Byron Dorgan Uses Hearing To Rail Against Free Trade, Pimp His Book

• April 19, 2007

Yesterday in the Senate, Sen. Byron “Smoot” Dorgan (D-ND) held a hearing on whether “free trade is working,” focusing mainly on trade agreements. One of the witnesses was fellow protectionist Sen. Sherrod “Hawley” Brown (D-OH). Luckily they were offset by trade expert and NAM alum Christoper Wenk who actually was armed with the facts, showing that trade agreements create jobs for Americans. Doncha just hate it when the facts don’t jibe with the hysteria? Dorgan, don’t forget, is also hyping his widely-panned book of (mostly) fiction and hype. (For the record, we think it’s crass to use a public forum to shamelessly hype your [widely acclaimed]book.)
The growing protectionist tide among the Democrats is most troublesome, threatening the prosperity and growth of thee economy. But hey, it sells at campaign time, right? The plain truth is that trade creates jobs and prosperity.

It’s a pretty sorry state of affairs when these protections argue to isolate ourselves economically from other countries, forcing Americans to pay higher prices for goods than they would have to under free trade conditions, all just to placate the string-pulling union masters.

Tags: Asshats, Cultural Marxism, Domestic Issues, Politics

http://www.freerepublicans.com/ FreeRepublicans.com

Tell me again why we’re supposed to care about trade deficits?

If the trade deficit with Mexico was allowing more Mexicans to stay there and work, it wouldn’t be so bad, but we all know that is not the case.

In the case of China, they get to use that surplus of dollars from trade to build a military to threaten us and our allies (Taiwan and Japan specifically).

They also can outbid us on the world oil market and cause our energy costs to increase by the simple fact that they have more dollars than they need to survive.
http://www.freerepublicans.com/ FreeRepublicans.com

I could not find the Energy Imports Data, so I am not refuting their claim, just stating what the total trade numbers are.
Ronald Walter

Garner enough votes at the next election and you become a ‘Republican’ Senator from North Dakota. If you have an opponent as formidable as Byron, you might not win the seat. If Byron is your opponent, Byron is going to win. You will continue to whine about Byron after the election.

I didn’t vote for Byron last time he ran for re-election, but I will next time.

I’m going with former Republican Mark Andrews’ advice: Vote for Democrats.
http://www.freerepublicans.com/ FreeRepublicans.com

From the article you linked to:

And when all else fails, just check out this chart. It’s pretty clear that our trade deficit is with countries with which we have no trade agreement.

Well, I clicked that link to the chart and found this listed as “Fact” on the 2nd page:

Fact:
Since 2001, the entire increase in the overall U.S. trade deficit with our NAFTA partners
has been due to U.S. imports of petroleum and natural gas, which are needed to fuel
our economy. The U.S. manufactured goods trade balance with our NAFTA partners
has actually improved by $558 million over the past five years.

If you goto the US Census Bureau, here are the links and stats for our Mexican Trade Balance:
Trade with Mexico : 2006 Balance (in millions) = -64,091.6
Trade with Mexico : 2001 Balance (in millions) = -30,041.4

Mexican-American Trade Balance Difference (2001-2006) = Deficit Increase (in millions) of 34050.2

If you goto the US Census Bureau, here are the links and stats for our Canadian Trade Balance:
Trade with Canada : 2006 Balance (in millions) = -52,376.5
Trade with Canada : 2001 Balance (in millions) = – -52,716.4

Canadian-America Trade Balance Difference (2001-2006) = Deficit Decrease (in millions) of 339.9

Net NAFTA Trade Balance (2001-2006) = Deficit Increase (in millions) of 33710.3.

Anyone care to prove my math wrong?
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

Tell me again why we’re supposed to care about trade deficits?

SayAnythingBlog.com

Byron Dorgan Uses Hearing To Rail Against Free Trade, Pimp His Book

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