Gotta love these Democrats: Hillary Clinton Tries to Pay Down Debt By Raffling Off Day With Her Husband FOXNews.com Friday, April 10, 2009 http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/04/10/clinton-tries-pay-debt-raffling-day-husband/ Hillary Clinton is so eager to pay off her campaign debt, she's resorted to selling her husband -- for a day, anyway. The secretary of state's long-gone presidential campaign still is trying to pay off a steep debt and has launched a new fundraising pitch urging donors to give money and compete for the chance to win one of three "exclusive prizes." The most exclusive prize? A day of "adventure" in the Big Apple with former President Bill Clinton. "A truly once in a lifetime chance: you and a guest will spend a day with President Clinton and a weekend of fun filled adventure in New York," the online promo says.
I get the joke, but I'm curious what he has done in his 80 days in office to make you think he is protectionist? There must be something or the joke is pointless. Oh, and to stay on topic with the original post . . . . SEMPER HIGH!
Well, I have been severely disappointed in the protectionist provisions that came out in the stimulus package. But since then, he has also postponed talks for the trans-pacific strategic economic partnership, which would open up free trade with New Zealand, Singapore (we already have a free trade agreement with them, but this would extend it), Brunei, Australia, Vietnam, and Chile. He has also violated NAFTA by ending a cross border trucking program with Mexico, which has caused Mexico to raise tariffs on 90 US products. Mexico has even threatened litigation because of it. I have always hated the polarized commentary on the great depression, because it eliminates learning from it, and it increases partisan bickering. How many people do you know (besides me) that can say that the New Deal was a good thing for the most part, but the protectionist Smoot Hawley tariffs, raised taxes, and the extensive price controls prolonged the recovery far beyond what it could have been. Hardly anybody does...even people who would otherwise condemn protectionism and price controls. It is very disappointing in our context because we are in a bad recession, and yet we are making the same mistakes. That being said, I don't think he is a full bore protectionist...just that he is more protectionist than is good for our country. I think he knows the dangers of protectionism, which is why we haven't seen any overt protectionist measures...but he is definitely not a free trader.
Excellent response. I would say, however, that decisions to maintian the status quo on trade agreements is a far cry from Smoot Hawley. I'm not up on the trucking issue under NAFTA, but my guess is it might have something to do with the violence at the borders? Just a guess.
The trucking issue was said to be about safety on our roadways, but mexican trucks have better inspection records in our inspection facilities than our own trucks do. And yeah, we aren't anywhere near smoot hawley, but I think that if we had sped up the FTA talks instead of postponing them, it could have helped us to recover much faster. A lot of the jobs that we are losing through this recession may never come back. They will need to be created from scratch...something upstarts and small businesses have been doing much better than large corporations for a long time now. What better way to help small businesses and upstarts than to dramatically increase the size and diversity of the market to which we can sell? I think we should start a free trade thread...I didn't mean to get into this in one of ITNs joke threads