Posted on 06/21/2005 5:00:37 PM PDT by hedgetrimmer
Jones says, “CAFTA would mean more job losses for Americans.”
Washington, D.C.- In a press conference today, Third District Representative Walter B. Jones joined House colleagues and business organizations to speak out against the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA.) Congressman Jones hosted the bipartisan event with Rep. Sherrod Brown of Ohio.
“CAFTA would mean more job losses for Americans. CAFTA is nothing but an extension of NAFTA (the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement)—85 percent of the language in CAFTA is identical to that in NAFTA,” Jones said. “Since NAFTA was signed, my home state of North Carolina has lost over 200,000 manufacturing jobs. The U.S. as a whole has lost over 2.5 million manufacturing jobs. Illegal aliens from Mexico have increased from 2 million before NAFTA, to more than 7.5 million. CAFTA will continue these trends.”
“There’s a reason CAFTA rhymes with NAFTA,” Rep. Brown said, “It’s another outsourcing agreement that will lead to more job loss in our nation.”
“CAFTA provides every incentive to outsource jobs to Central America,” Jones said. “CAFTA allows China to backdoor fabric into Central America where it can be assembled and shipped into the U.S. duty-free. The last thing we need is to help China. We’ve outsourced 1.5 million jobs to China in the last 15 years. It is time we focus on the American worker.”
Joining Representatives Jones and Brown were Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (NJ), Rep. Maxine Waters (CA), Rep. Allyson Schwartz (PA), and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL).
At the event, the United States Business and Industry Council (USBIC) released a letter to the Administration signed by 24 business organizations opposed to CAFTA. According to USBIC President Kevin L. Kearns, the letter proves that opposition to CAFTA extends far beyond textile and sugar interests and organized labor. Kearns emphasized, “The anti-CAFTA and anti-outsourcing stances expressed by this letter represent the broadest business opposition to a trade initiative in decades.”
The letter’s signatories include: American Brush Manufacturers’ Association American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition American Mold Builders Association Greater Bristol (Connecticut) Chamber of Commerce MADE in the USA Manufacturers’ Association of Central Florida Manufacturers’ Association of Central New York Manufacturers’ Association of South Central Pennsylvania Manufacturers for Fair Trade Manufacturing Alliance of Connecticut Manufacturing Coalition Modular Home Manufacturers’ Association of the Northeast National Textile Association New England Spring and Metalstamping Association Northeast Ohio Campaign for Manufacturing Precision Machined Products Association Save American Jobs Save American Manufacturing Save American Manufacturing NOW Summit County (Ohio) Machine Shop Group United States Business and Industry Council U.S. Printed Circuit Alliance Western Carolina Industries Westside (Cleveland) Industrial Retention and Expansion Network
The event’s speakers included Members of Congress; Alan Tonelson, U.S. Business and Industry Council; Jim Schollaert, American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition; Fred Tedesco, PA-Ted Spring Co., Bristol, Conn./Made in U.S.A.; Jock Nash, Milliken & Co., Spartanburg, S.C./National Textile Association; Mike Retzer, W.W. Strohwig Tool & Die, Richfield, Wis./ Save America Manufacturing – NOW; and Dave Frengel, Penn United Technologies, Cabot, Pa/Manufacturers for Fair Trade.
FYI
All these demagogues do is blame trade for jobs that are lost and refuse to give trade credit for the higher paying jobs that are created to replace them.
Joining Representatives Jones and Brown were Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (NJ), Rep. Maxine Waters (CA), Rep. Allyson Schwartz (PA), and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL).
I am embarrassed to say that there was a time when I hoped Walter Jones, Jr. would run for Governor of my state, or for the Senate. But I am now delighted that he he hasn't achieved higher office. He's no conservative, except to those who equate conservatism to isolationism. His earlier demand that President Bush set a withdrawal date from Iraq bordered on treason, in my opinion.
