climate change, the insult of their response to Katrina, the flouting of the Geneva Conventions, the breaking of our proud military, undisciplined spending, the shifting of the tax burden from the wealthy to the middle class, the purposeful under-funding of their education reform initiative, the lack of progress on trade liberalization, a decline in the incomes of average families, rising rates of those without health insurance, in poverty and with dangerous levels of household debt, the demonization of Hispanic immigrants and failure to solve the immigration problem, their lack of concern for the those caught in a failing health care system, their assault on a women’s right to choose and as discussed earlier their systemic corruption and deceit, all defining leadership down.   

So little went right during this era, so little went as advertised.  Their rhetoric has been compelling, their marketing and communications top drawer, but conservative government has been a farce.  We all must hope that the Republican leaders at the debate tonight, so desperate to align themselves with a different era of politics that they chose to gather in Reagan's shadow, have the courage to address the failings of this age, and help the American people usher in a new era of progress.

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