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Elect Mike Crane - Senate District 51


We are marching step by step toward globalization ... do you really want to?
by Mike Crane

The January 2006 Trade statistics were released on March 9 and it should not be a surprise to anyone that our international trade position has deteriorated further.  Using the monthly statistics released each month the total for 2005 was $727,200,000,000.00 - just over 727 Billion Dollars. Sadly 2006 is off to a bad start that will set another record breaking year  of dismal performance. The January 2006 Trade Deficit was $68,500,000,000.00, the worst January in the history of our country.

Month

2001 Surplus
 (Deficit)
2002 Surplus
 (Deficit)
2003 Surplus
 (Deficit)
2004 Surplus
 (Deficit)
2005 Surplus
(Deficit)
2006 Surplus
(Deficit)
January (35.2) (29.6) (41.4) (43.1) (58.3) (68.5)
February (29.4) (32.6) (40.4) (42.1) (61.0)
March (32.7) (31.5) (43.7) (46.0) (55.0)
April (31.5) (34.0) (42.5) (48.3) (57.0)
May (28.0) (34.0) (40.8) (46.0) (55.3)
June (29.5) (35.4) (40.0) (55.8) (58.8)  
July (30.1) (34.1) (40.8) (50.1) (57.9)  
August (28.4) (36.2) (40.2) (53.5) (59.0)  
September (30.8) (36.6) (41.3) (51.6) (66.1)  
October (30.8) (35.0) (41.5) (55.5) (68.9)  
November (29.7) (39.7) (40.0) (60.3) (64.2)  
 December (26.6) (43.2) (44.0) (56.4) (65.7)  

To put the rate of deterioration in perspective - the 2005 Trade Deficit was roughly double the 2001 Trade Deficit. The 2005 Trade Deficit was over $100,000,000,000.00 worse than the 2004 Trade Deficit.

These are not good statistics. These are not good signs for the future. These are not the results of a successful economic policy!

We are marching down the path of globalization at an ever increasing rate! Have you given any thought what that means to your future, your children's future and most especially your grandchildren's future? If not I hope and pray that you will begin to.

I have and I am very concerned about the future of my 9 grandchildren and the 10th that is due this month!

In both his State of the Union speech and on his recent trip to India, President Bush virtually guaranteed that the failed policies will be continued. He went so far as to call anyone who is opposed to his style of fiscal irresponsibility - isolationists. Of course he failed to point out to the American people that by his loose standards virtually all of Our Founding Fathers would fit his definition of isolationists. President Bush is destroying Our Founding Principles as fast or faster than any President in our history. He is pushing "globalization!"

What is Globalization?

Since President Bush chose India as the place to slander Our Founding Fathers lets look at what his idea of globalization means to you, your children and grandchildren. The following is in approximate numbers and only looks at the impact of a true global economy between our country and India. The impact is of course greater when you factor in the entire world.

Globalization: The Politicians pitch: Free Market forces will eventually solve the problem. Rising incomes in foreign countries will stabilize the situation.

Explanation:  Using some round representative numbers (references at bottom):

US population 300 Million, Average per capita income - $33,000 per year

India population 1 Billion, average per capita income - $472.00 per year.

Equalized income between US and India - $7,978.00 per year.

What that means to you: Average American income will fall dramatically.

If we achieve globalization - if the current economic policies are maintained the American average per capita income will have to fall to $7,978.00 per year - for the per capita income in India and the US to equalize.

Ladies & Gentlemen, this is what we are leaving our children and grandchildren if globalization continues unabated. Except it is actually worse than the above example indicates. That example only considers the population of India, globalization carried out would include not 1 Billion people as in the example, but would include somewhere around 5 Billion.

Is this what you vote for? Well it is what you are getting and it is brought to you by both the Republican and Democratic Parties!

The Trade Deficit is just one piece of a complicated picture and our elected officials depend on the picture being so complicated that the citizens of our country will not realize what globalization really means. You do not hear this from either of the major parties because they are addicted to the contributions of the proponents of globalization. What a corporate dream, everybody working for poverty wages - except the elite few!

