"As I say, I'm for free trade, but their free-trade agenda equals NO national security."
What I see of the free trade crowd tells me profit trumps EVERYTHING. Need to destabilize the country in order to increase profits? Do it! Need to put Americans out of work and damage our local economy to increase profits? Do it!
Nothing, absolutely nothing outweighs the imperitive to increase profits. (If you make enough money, you can move to whatever country isn't in tatters by the time you're done.)
With all due respect, that's not how the free market works.
If I'm a building contractor and hire only legal aliens and citizens, my labor costs and therefore my price will be significantly higher than my competition, which is willing to use illegals.
I will not get jobs and I will soon be out of business if I don't follow their lead.
This is exactly what happened to a good friend of mine. His price was undercut 35% by contractors using illegal labor.
Not all those who hire illegals are doing it just to make an extra buck. Many are doing it just to survive in business.
They way out of this is to create new rules that all businesses must follow.
The problem is, you don't understand what free trade is. It brings revenue IN to the country, by making the raw materials WE use cheaper to import. It also makes our exports cheaper, they can't put levee's on them either. It works both ways.
It's protectionism that doesn't work. If you think we should be able to put levee on foriegn products, but be able to send our stuff everywhere without the same retaliation, you are living in dreamland. Getting foriegn levees removed from American products is what free trade agrements acomplish. It's up to American businesses to be competitive. You can't protect poorly managed businesses with levee's to protect union jobs.
The 'cheap labor' excuse doesn't wash either. We do have temporary levee to allow Businesses to upgrade and automate. If the unions block this time period- to damn bad.
Free trade has created much more wealth in this country.
Well, then you are simply reading the TRUE "free trade" crowd wrong: Adam Smith was a "free trader," but he insisted on national security and having a big navy, and profits never trump security, because without security, your profits are not secure. Ask the oil companies who did business in Mexico.