Free Republic

“Claims that trade deals increase exports and create jobs are based on flawed trade models, and on distorted and one-sided interpretations of the findings of those models,” Scott explained. “If you’re president, you’re going to have to live with it,” Pelley said to the billionaire businessman during the interview, referencing NAFTA. Trump fired back: “Excuse me, we will either renegotiate it or we will break it. Because, you know, every agreement has an end.” Pelley said Trump can’t just break the law. “Excuse me, every agreement has an end. Every agreement has to be fair,” Trump reiterated. “Every agreement has...

Port of Savannah Maybe Trump Gets It-By: Larry Walker II-This year-to-date, the United States has imported $267.7 billion in goods from China, while exporting just $65.4 billion in goods to China. That amounts to a current year trade deficit of $202.3 billion, in the first seven months alone. Looking back over the last 30 years, the last time our mutual trade comprised any semblance of balance was in 1985. Our trade deficit with China was a mere $6.0 million in 1985 (the last time it would amount to less than a billion dollars). From a trade deficit of just...

During the August recess GOP senators were told to press for the passage of the TPP Trade Agreement. Yikes!! Wikileaks has gotten their hands on a copy of Obama’s phony TPP trade bill. It contains 29 chapters but only 5 pertain to trade. Wikileaks will be publishing the entire bill and they have already released the chapter on Investment. It’s very interesting. It is written in a such a way as to give multinational companies a huge advantage on trade. If a public hospital is built close to a private one, the private hospital has the right to sue the...

By Stephen Moore & Lawrence Kudlow Here's a historical fact that Donald Trump, and many voters attracted to him, may not know: The last American president who was a trade protectionist was Republican Herbert Hoover. Obviously that economic strategy didn't turn out so well — either for the nation or the GOP. Does Trump aspire to be a 21st century Hoover with a modernized platform of the 1930 Smoot-Hawley tariff that helped send the U.S. and world economy into a decade-long depression and a collapse of the banking system? We can't help wondering whether the panic in world financial markets...

Here's a historical fact that Donald Trump, and many voters attracted to him, may not know: The last American president who was a trade protectionist was Republican Herbert Hoover. Does Trump aspire to be a 21st century Hoover with a modernized platform of the 1930 Smoot-Hawley tariff that helped send the U.S. and world economy into a decade-long depression and a collapse of the banking system?

The powerful Globalist players at the Council on Foreign Relations, the Bilderberg Group, and the Trilateral Commission are certainly watching the presidential campaign of Donald Trump. Trump has already made statements about immigration they find troubling. They may or may not be taking Trump’s presidential run seriously. They may or may not view him as an inconsequential blowhard, a shoot-from-the-hip cowboy who forgets today what he said yesterday—but today the New York Times has made reference to Trump in a way that will make these Globalist heavy hitters pause and blink while drinking their morning coffee (Here in “As Stock...

Sen. Sherrod Brown announced Friday he is going to block the confirmation of a high-level White House nominee, because of the Obama administration's refusal to relax its secrecy protocols that make it difficult for members of Congress and their staffs to review the language in a Pacific Rim trade deal.Brown, a Democrat from Ohio, told NPR it was "outrageous" that congressional staff members with the proper security clearances can view the Trans-Pacific Partnership draft only when a member of Congress accompanies them. As NPR's Ailsa Chang reported in May, the document is stored in a highly secure room in the...

It's never easy to predict how any presidential term will play out; very few could have anticipated the 9/11 attacks or the Iraq War after George W. Bush won in 2000 or the lingering effects of the Great Recession after Barack Obama won in 2008. Yet the recent and meteoric rise of Donald Trump to the top of the GOP polls begs an interesting question: what if the billionaire real estate mogul actually wins the White House in 2016?As of July 2015, it is hard to nail down precisely what Trump's economic, social and foreign policies are. Trump is big...

Interstate 11 is getting another boost with execution of a memorandum of understanding between Arizona and Mexico. One of the four international cooperation agreements to be signed by Gov. Doug Ducey and the Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs Jose Antonio Meade extends I-11 from Nogales into Mexico to Hermosillo and Mexico City. The international commerce corridor MOU grew out of a conversation between Arizona business leaders, Ducey and Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim at the Phoenix Business Journal’s Global Market Discovery series earlier this year. People on the Move Victor Foggie Victor Foggie Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Arizona Brian...

The Republican Party must be tearing its hair out. For years, visitors from the US have extolled the strength of the party’s potential Presidential candidates for 2016. The pack is certainly more impressive than in 2012 and, with the exception of one or two candidates, they are ostensibly advocates of relatively free market policies. In a campaign against an unlikeable Hillary Clinton, many conservatives were quietly confident of victory in 2016. But all these voices are being drowned out by the brash businessman and property magnate Donald Trump. Despite widespread criticism for his remarks about “rapist” illegal Mexican immigrants, Trump...

