Posted on 02/22/2002 4:51:19 AM PST by Captain Shady
Greenville,SC. Rep. Jim DeMint knows he has riled some textile leaders with recent votes in Congress but says it is a communications problem, not a policy problem.
The Republican from the 4th Congressional District has been criticized by some for free-trade votes that could hurt the sagging textile industry.
‘‘I have a big communications problem on trade, but I have no question about the policy,’’ DeMint said. ‘‘The truth is that all the jobs in the Upstate depend on free international trade.’’
DeMint, who has said he will only serve three terms in Washington, is running for that third term.
‘‘The free trade folks call me a protectionist; the textile people say I’ve betrayed them,’’ he said, adding that South Carolina must attract manufacturers whose products are competitive worldwide.
‘‘Some things we just can’t stop. I don’t want to just stand in front of the train,’’ he said.
A group of textile leaders recently attended a luncheon for the man they hope will replace DeMint: Republican Phil Bradley, a former legislator who recently resigned from the Public Service Commission.
Roger Chastain, president of Mount Vernon Mills, said the industry is disenchanted with DeMint’s views.
‘‘When you’ve lost 68,000 jobs and see 100 plants close, a lot of people feel we don’t have good representation or a congressman who can stand up to his own party,’’ Chastain said.
There is a third Republican in the primary field, Presbyterian College professor Dan Hiltgen. No Democrat has announced in the strongly Republican district that includes Greenville, Spartanburg and Union counties as well as a portion of Laurens County.
There’s a perception among workers ‘‘that trade is bad for their jobs,’’ DeMint said. ‘‘But when we talk about free and fair trade, people are with us. That’s why I have to get out more and campaign.’’
DeMint angered textile leaders with his December vote breaking a tie on a measure granting President Bush trade promotion authority.
The bill, which must be approved by the Senate, would increase a president’s ability to negotiate trade agreements and limit Congress’ ability to block them.
DeMint said he won assurances that textiles would be protected in future international trade talks, but industry officials worry the administration might sacrifice the industry to achieve foreign policy goals in developing nations.
‘‘For Jim DeMint to vote against the textile industry would be like an Iowa congressman voting against corn,’’ said Jock Nash, a Washington lawyer who represents textile magnate Roger Milliken.
The administration, which lobbied for DeMint’s support, dispatched William Lash III, an assistant secretary of commerce, to Greenville to diffuse textile executives’ anger. The meeting was secret and few wanted to talk about it.
The U.S. Business and Industry Council, a trade group, began running radio ads urging voters to call DeMint and challenge his vote.
The group is not necessarily trying to unseat DeMint but wants him to change his vote when the Senate version of the bill comes before the House, said Kevin Kearns, the group’s president.
Bradley said DeMint is ‘‘out of touch with his constituency’’ and criticized the congressman’s support of a failed referendum last year to raise school taxes.
Barry Wynn, DeMint’s finance chairman and a former state GOP chairman, said the congressman’s problems largely are limited to a portion of a textile industry that has lost its pre-eminent position.
‘‘There’s a right side to Jim’s position,’’ Wynn said. ‘‘You can ride up and down I-85 and see that we have replaced textile jobs with other jobs. It means you call Michelin instead of Milliken.’’
And Michelin ain't hiring either.
If other nations also abandon protectionism,then free trade works. Just like marriage vows work if both sides take them seriously.
It doesn't really matter, as my sister tells me that most of the textile jobs upcountry are now held by Mexicans anyway (the blacks don't want said jobs and the whites have gone on to better paying work). You might as well ship them south.
Meanwhile, areas that let go of industries that can be more efficiently and more cost-effectively be produced elsewhere, face reality and create better jobs that require skilled workers that can get paid higher skilled-worker family wages.
We protected the machine tool industry from competition. Then we all paid more for parts to make manufactured products in the US
True. However if America is out of work ,who will buy the other guys stuff anyway ? The industrialists will have to raise the pay of their foreign workers to make up for lost American consumers. Then those nations will become superpowers while America becomes a backwater thirdworld nation.
I forgot to add that Mr. DeMint is named after something we New Yorkers put in our mouths after eating at a diner (De-Mint).
My brother-in-law moved with my sister to Greenville to work at GE. GE, BMW and Michelin have brought many jobs to the reason. We have just got to wake up to the fact that many of these jobs require training and an education and that high paying unskilled labor is a thing of the past.
Unions in SAouth Carolina ? what turnip truck did you fall off of?If you even say the word union at work in SC you'll be escorted out the door for insubordination.
I agree with DeMint on free trade, but because he supported the school tax increase he lost me. The local school board had advertising that if you don't vote Yes, you hate children. DeMint supported this group. The tax increase was voted down 70-30.
They are, although SC is a right-to-work state (Amen!).
Machine tool industry
Hah, look at the STEEL industry! Thanks to protection, we have more steel then we know what to do with and greater inefficiencies in THAT industry than any other.
Bubba Helms from NC may be an otherwise fine Senator, but he is DEAD WRONG on "protecting" his contributors in the textile sector.
Your question, and following statement, demonstrate a true misunderstanding of how markets work.
Many mills were unionized 25 years ago (so I've been told), although right-to-work laws have put a damper on the power of the unions in SC.
Personally, I would prefer having GE and BMW nearby than some filthy textile or carpet mill, as the former tend to attract a better class of people.
Your concern for French and German companies amuses me to no end.
This is what Paddy Buchanan said back in 1992 (and I believed him, despite being a 16 year old lefty at the time). I myself have been enjoying the "economic chaos" that he had predicted over the last ten years. :-)
New York/New Jersey/Connecticut lost most of its manufacturing base after WWII. What PO'ed me was how the manufacturers brought up all of these people from the South and Puerto Rico during the wartime labor shortage. The men who returned from the war were subsequently given fat severence packages or were given the few jobs remaining, while the blacks from the South and the Puerto Ricans were put on the dole when the factories started shutting down in the 1950s.
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