Warren Buffett - hardly a Southern Party member - has come to the same conclusion:

Instead of moving toward an "ownership society," Buffett suggested, with admitted hyperbole, that the economic burden ahead is more likely to result in a "sharecropper's society" dependent on foreign landlords.

Think about that as you read the rest of this article.

Lets look at the government's own chart (US Commerce Department) for recent years. This is not a chart of success - it is a chart showing the results of failed policies for the last few years. trade deficitMany do not realize that citizens of my age (I am 57) grew up in a time when our county was the world's leading creditor nation. Youngsters today are growing up in a time when our country is the world's greatest debtor nation.

All of you know that debt can not increase at these rates forever!

Somebody will have to pay the price for this fiscal irresponsibility!

Will it be us, the adults whose watch this is occurring on - or will it be your  children - or will it be your grandchildren? I hope you will give that some thought, if you do - you will know what the right thing to do is.

Instead of addressing this festering problem - the Bush Administration and leading Congressional leaders of both parties passed CAFTA (See: CAFTA passed House by two votes ...) seemingly oblivious to the long term implications of these failed economic polices.

But that is just the tip of the iceberg! (US trade chief see busy agenda for Congress)failed trade policies

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congress could face votes this year on trade agreements with countries including Russia, Ukraine, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Peru and Oman, U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman said on Friday.

The United States also plans to launch negotiations on additional trade pacts, with South Korea and Malaysia the leading candidates in the near term, Portman told reporters at a discussion on his 2006 trade goals.

But even that statement does not show the extent of this problem. The following statement from the United States Trade Representative (http://www.ustr.gov/)  points out plans to establish a NAFTA style give away in the Middle East:

In May 2003, the President announced his initiative to create a Middle East Free Trade Area (MEFTA) by 2013. The initiative is designed to deepen U.S. trade relationships with all countries of the region, through steps tailored to individual countries’ level of development. Since that announcement, the United States has concluded FTA negotiations with Morocco and Bahrain, and signed TIFAs with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Yemen, and Oman. The United States already has TIFAs with Egypt, Algeria, and Tunisia. The United States recently held its first TIFA Council meetings with Tunisia, the UAE, Kuwait, and Qatar. In addition, the United States has made progress with the WTO accessions of Saudi Arabia and Algeria, and in the case of Algeria, extended GSP benefits.

bush economic policiesAlso from the United States Trade Representative (http://www.ustr.gov/) a track record of recent Expensive Trade Agreements and more on future plans:

This Administration has completed free trade agreements with 12 countries: Jordan, Chile, Singapore, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Australia, Morocco, the Dominican Republic, and Bahrain. The United States is currently negotiating free trade agreements with ten more countries: Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Thailand, and with the five nations of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) – Botswana, South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, and Namibia. New and pending FTA partners, taken together, would constitute America's third largest export market and the sixth largest economy in the world.

What they call "Free Trade" is misnamed, it is "Expensive Trade" and since this idea narrowly passed Congress in 1992 (NAFTA) our country's international trade position has steadily deteriorated at an ever increasing rate.

To repeat the basics (virtually unchanged over last ten years, only gets worse):

Continued Decline

Factories, call centers, development centers, financial centers and whole industries are moving to foreign countries and will continue to do so until these failed economic policies are changed. trade deficit in manufacturing jobs

Empty factories and other facilities do not produce goods to be exported, even if President Bush, Congress, Republicans and Democrats tell us this is good for us, empty factories just do not produce much!

When Americans need the products and services those factories and facilities used to produce - they have to buy imports. As long as more factories move to foreign countries than move to our country, we will export less and import more! The chart on the right shows the long term trend of lost factories as a percentage of the working population in our country. These are jobs moved to foreign countries, so that we lose both the income and have to buy imports.