The President's trade agenda scored a major victory Tuesday when the Senate voted to advance a bill to allow "fast-track" approval of large international trade bills. The outcome of this key procedural vote had been in doubt as a group of 14 pro-trade Democrats weighed whether to continue their support of the bill out of concern that a related workers' assistance package might not pass both chambers. But after repeated assurances by GOP congressional leaders that workers' assistance measure will be adopted, 13 out of 14 backed the bill. The vote was 60 to 37, passing by the slimmest margin...

There has been vigorous debate in the Free Republic Forums recently between the propel who think the TPP and TPA are good and that we need Free Trade, and the staunch protectionists out there, and the middle of the road variety like myself that don't want such things but still recognize that we need trade. We have learned many things about each other, but one of the things I have come to realize is that the "free trade" has a lot of issues. The way I see it, the only way Free Trade will EVER work properly, (especially with China_...

STOP FIGHTING AGAINST PATRIOTS.TPA, TAA, TPP, TED CRUZ, JEFF SESSIONS AND YOU There is a lot of confusion about these acronyms; about what Jeff Sessions believed and what Ted Cruz voted for. But I hope you are able to see when I finish, why we should be careful in fighting our own about every thing we hear. Sometimes they will even differ in their understanding. I was ignorant about it up until a week or two ago, when I looked into the matter carefully. First of all not one person up there understands more about international rulings and how they...

Bernie Sanders, the outspoken progressive U.S. senator challenging Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, urged her on Sunday to take a stand on a big trade deal that has divided the Democratic Party. Clinton aides appearing on Sunday television news shows said she would not weigh in until negotiations were complete. Sanders, a vocal critic of free trade, called on Clinton to join labor unions, environmentalists and other opponents of the trade package before it is brought up for another vote this week. Clinton is the front-runner among candidates to be the Democratic Party nominee for the November...

Full-blown free trade is about total decentralization in trade policy. In a country that enjoys free trade — that is, a country that has implemented unilateral free trade — it is fully up to the individual consumer and entrepreneur as to whether or not he wishes to do business with foreign suppliers. Under such a system, a baker who must buy delivery trucks and flour for his business can choose whether or not he will obtain his supplies from foreign or domestic suppliers. In most cases, he will choose the most economical option, and the marketplace will reflect this reality....

Brendan Nyhan at The New York Times seems to be under the impression that the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) has something to do with free trade. Nyhan writes that the TPP is the latest step in a decades-long trend toward liberalizing trade — a somewhat mysterious development given that many Americans are skeptical of freer trade. But Americans with higher incomes are not so skeptical. They — along with businesses and interest groups that tend to be affiliated with them — are much more likely to support trade liberalization.... As Henry Hazlitt wrote with exasperation in Economics in One Lesson,...

When the proceeds of growth are not widely shared, the consensus in favor of pro-growth measures cracks. A decade and a half ago, I filled my days writing speeches urging Congress to grant President George W. Bush fast-track trade authority. If memory serves, I wrote more speeches on that one subject than on any other. Obviously, I didn’t earn my pay: Despite Republican majorities in both Houses, Congress balked. This past year, President Obama has worked as hard for fast-track authority as President Bush ever did. It now seems that his efforts will prove as unavailing. This time, if anything,...

Senator Cruz entirely understands the widespread suspicion of the President. Nobody has been more vocal in pointing out the President’s lawlessness or more passionate about fighting his usurpation of congressional authority. Senator Cruz would not and will not give President Obama one more inch of unrestricted power. There have been a lot of questions and concerns about the ongoing Pacific trade negotiations. Many of those concerns, fueled by the media, stem from confusion about Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) and the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Let’s unpack the issues one by one. What are TPA and TPP? TPA stands for Trade...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/06/12/tpp-obama-warren-trade-secrets-column/28703605/

It’s going to be weird when John Boehner and John McCain are returned to Congress next November by landslide margins while Mr. Entitlement Reform is busy clearing out his desk. Oh well. The Ted Cruz primary fight in 2018 will be interesting, at least. Laura Ingraham ✔ ‎@IngrahamAngle Wisconsin sources say discussions building in favor of challenging @RepPaulRyan over his role in the #ObamaTrade. #PeoplesCandidate 10:05 AM - 12 Jun 2015 Laura Ingraham ✔ ‎@IngrahamAngle FACT: @RepPaulRyan will have mega bucks to defend his reelection from the same Corps that benefit from & lobbied for #ObamaTrade. 10:30 AM - 12...