Walter Jones, Jr. was a Democrat while he served in the North Carolina General Assembly, while his late father served as a Democrat Congressman in northeastern North Carolina. Jones, Jr. converted to the GOP when political expediency dictated such. But his true colors have emerged recently. North Carolina can, and must, do better.
I herewith ping a few fellow North Carolinians, some of whom may have the key to the NC ping list.
What has happened to this man??
The acorn never falls far from the tree.
Thank you so much for your patronizing comment. In fact, I understand Walter Jones just fine. It's not like he's terribly deep.
He is one of the few men up there who stands for what he believes in even if it is not the popular thing.
You could say the same about Teddy Kennedy, Howard Dean, or Barney Frank.
...I can say that he is no lap dog, in the same vein as Sen Helms.
Scum like Walter Jones shouldn't be mentioned in the same paragraph as Jesse Helms. I am unaware of any instance of Senator Helms publicly undercutting President Reagan or President G.H.W. Bush; clearly Rep. Jones has done just that with respect to the current President Bush. Aid and comfort to the enemy, pure and simple.
But that was my point. You extolled Walter Jones because he "stands for what he believes in even if it is not the popular thing"; I suggest that standing up for your beliefs isn't much of a virtue if your beliefs are dead wrong.
...but like Jones, he [Jesse Helms] was a huge critic of the Red China policy, and Bush 41 tax increase, and of the Arms Agreement of 1988.
Fine, but Jesse never undercut Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, or Bush 41 on the conduct of war. I doubt that Congressman Jones has deliberately engaged in "aid and comfort to the enemy" behavior, but he is such an intellectual lightweight that he is unable to grasp the effect of his own words.
...I strongly believe that Walter Jones Jr. will win re-election by a wide margin, and I would not count him out for a state wide run in 2008.
The Republican nominee will win the 3rd Congressional District in the 2006 general election. Jones may have already accumulated a campaign war-chest of sufficient size to deter serious competition for the nomination. I hope that's not the case; certainly after showing his ass repeatedly, he should be vulnerable.
As far as statewide possibilities for Jones are concerned, I must assume you are from another planet. His political goose is not only cooked, it's burned to a crisp.
Helpful information. Thank you.
My question is: Will liberal (socialist) policies be thereby brought into NC? It's how it usually goes; create a problem, then offer the socialist solutions.
I lack sufficient data on Jones; therefore I bring up other matters still in my memory "pending" status; like Hillary's 600 FBI files on Republicans. To my knowledge; the story is out, even yet, on who the files were on. The Why isn't hard to figure out whatsoever, IMHO.
Strictly "by the numbers" (high ACU scores, low ADA scores) Jones is a pretty dependable conservative. But dig a little deeper, and you'll find some nasty streaks of economic and military isolationism, environmental whackoism, and plenty of pork-barrel spending.
His recent (and, in my judgment, inexcusable) call for the setting of a date for withdrawal from Iraq, and his criticism of the war in general, are not too surprising in hindsight given some of his pre-war foreign policy statements. Nor does his CAFTA stand come as a surprise. In both cases, his stances run counter to the Bush Administration's, but I'll leave it to others to decide whether they are counter to conservative orthodoxy.
Jones has long opposed oil drilling off North Carolina's shore, an unfortunate, shortsighted view. He was a primary backer of the mega-million dollar move of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, and expenditure which surely ranks as among the most absurd in recent memory. But, of course, anti-drilling and pro-lighthouse move stances are politically expedient; Walter plays that game well.
No, that was just our current Senator that did that as Sec of Trans. Multiple times.
I'm not sure I agree with Jones on this issue however it was good to see freedom fry boy did find an acorn and stood with Rep. Paul. I just wish they would have picked other representatives to stand with them at the podium
Not saying Jones has become conservative, and I'll not take anyone seriously that tries to show their nationalism by renaming food, but at least he was doing the right thing for the wrong reason.
Excellent synopsis. Thank you.
What exactly does that have to do with CAFTA?
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