CAFTA Doublespeak top ten list

In "1984", when Big Brother and the Administration say PEACE they mean WAR, when they say LOVE they mean HATE, and when they say FREEDOM they mean SLAVERY.

Today, when the Administration says Trade is FREE, they mean at a COST. Here's a Top Ten List you'll never see on Dave Letterman: Trade Doublespeak.

#10 Doublespeak: Our Trade Deficit Actually Shows How Strong The Economy Is. Yes, some people actually say this. It's a lot like arguing that the more you go into debt, the richer you really are. Warren Buffet notes the absurdity of this statement, adding "Americans end up owning a reduced portion of our country while non-Americans own a greater part. This force-feeding of American wealth to the rest of the world is now proceeding at the rate of $1.8 Billion daily." It already happened with NAFTA. Our trade deficit with those countries is 12 times bigger than before NAFTA -- it shot up from $9 billion in 1993 to $111 billion last year. A high trade deficit weakens our economy.

#9 Doublespeak: CAFTA Slows Immigration. This same false promise was made under NAFTA, and we all witnessed the opposite result of increased immigration from Mexico. CAFTA has back-door provisions that dictate our U.S. immigration laws and visa requirements may be in violation of the agreement, and unenforceable. CAFTA also increases legal immigration, as any foreign company wishing to come into the United States can also bring in employees from the country of origin.

#8 Doublespeak: CAFTA Opens A Substantial Market for U.S. Goods. Central America has some of the poorest countries in the world, and the aggregate economy of the six CAFTA nations is minuscule. "Add up the six CAFTA economies and you get a market the size of New Haven, Connecticut," points out trade analyst Alan Tonelson of the U.S. Business and Industry Council. Tonelson concludes that CAFTA is a "clbuttic outsourcing agreement" - an arrangement in which the only significant U.S. export would be manufacturing jobs to poor, low-wage nations.

#7 Doublespeak: CAFTA Helps The Working Poor Of Central America. If you want to predict the future, look to the past. Since NAFTA, real wages for Mexican workers have fallen. Over 1.5 million displaced Mexican subsistence farmers were turned into unemployed mbuttes. Mexico is becoming poorer. Today, Forty percent of Central America's workers earn less than two dollars a day. Their employment rights are routinely abused, and CAFTA will require these countries to merely enforce their own weak and unfair labor laws. CAFTA is devoid of compbuttion and opportunity for those who need it the most-the 37 million Central Americans struggling in poverty. CAFTA is about making corporations richer, not Central American workers.

#6 Doublespeak: CAFTA Helps Farmers. The poor of Central America will not be buying cheese from Wisconsin or corn from Iowa. Under CAFTA, barriers to agricultural imports from these countries would be removed immediately, while barriers to U.S. exports wouldn't be lifted for anywhere from 10-20 years - thereby crippling U.S. agricultural producers. Many state-level farm organizations - including several local and state Farm Bureau Chapters - publicly oppose CAFTA. The National buttociation of State Departments of Agriculture pbutted a resolution against CAFTA because farm products aren't adequately protected by the agreement. CAFTA will hurt the American farmer, but funnel money to large agribusiness corporations who do business overseas.

#5 Doublespeak: CAFTA Is Essential For National Security. This desperate plea by Rumsfield and Rice is a last ditch effort by a failing administration to resuscitate CAFTA using fear and divisiveness. Short of votes in congress, with a flawed strategy, they are attempting to scare the American people into support. Nobody really thinks Al Qaeda has splinter cells in Costa Rica. We won't be fooled into believing Osama Bin Laden is hiding out in the Dominican Republic. Look to the past: Our CIA activities during the 1984 Iran-Contra scandal in Nicaragua did little to bring about security, and Bush's most recent lobbying for CAFTA at the OAS is best characterized as a sign of weakness, not of strength.

#4 Doublespeak: CAFTA Is A Relatively Small Trade Agreement. CAFTA is the largest trade agreement before our country since NAFTA, and a critical steppingstone toward creation of a 34-nation Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). It has become a national referendum on failed trade policies of the past, and the outcome will set a course for our future dealings with China. For local and state government, CAFTA would become the highest law of the land, determining rules on procurement, health care, zoning and immigration.

#3 Doublespeak: CAFTA Helps The American Worker. Just the opposite. When companies in other countries are allowed to race to the basement, employment conditions for our American workers deteriorate. We get less pay, fewer benefits and reduced health care coverage. CAFTA is the Wal-Mart of trade deals. CEO's justify actions by the need to stay compebreastive and keep prices low. Big corporations then get all the breaks, and the profits, while workers rights and wages are forsaken.

#2 Doublespeak: Trade Deals Always Pbutt In Congress. So Will CAFTA. Repeating a statement doesn't make it true. Right now, a majority of House members, including a significant number of Republicans, oppose CAFTA. Another sizeable bloc of GOP House members is uncommitted. For CAFTA to pbutt, over two dozen house members will have to break commitments to vote against it, and every single uncommitted member will need to vote for it. That's not likely to happen, as polling shows opposition to outsourcing and CAFTA is growing. The more Americans find out about it, the less they like it.

And The #1 Use Of Trade Doublespeak: CAFTA Trade Policies Create Jobs and Stimulate Economic Growth. It's The Big Lie. When we import more, and our trade deficit grows, we lose jobs, and export our wealth to other countries. We lost an estimated 900,000 net jobs to NAFTA. Outsourcing the American economy to other countries is a failing strategy for our future.

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