Meanwhile the Bush Economic Polices (and previous President Clinton's) continue their march into our country's history.

Seemingly oblivious to the long term effects of these economic policies the Bush Administration continues the march to globalization!

If all of our remaining facilities ran at 100% capacity this year and exported every bit of additional product - we would still have a trade deficit! But instead foreign owned t-billsof polices to increase utilization and capacity of our facilities we have government polices in place which encourages their relocation to foreign countries!

Until the failed policies are changed - there is nothing to stop the downward trend!

Lets repeat that statement, it is very important:

Until the failed policies are changed - there is nothing to stop the downward trend!

The mushrooming Trade Deficit and Budget Deficits are creating over $1,000,000,000,000,000.00 - 1 Trillion Dollars of debt per year! That is over $3,300.00 of new debt for every man, woman and child in our country - per year! There are very few options on eliminating debt:

1) Repudiate it - At a national level  - would mean the US default on all securities and collapse of our economy. At the corporate level means closing the doors and layoffs and reductions in salaries for those remaining on payroll.

2) Devalue the dollar - The long term trend is a devaluation of the dollar. This means in effect an effective lowering of American income in relation of he rest of the world and higher import prices.

3) Inflation - Means you get less value for your dollar so it is in effect worth less.

4) Raise Taxes - Tax rates are rising if you include all of the hidden and embedded fees, costs and regulations.

5) Liquidate assets - This is in effect selling American assets to foreign entities and is the major source of funding for our current debt.

With the exception of national repudiation of debt, the other forces above are all in play now, and are the mechanisms that will lower American per capita income to match the rest of the world. You are seeing the small steps in the march to globalization on an ongoing basis. Step by step you are marching toward globalization.

It is up to you - the American citizen to decide how long - you - are going to let it continue. The most recent Expensive Trade Agreement - CAFTA - was passed by the narrowest of margins in the US House of Representatives, by one vote. Many of us have voted for and supported members of Congress that turned their back on us under intense Bush Administration and corporate lobbying.

You have the power to "retire" these corporate representatives and get replacements who will represent us - not special interests. Every one of the US Representatives that voted for CAFTA (Roll Call Vote: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll443.xml#Y) is up for election next year.

Are you going to send them back so that they can vote for expensive trade agreements with Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Thailand, Tunisia, the UAE, Kuwait, Botswana, South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, and Namibia, Russia, Ukraine, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Peru and Qatar and who knows where else?

They are all in process and so far the Democratic and Republicans in Congress have not rejected a single expensive trade agreement since NAFTA in 1992! Just what we need - more empty facilities; less jobs, less exports and more imports.

Perhaps we need less Republicans and Democrats, but that is up to you - the citizens. You get what you vote for and you are getting globalization whether you want it or not! You are allowing these elected officials to sell your grandchildren's future with impunity.

The Southern Party has released a position statement that would change the failed and misnamed "free trade" to one of FAIR Trade (See: A Southern Party of Georgia Position on solving our country’s Trade Deficit).

Unless something is changed, we are marching down the path to globalization. Our children and grandchildren are being dragged along with us and will face the consequences of our actions and pay the price.

When President Bush gave his recent speech in India, where hundreds of thousands of American jobs have been outsourced, he clearly indicated that there are no plans to change these policies. These policies are designed to implement "globalization" and we close by repeating what this really means:

Globalization: The Politicians pitch: Free Market forces will eventually solve the problem. Rising incomes in foreign countries will stabilize the situation.

Explanation:  Using some round representative numbers (references at bottom):

US population 300 Million, Average per capita income - $33,000 per year

India population 1 Billion, average per capita income - $472.00 per year.

Equalized income between US and India - $7,978.00 per year.

What that means to you: Average American income will fall dramatically.

If we achieve globalization - if the current economic policies are maintained the American average per capita income will have to fall to $7,978.00 per year - for the per capita income in India and the US to equalize.

We appreciate any help in passing this information on to others.

Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing
because he could only do a little.

Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797)

 
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